blue steel

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Prairiedog

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Jan 14, 2007
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Does anyone have experience taking care of blue steel? What kind of additional precautions and maintenance are required (compared to stainless steel) to keep it from rusting? I'm considering trying it in some kitchen knives.
 
a good stiff drink should do the trick :D but seriously, blued steel is steel in which the outside has been converted into a stable iron oxide, so the only real care you should need is to wipe it off after you've cut whatever you're cutting. Also not much of an issue in az but i've hear of people putting those little silica gel packets in their knife drawer to keep the humidity down. also DONT RUN YOUR KNIVES THROUGH THE DISHWASHER!!!
 
No problem, Mrstenoien. Apparently, not many are familiar with it. I hope I can stir up a couple carbon steel fanatics to give me the scoop on it.
 
I only have one blue steel knife and I use a product sold by A.G. Russell called RustFree on it. so far it has worked very well to prevent rust. It is a non-petroleum based product but I believe that most any type of oil would help to prevent rust.
 
At last weeks East Coast Custom Knife Show, the knives that really took my breath away were simple Japanese cooking knives. These were the sharpest knives I have ever handled. I picked up a small unfinished blade (no handle) just to be able to experience the super steel used in Shousui Takeda's knives -- Aogami ("Blue") Super Steel (AS) by Hitachi Metals, LTD. Takeda's company is Takeda Hamono, Inc., based in Okayama, Japan. His knives use the very hard, high carbon Aogami Super Steel at the core, layered with a softer, low carbon steel. He sharpens everything using a simple whetstone attached to a small board, lots of water, and constant, gentle freehand strokes. The result is beyond belief.

Here's a pic of the knife -- before and after I cord-wrapped the handle.

Right now I'm just keeping the blade dry after use. So far, so good.

hpim0178webxw0.jpg


hpim0186yy2.jpg
 
Many of the Japanese knives are either white or blue steel. Blue is the better stronger steel. It sharpens easy hold an edge and is over all a higher grade than white. I would compare it roughly to a file knife in that regurad.
I have several of both and there is a difference, though the white ones are good blades too. The raw look to me is the highlight of what is often a simple design.
When you look at these knives pay attention to the handles they are the week point of the knife. Soft wood is common and it is not very good as a tool or an outdoor type of knife. The wood box sheaths looks good on display but it really is not a very good as a user at all.
I display mine so they are great for that. I have one blue knife that I use once in a while but have done nothing heavy with it. Shaved down some wood just to see how it worked and it was so smooth better than most of the stainless fixed like cold steel.
There are some sites that can give you a lot of info search the word Kanetsune. Many of the large knife dealers carry them.
 
You did say it would be a kitchen knife? I'm not sure if rust free is OK to use on knives that will cut food, its silicone based so I wouldn’t personally trust it in my food. I've got a couple blue steel knives, this is one of the oils the Japanese use (scroll down); http://www.japanwoodworker.com/dept.asp?dept_id=13153 I've never used it but have some on order, I can tell you how it is to use when it gets here.

I currently use olive oil (its handy, no other reason) on my kitchen knives and tuff glide on everything else. Hitachi carbon steels are a little more prone to rusting than some other carbon steels in my experience, but if you care for them (wash and wipe them dry immediately after use) and oil them regularly / after washing they shouldn’t rust / patina. you will see allot of posts around here about intentionally putting a patina (oxidation) on carbon steels that prevents rust to some extent, its not my thing but different strokes and such. IMO this would just be wrong (morally wrong I mean;) ) to do to a Japanese knife.
 
shirogami and aogami mean white paper and blue paper, which reference the color of the paper the steel is wrapped in when delivered from Hitachi (? not that they are the sole makers, but that is what started the whole white/blue/yellow steel naming trend) There are actually several grades of each. Here is a handy little chart showing the difference between the grades of white and blue steels http://www.hidatool.com/woodpage/wb.html

White #1 is a very good knife steel and will take a keener edge than blue, but it is harder to heat treat properly, so smiths consider it a pain, and it isn't as wear resistant as blue so will require sharpening more often.

Blue steel is easier to heat treat, so the smiths find it easier to work with in that respect, but it is more wear resistant and harder to grind.

Basically, you can get white steel sharper and it is easier to sharpen than blue so is probably a good choice for the home chef. If you want blue steel, consider a kasumi knife... these are the ones that are made by forging a layer of soft iron to a strip of hard steel. With the wide bevels on Japanese knives, most of the blade that is in contact with the stone is soft iron with only a thin section of the hard steel touching the stone.


You see a lot of high end honyaki (forged from a single piece of steel) yanagi in blue steel, and they are considered "pro" knives because they are considerably more difficult to sharpen (especially since there is no soft iron cladding) but can retain an edge for an entire day at a busy sushi shop without requiring a touch up (but they get more use in one day than the average person would give a knife in a month or two). The honyaki blues are a pain in the rear to take care of and are often thinner and lighter than kasumi knives, which makes them easier to break, but the lightness and wear resistance is much appreciated by chefs that have to use them all day long in a busy restraunt where they can't take time to touch up the edges.

Camellia oil is a light non-staining, non-toxic oil that doesn't go rancid and has been used to protect swords, tools and cutlery for centuries. Many places carry it http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=756 for example. Drug store mineral oil will also work just fine on knives and cuttng boards (non toxic and will not turn rancid)
 
Thanks for the information, everyone. It sounds like it might require more maintenance than I could expect from my wife. I don't handle them on a daily basis. I only sharpen them when they get dull. Maybe I should stick with a good VG-10 based Japanese kitchen knife. While not as sharp as blue steel, it would probably still be sharper than most ordinary kitchen knives.
 
Hitachi is the sole maker of Blue Super. There are always equivalent grades, but I don't think anybody has a direct copy of Blue Super, and if they did, they wouldn't call it blue steel. Blue #1 and #2 are simple enough that there are copies, and White #1 is just really high carbon steel.
 
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