Does anyone else like and use 1095 kitchen knives?

afishhunter

afishhunter

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My favorite and most used kitchen knives when I was still cooking for myself (before the stroke & being put in assisted living, back in '18) were Old Hickory and Russell Green River.
They served me well for decades. (sorry. no pictures of them.)

Does anyone else prefer Carbon Steel kitchen cutlery and cast iron pans, pots, griddles, and Dutch Ovens?
 
Love cooking in cast iron skillets. I have a huge one, but it's big and heavy....I also have a big discada for cooking outside. It was made from an actual steel disk for making furrows in plowed fields. I love that thing.

I like All kinds of steels, some pretty fancy, but our current chef's knife is made from 8670 that's 64HRC. It's thin and Hard. Stays very sharp, even though my wife abuses it.
 
My favorite and most used kitchen knives when I was still cooking for myself (before I had a stroke & being put in a rehab facility followed by assisted living, back in '18) were Old Hickory and Russell Green River.
They served me well for decades. (sorry. no pictures of them.)

Does anyone else prefer Carbon Steel kitchen cutlery and cast iron pans, pots, griddles, and Dutch Ovens, like grandma/great grandma/great-great grandma (or grandpa) and earlier used?
One of my cast iron skillets was originally owned and used at least 60 years by my Great-Great grandmother. (c1870-1963)
My maternal grandmother (1916-1999) used cast iron at home and at her diner. I don't know who got them. I only know it wasn't me, one of my brothers, or my mum. ☹️ (BTW my mum is the only person I've ever met who could put a tea kettle or pot of water on the stove, and burn the water black before it boiled. FWIW, burned water stinks almost as bad as fresh squished skunk ... for days ... 🤢)
 
Yep, I love carbon steel knives in the kitchen. 1095 butcher knives like old hickory, some of the really pure Japanese white steels and the blue steels as well.

Cast iron pans, dutch ovens and carbon steel wok.

I check most of them boxes.

There's just something about chromium content in a knife steel that changes how it behaves, especially off of natural stones.
 
afishhunter said:
My favorite and most used kitchen knives when I was still cooking for myself (before the stroke & being put in assisted living, back in '18) were Old Hickory and Russell Green River.
They served me well for decades. (sorry. no pictures of them.)

Does anyone else prefer Carbon Steel kitchen cutlery and cast iron pans, pots, griddles, and Dutch Ovens?
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Yep... been cooking in cast iron almost exclusively for many decades now- my oldest came from my maternal grandmother and my Mom... and I have some small 6+" and 12-13" pans Ive bought and cured with many years of use. Also have a cast iron cauldron/kettle that is at least a century old, bought it off an old New Mexico ranch, looks like an old witches' cauldron.. The skillets I keep in the gas stove oven which is kept surprisingly warm by the pilot light.
Also have a selection of carbon bladed kitchen knives, some still in use- but mostly I use quality (not Walmart) stainless blades for the simplicity of keeping them clean.
Am looking for a heavy carbon steel kitchen blade 12-14", 4-6/16th" thick, shaped like a chef knife (but heavier than anything modern Ive seen). Had one years ago but it disappeared after a move.
 
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I sure do. My grandfather (he’s 98 this year) worked as a meat cutter hated stainless. Said it never took the edge a carbon knife would. Maybe it didn’t, maybe they didn’t have the right stones?
 
vltor17 said:
I sure do. My grandfather (he’s 98 this year) worked as a meat cutter hated stainless. Said it never took the edge a carbon knife would. Maybe it didn’t, maybe they didn’t have the right stones?
Click to expand...
Arkansas Oil Stones was what was commonly available in Iowa when I was "growing up", tho I did know one person (not a relative) who had Japanese Water Stones he bought mail order. (Was during the darkest pre- Internet days. LBJ then RMN were in office.)
A couple of my "farm boys" classmates in junior high snd high school claimed they had a treadle water wheel sharpener in the workshop for knives, chisels, and drill bits. I don't know anyone who used SiC wet or dry sandpaper or emery cloth.
(I will be 70 this year.)

I would agree that stainless did not take as keen an edge as carbon steel, (also, that 440C (especially Buck's) was ... difficult ... to sharpen using oil stones.)
I suspect the thick factory edges, edge geometry, and heat treat ... had something to do with it. Today's 440A/420HC and related are easier to sharpen and take a keener edge than you could get back then.
My 1916 to 1928 Challenge double end jack knife (blade at each end) with stainless blades will not take the keen edge my carbon steel blades will ... using Arkansas oil stones or diamond plates.
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Love cooking in cast iron skillets. I have a huge one, but it's big and heavy....I also have a big discada for cooking outside. It was made from an actual steel disk for making furrows in plowed fields. I love that thing.

I like All kinds of steels, some pretty fancy, but our current chef's knife is made from 8670 that's 64HRC. It's thin and Hard. Stays very sharp, even though my wife abuses it.
Click to expand...


Our mostly used large kitchen knife





Thin, 64HRC Hard 8670


Discada

Spicy Shrimp
 
I use a carbon steel Chinese chef knife, French Chef knife, Butcher knives, meat cimitar, and utility knife at home. Everything else in my kitchens at work are stainless of one sort or another. They are not expensive knives for the most part. We do have some decent Victorinox knives in one kitchen. I also use stainless at home. I’m kitchen knife poor. I’ve got them coming out of my ears. Old ones, new ones, primitive ones, hand made ones. I have many more kitchen knives than pocket knives. I just enjoy anything with an edge on it really.
 
I have a 10" carbon Russell Green River butchers blade that I use, often over my expensive Japanese sujihiki! Takes a wicked edge and works very well! I have several carbon steel Japanese knives, too.
Cheap Tojiro White #2 gyuto:
151664132_228762805625894_2408498012842576648_n.jpg

Tanaka Sekiso 240mm:
Tanaka Sekiso.jpg

Any my 52100 S grind gyuto:
s grind.jpg

My paring knife is O-1 steel at 62 HRC and I use a 52100 gyuto fairly often in the kitchen as well. I was surprised at how slow the 52100 and O-1 are in patina'ing in the kitchen, too. Much lower reactivity than my Blue and White steel Japanese knives and 1095.

My O-1 paring knife. I had short handles on paring knives, especially when I use different grips on it, so I made up one for myself!

358478943_10102114886677340_4140202290139449014_n.jpg
 
So, I'm a new guy here. We recieved a set of Old Hickey kitchen knifes as a wedding gift in 1980. I'd really like to replace them, the blades are fine but the handles are completely trashed. I've tried to order a replacement set, same set but they are no longer available. It's a five piece set. Any recommendations? I'm in Alaska so shipping isn't a problem unless they won't ship to me up here. Thanks much!
 
DouginAlaska said:
So, I'm a new guy here. We recieved a set of Old Hickey kitchen knifes as a wedding gift in 1980. I'd really like to replace them, the blades are fine but the handles are completely trashed. I've tried to order a replacement set, same set but they are no longer available. It's a five piece set. Any recommendations? I'm in Alaska so shipping isn't a problem unless they won't ship to me up here. Thanks much!
Click to expand...

If you are happy with them, a rehandle job is pretty easy with basic tools
 
Crag the Brewer said:
If you are happy with them, a rehandle job is pretty easy with basic tools
Click to expand...
Track Of The Wolf dit com sells Old Hickory/Russell Green River scales in Walnut, Maple, and I think Cherry, and the cutler's rivets.
at a reasonable cost. The Scales are not drilled, or finished.

If you want fancy (and a "Historically Correct" rescale/rehandle*) you can get different woods, horn, and stag/antler from the various shops that sell scale/cover materials.

(*During the fur trade and settler period of the 1800's the "mountain man" and settlers replaced their scales with local woods, or horn/antler obtained from large game, and/or in the case of settlers, when they butchered or de-horned a bull.)
Yes. The mountain man" was known to carry a "butcher knife", and a paring knife. The paring knife doubled as a patch knife, as well as for use on fowl, and small game, and trapped beaver, otter, fox, etc.

TBH, a "kitchen knife" was one of the more common knives used.
They had to pay for their gear. A "butcher knife" cost less than say a Hudson Bay knife, and would peel a big game critter as well as the more expensive knife. They did not use their knife to process firewood. They had an ax and/or tomahawk for that.)
 
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