Barmaley's Aggregated Questions Thread

Mr.Wizard said:
Does this apply to products sold by Amazon directly, or only third party sales?
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Both, because they're all warehoused in Amazon facilities. The problem with Amazon is a no-questions return policy handled by people who know nothing about knives combined with the sheer volume of business they do. Counterfeits get returned into the system by scammers without being detected, and the returns go back into stock. Some of the third-party Amazon sellers are super sketchy in the first place, as well.

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. $14 for a decent knife with a VG-10 blade is unlikely, but if the knife is otherwise nice, then it's hard to say you got a bad deal.
 
Thank you guys for encouragement and sympathy for the loss of $14:D. Actuaslly, I am coping well with my loss: ask my wife and she will tell that we have too many kitchen knives, more than we need. It took me some efforts to convince hew what we need a N390 chef which is coming next week. (To tell you truth I am very proud of my communication skills in convincing my wife to buy it because, frankly, I don't believe myself that we need another knife :D) Getting another tool to the kitchen was not the point - the point was to experiment and try to learn at the time of coronavirus. According to my understanding VG10 is a trademark, can be made by certain factories in Japan only. A blade made in a damaskus pattern can not be legally be called VG10 even if it has all the properties of it. Japan sells VG10 to China according to Ryky at Burrfection on YouTube. It could be miss-heat-treated during production in China (which I guess could be corrected later on?) but it is either real or fake. My point of interest is to learn how it works legally on Amazon, what is the story behind Chinese knives makers, technique to test the knives etc. But what did surprised me was to learn how sharp the knife was!!!
 
Barmaley said:
Hello guys,

I just received a knife which I bought at Amazon for $14: https://www.amazon.com/Damascus-Kni...child=1&qid=1588907359&sr=8-1&srs=20640497011
They say: 【Japanese 67 Layers VG-10 Stainless Damascus Steel】VG-10 – Made up of Carbon: .95 – 1.05%, Vanadium: .10 - .30%, Chromium: 16.10 – 18.50%, Molybdenum: .90 – 1.20%, Cobalt: 1.30 – 1.50%, Manganese: .50%, Phosphorus: .03% This is the most popular stainless steels amongst Japanese knife makers. While other damascus knifes only have fewer Chromium(14.05-16.50) and No Cobalt.

It looks like it is a $14 knife in terms of hammered finish, handle workmanship and accuracy etc. However, the blade is really sharp for a factory sharpen knife. It cuts paper, shaves etc. I bought it out of curiosity because of the price. I also wanted a knife to practice my sharpen skills. But after testing the knife it is effeminately cuts better than anything that I have, so I feel some reservation to practice on it before it gets dull. Nevertheless, my question is about posibility of it to be VG10. I guess no way it can be VG10 since material should be more then the price if we count the handle, the box it came in, the shipment, fees etc. If you look at the amazon picture at the link above you may see that the lines from suppose layers of steel look too ornamental. Bottom line: does it look like VG10?
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You can tell because it's right there in the price.

If a deal seems too good to be true it probably is.
 
CasePeanut said:
Can you add a tiny drop of bleach to keep mildew away?
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The bleach will turn into salts pretty quickly.
I've used a few drops of dish soap and it helped a little but also dried my hands out.

Best solution I've found is to store them pretty clean and in a container with tight lid. Don't do actual work using the same water, keep the bath separate. I change bath water often, soak water only once a month or so if they haven't been used much, more often if used frequently.
 
Mr.Wizard said:
The Hayabusa is my only finishing bench stone and I have been treating it as a splash-and-go. You haven't seen any cracking/crazing problems on the Hayabusa with extended soaking?
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I never got good results using it as a splash and go and although I rarely keep the Hayabusa submerged for days at a time like some other stones it has been soaked for many hours with no crazing or cracking.

I only have one stone that the surface is crazing and that is a stone I got used I think it is an older Suehiro 1500.
The thing is the stone looks terrible but it feels smooth and sharpens fine.

None of my Choseras have had problems either and they seem to be the ones most people have problems with.
 
It is closer to VG-10 in composition. Damascus does not depend on steel. Any steel can be clad with 'San Mai' damascus. I am unable to comment on damascus quality of the subject knife maybe more knowledgable members can shed light. Although at that price point, real damascus is less likely.
 
Barmaley said:
The pattern there was way different and not as curvy as this knife. Are there signs how to spot real or fake VG10?
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The type of steel is irrelevant to any pattern you see.
Damascus patterns are the result of two or more steels normally pattern welded together. After forging, they are polished and treated with acid to bring out the pattern.
Any two steels of differing composition will work - they react differently with the acid. You can do it with pot metal - it has nothing to do with the individual steels at all. VG-10 is not a necessary part of this. And without the acid and polishing, you may have a hard time seeing any damascus at all.
What's more some "damascus" is really just a single steel with a pattern etched or printed on it.
So as people are telling you - no, you cannot tell. You need a spectrometer to find out what steel you really have. And with modern steels & a good heat treatment there is no point to damascus except aethetics/sales. The original point was to mix properties of two steels to get a better composite. We can just use a good steel and do a reasonable heat treatment.
You can get a shiny finish, a rough "rustic" finish, and everything in between. You can combine it with other steels. You can also do the same with other steels and get the same visual results.
 
Thank you for explanation Ourorboros! I do not care about look of my knives, I case about how they cut! VG10 is Domascus. You said that combining two steels does not improve performance. Do you mean that Domascus look in VG10 is made ONLY for the look?
 
Barmaley said:
Hey Wade,

I do sauerkraut about once a month! Do you know that you may do sauerkraut without salt at all. The fermentation goes even faster, however it will get too sour too soon.and I am tired of cleaning the mess I leave every time around of cabbage and carrot shavings - LOL.

That is why I want really sharp blades for a board which can drop all cuts in a bucket under it. The problem is to find the blades thus I could sharpen them razor sharp, and they have to be sturdy. I am sure that a self-made edge-pro (i did mine of two pieces of 2x4 boards and a foot square piece of oak step ;)) will do wonder for the blades provided that I could find the blanks.
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I did not know that about making it without salt,I know that if you keep it beside your furnace it will cause the fermentation to go a bit faster.
I used to have a 5 and 8 gallon crock and I would shred and fill both up at the same time for family and friends,I used to put in sealer jar's with some juice and some of my friends would freeze the jars as well,it used to make a lot for sure when you filled a 5 gallon and and 8 gallon.

I got the 8 gallon crock at a yard sale one day and never seen one that big so I grabbed it up the biggest ones sold in Canada were mainly 5 gallon crocks.
 
Wade,

Do you sharpen your board's blades and how sharp they are? What do you use to shred carrots for sauerkraut? I use regular food-processor.
 
How about planer blades, for a 12 inch or 13 inch planer? They will be about 1/2 inch wide by 1/16 inch thick.
Or do an internet search for knife making supplies. There are a number of companies out there that sell knife making steel. There is a lot of choice in kind of steel and size of stock. But it probably isn't heat treated. So You would need to send it to a professional heat treater after you did your rough grinding and drilling.

O.B.
 
Old Biker said:
How about planer blades, for a 12 inch or 13 inch planer? They will be about 1/2 inch wide by 1/16 inch thick.
Or do an internet search for knife making supplies. There are a number of companies out there that sell knife making steel. There is a lot of choice in kind of steel and size of stock. But it probably isn't heat treated. So You would need to send it to a professional heat treater after you did your rough grinding and drilling.

O.B.
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Thank you Old Biker,

I did look at Home Depot at a set of spare blade for electric planner. They were too flexible. I found that there are companies like NJ Steel Baron who sell steel planks. They have in stock for $7.35 a piece 12"x0.125"x1" of AEB-L steel. I am not sure if it is what I need? I also have not a clue how I will have to heat treat it? I am not sure if it is the right price and how many blades do I need: 2, 3 or 4? I think for my project I would rather look for a steel which may not be very hard but very easy to sharpen to razor sharpness, since cabbage does not suppose to dull the blades fast.
 
Barmaley said:
Thank you Old Biker,

I did look at Home Depot at a set of spare blade for electric planner. They were too flexible. I found that there are companies like NJ Steel Baron who sell steel planks. They have in stock for $7.35 a piece 12"x0.125"x1" of AEB-L steel. I am not sure if it is what I need? I also have not a clue how I will have to heat treat it? I am not sure if it is the right price and how many blades do I need: 2, 3 or 4? I think for my project I would rather look for a steel which may not be very hard but very easy to sharpen to razor sharpness, since cabbage does not suppose to dull the blades fast.
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If I was doing a project like that, I wouldn't heat treat it. I would send it to someone that knew what they were doing. I know that Buck knives will do custom heat treating of knife blades. It's on their web page under heat treating. Then there is Peters heat treating, I have heard mentioned on this sit a lot. There might even be some heat treating companies local to you. I know of two near where I live. You tell them what kind of steel you used and how hard you want it. I don't know the cost, you will have to contact some companies and find out. I'm sure they probably have a minimum charge.

O.B.
 
Barmaley said:
Wade,

Do you sharpen your board's blades and how sharp they are? What do you use to shred carrots for sauerkraut? I use regular food-processor.
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I don't make sauerkraut anymore and I used to use sand paper and a stone to touch up the blade's if they needed it,for shredding carrot's a food processor or a hand held shredder would work fine,I never put carrot's in mine.

Also if you like perogies you can fry up a few strips of bacon and then take the bacon out and fry up some onion's in the bacon grease and then chop up the bacon and put the bacon and sauerkraut back into the frying pan until everything is good and hot,that goes really good with perogies.
 
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