"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
et...

You use a "soft enough" material so it can be resharpened quickly. The
reason is speed: When chefs are working, they don't head for a
sharpening
machine or a stone. They grab the steel (the rod-shaped abrasive tool)
to
touch up their blades in under 5 seconds so they can go back to work.
Trying
this with stainless steel is like ****ing into the wind. This is why
carbon
steel knives like Wusthof and Henckel are found in the hands of most
professional chefs.


I know this is getting somewhat off topic but I am interested to know
why we have this difference of view, this is not just to be
argumentative, I am trying to understand your position as I am in the
market for some new tools (spades and knives) of my own. According to
the manufacturers' web sites

http://www.wuesthof.de/EN/default2.htm

http://www.zwilling.com/tg/usa/index.html

the knives that you mention are "The Steel: X 50 Cr Mo 15 Select alloy
of high carbon no-stain steel" and "Blades made from stainless, special
recipe steel" respectively.

Isn't that stainless steel? It sure sounds like it to me. Whether you
want to call these knives "stainless steel" or not the manufacturers
seem to be trying to produce (and advertise as such) products that hold
an edge well (ie they are hard steel). They also sell "steels" (both
traditional steel and ceramic) to maintain these edges, why would they
do that if using one was ineffective?

To me having a blade that is made deliberately soft so to allow quick
sharpening is rather self defeating as you will need to sharpen it much
more often. The side effect is that your blade will not last well as it
will also require more trips to the sharpening stone.

In the case of a spade (getting back on topic for a second) you would
want avoid brittle alloys that would break or get gaps through hitting
stones etc as the ability to hold an edge is useless if the edge is
gapped or the blade breaks. Having said that I have no idea if the
alloy used in stainless steel spades would be brittle or not. Do you
have any information on the sort of SS used in spades?

David

David