Kitchen Knife - Stainless steel is better than Carbon Steel?

First I will explain the difference between the two steels. Steel with high carbon content in its simple form dates back centuries. In the original melting iron bonds with a small amount of carbon. This is usually between 1% and 1.5%. The higher the carbon content the harder the steel can be made, but also more brittle.

In the early history would forge a simple steel, carbon had up to about 1% for the production of good quality knife.Swords were often up to about .7% carbon content. This simple alloy of iron and carbon, would be a good cutting edge, which are not sharpened too often.

If the tempering is done well, would be a good resistance to breakage. The problem is simple iron-carbon alloys rust if not kept clean and dry.

This type of knife was usual until about the Second World War. At this point, new alloys have been discovered. An alloy has traces of other elements, such asNickel, chromium, manganese and molybdenum. These elements are usually added in percentages in track and can dramatically change the properties of the steel.

Two of the items that were experimented with chromium and nickel. Metallurgists discovered that when you add chromium to 10% or more, that the steel was very resistant to rust. This was known as stainless steel. Chromium makes the steel more difficult to cut and grind a lot. Harder to fake orWork in general.

There were some clear advantages of this steel. Great in a humid or corrosive environment, as they do not fall apart. Very hard, but it did not hold an edge well. The addition of carbon steel in the mix would hold an edge very well but not as good as a straight high carbon content.

In working with the various tests they found a steel alloys, such as the D2 is now known. This steel is at the lower end of being stainless steel, as it is with 11%Chromium but has a very high carbon content of 1.5%. This steel is stain-resistant as it change color and eventually rust, but with the extremely high carbon content, it has an edge for a very long time.

D2 is used in modern planners and veneer blades. This tool slices the wood chips from the whole day long and rarely require sharpening. The problem with this steel is that it is brittle fair. It would be an excellent kitchen knife as long as it does not bend or Effects, but it would cut well and hold an edge as well as stain-resistant.

The stainless steel was also brilliant. The obvious development was stainless steel kitchen knives. This allowed for busy cooks to work with their knives and not to rinse all times when they were working with acidic foods like tomatoes. A regular high carbon knives should protect and washed after each use, the sharp cutting dried.

> Stainless steel could be washed at the end of the meal preparation, without adverse effects. So stainless steel household caught on because it is easier to maintain as much food in one. Now we have many alloys of stainless steel. Good kitchen knives use a high quality with high carbon stainless steel.

Stainless steel is more expensive to make than regular steel with high carbon content because of the additional cost of the element chromium andhas difficulty in handling the steel.

You can find many stainless steel kitchen knives are very thin. This is done so the cost to produce for the mass down. D2 if the knife was used, would prevent a bit thicker, the chance of normal operation. This adds the cost with the need for some care of the blade and the effort to sharpen when it gets boring, they put on the back burner for kitchen use at home.