Maintaining Carbon steel knives...

LETHAL GTS

New member
What is the best way to maintain carbon steel knife?
Is there anyway, besides not using them, to prevent them from staining?
Or do you just keep using them until the whole knife changes color?
Thanks
 
Patina (gray rust) is part of the natural evolution with carbon steel. It is not only attractive in its own way, it helps prevent red rust. The knives you purchased are San Mai, Japanese for sandwiched construction. The inner layer is the carbon steel cutting edge and the outer layers are stainless. Daily maintenance requires nothing more than cleaning and drying the knife after use. Let the patina form and keep on forming.
 
I have a 1957 Case XX chef's knife that is carbon steel.
If you don't like the patina, and want to keep it shiny, it's not hard to do.
(I don't like it because sometimes you get dark residue on veggies you cut,
especially yellow onions.)

Get some GREEN Scotchbrite kitchen sponge and scrubber combos. Not blue.
Use the green scrubby side on your knife with a bit of water, and it does a
wonderful job of removing the patina and stains.

Dunno if you would want to use it with fancy Japanese knives, but it does me
well on my trusty Case XX!
 
Thanks guys.
My Hiromoto Aoami Super TJ-35AS Santoku 190mm has 3 layers blade construction has a wavy type of pattern where the stainless ends and you can see the carbon edge. IT is all that grayish patina and looks really cool, but my gyuto looks as though the stainless is staining as well.
I'll just keep using them and see what happens. My boys are over this weekend, so the knives will get a workout making sure that their little bellies are full!
My new Wa Gyuto should here tomorrow!
 
This is carbon steel without and with patina. They are both French Thiers-Issard Sabatier Four Star Elephant chef's knives with 11" blades. The top one is brand new and extremely rare because the factory "forgot" to put an edge on it. It is totally unsharpened, never been touched. The bottom one is decades old but has a 99+% blade and as a result of that statistic is also quite rare. The patina is gorgeous as it changes rainbow colors in the sunlight.
 

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A picture is worth a thousand words. That's what I wanted to know.
Thanks again and cool knives.
How many knives do you have Buzz?
I'll bet you have some pretty cool stuff.
 
Good info, Buzz! I thought I was doing something wrong, for my knife to discolor like that!

I bought a Sabatier slicer about 25 years ago, for $20 in a discount barn in western Mass. It was a lot of money to me at the time, but I didn't know the bargain I was getting until years later.

I love that knife!

Lee
 
This is carbon steel without and with patina. They are both French Thiers-Issard Sabatier Four Star Elephant chef's knives with 11" blades. The top one is brand new and extremely rare because the factory "forgot" to put an edge on it. It is totally unsharpened, never been touched. The bottom one is decades old but has a 99+% blade and as a result of that statistic is also quite rare. The patina is gorgeous as it changes rainbow colors in the sunlight.


:a1:I love that vintage Sabatier.............maybe cause I have vintage Sabatiers like this too.:tiphat:
 
By golly, I think I might have one of those Sabatiers in a drawer in the kitchen!
My parents had a lot of kitchen knives and one looks just like it... hmmm, will have
to check.
 
:a1:I love that vintage Sabatier.............maybe cause I have vintage Sabatiers like this too.:tiphat:

You are Ms Vintage if there ever was one.

Seeing as how this thread is about carbon steel and patina, look at these two. The big guy is a 12" (cutting edge length) Hiromoto High Carbon. I don't think they make these anymore and if true I can't help but wonder why? It's a cutting machine. The blade is made of solid SK-4 carbon tool steel which develops patina slowly.

The 3" paring knife is a Thiers-Issard Sabatier manufactured 3 years ago but the steel itself was forged in France pre-WWII. I love this little knife and still have a few of its sisters in various sizes.
 

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Wow! I love that little paring knife. I just got another one about 2 months ago very similar to that one. The short blade is perfect for me when peeling or paring.

SABATIER.jpg


I know nothing about the big knife though.

But if you ever decide to get rid of the old Sabatiers ---- I get first dibs!
 
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One other not to add to what others have said, don't put a knife in a sink full of water nor a dishwasher. The sink with water will cause handles to go bad and dishwasher well they are just plain bad for knives even cheap butter knives.
 
Wow! I love that little paring knife. I just got another one about 2 months ago very similar to that one. The short blade is perfect for me when peeling or paring.

But if you ever decide to get rid of the old Sabatiers ---- I get first dibs!

Where did you get that Sabatier Nogent, LL? Edit: If it is a Sab... I bought 50 of them in assorted sizes from TheBestThings a couple years ago and eBayed most of them although I still have a few around that had slight flaws....

I'll probably be getting rid of all of them including the 11 inchers over the next couple of months. I have waaaay too many knives. :bonk:
 
Where did you get that Sabatier Nogent, LL? Edit: If it is a Sab... I bought 50 of them in assorted sizes from TheBestThings a couple years ago and eBayed most of them although I still have a few around that had slight flaws....

I'll probably be getting rid of all of them including the 11 inchers over the next couple of months. I have waaaay too many knives. :bonk:

I got it on Ebay! It says Sabatier on the handle.

I want my first dibs!!!:wave:
 
I got it on Ebay! It says Sabatier on the handle.

I want my first dibs!!!:wave:

Out of curiosity, when did you obtain the parer? Is that the picture that was on the eBay site? Do you remember who the seller was? It's more than likely one of the pre-WWII Nogents like I have. TheBestThings is the only Thiers-Issard Sab importer in the US.
 
I don't have any non-clad carbon knives except my new suji and my Ichimonji TKC. With the clad ones I don't do anything different except maybe to double check that they're bone dry when I put 'em away. And I generally stick to my stainless ones for tomatoes, pineapple, lemons, etc.


BTW, my newest aquisition, a 300mm CarboNext suji!:a1: Technically I guess it's considered carbon, and it's definitely not truly stainless.

HONKO-6.jpg
 
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