best steel for sushi knives

R

rokspydr

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Jan 18, 2006
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I was recomended A2 but was wondering if there was a steel with a finer grain structure as I am trying to get the finest edge. I read alot about 154cm is this also a posibility. I have some experience with D2 and BG42 are either of these good for my intended application?

thank's,
Marc
 
Whi told you that A2 isn't fine-grained? It is known for being fine-grained and tough as well as wear resistant. The CPM steels are undoubtedly finer, but A2 is great for taking and holding a very sharp edge.

It peaks in toughness at HRC 60 holds a very nice edge at that hardness. I have bent a 1/16" X 1 1/4" X 7 1/2" A2 butcher knife past 90° without any visible effect. I did that 4 years ago and still use the knife every day. A2 is my knife steel of choice for stock removal kitchen and camp knives/bowies.

You should never leave a good kitchen knife in dishwater and should not use a dishwasher. That being done I don't see any need for SS kitchen knives. A2 takes a nice patina with age, but you can always buff it back to shiny.
 
Ideally you want an extremely fine-grained steel at a very high hardness and low edge angle. Hitachi YSS white steels for example are commonly used for sushi knives. A2 can be heat treated to a fine grain and therefore take a keen edge, though because toughness is not a requirement something like 1095 would be even better. D2, BG42, and 154CM have relatively large primary carbides that are prone to tear out at low edge angles. Any steel with big chromium carbides would not work well for sushi knives, so this rules out most stainless steels and D2.
 
SteelDriver explained the design parameters. 52100 is extremely fine grained and would be another good choice.
 
I make a lot of sushi knives.
For carbon blades I use 1095. For stainless I used ATS-34 and now CPM 154.It is hard to beat a 1095 blade with an 9-11 degree single edge (Japanese grind) at Rc 60+.Since sushi knives should receive no lateral stress and don't contact hard things,breakage and edge chipping are not problems.Temper at the minimum necessary to attain stability.250F is enough.
What SteelDriver said is absolutely true,but a properly hardened and tempered CPM154 blade can be Rc 63-64 and razor sharp.Most of my stainless sushi knives are on the larger size,and are used for filleting and prep work.
Jeff - I haven't tried doing one in 52100.I'll have to pound out one.Using round stock I could forge an integral bolster(though it might be too heavy).I'll make one and let Kyung soo Pang try it out.
Stacy
 
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