What is the BEST Knife Steel?

Hey folks, thanks for tuning in as always!

In todays video we're going to rustle some feathers! We know this is quite the hot topic of discussion, but we're diving in anyways. We're going to first talk about what steel is, and what goes into it. Then we're going to rate all the steels commonly found in Japanese knives in four categories.

We'll tell you right from the intro of this video that there is no on BEST steel, but at the end we'll tally up the scores just for fun to see who "won"!

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Intro : 00:00
What's in knife steel? : 00:37
Elements : 1:00
The three pillars : 2:37
Rating system : 3:32
VG-10 : 4:00
R2(SG2) : 4:26
HAP40 : 5:11
SLD : 6:13
ZDP-189 : 7:04
ATS314 : 8:10
Ginsan : 9:16
Aogami #1,#2 : 9:55
Aogami Super : 10:55
Shirogami #1,#2 : 11:57
Fairness to Carbon : 13:13
Tally the scores! : 14:58
Thanks for watchin'! : 17:36

[SharpKnifeShop]

Whats your favorite steel? Let us kno down below!

[VinegarAndSaltedFries]

I cannot tell you how helpful this video has repeatedly been. Thank you Gage and Sharp Knife Shop. That said I just got a Shirogami #3 Honyaki from Nakagawa.

[knife.spa.berlin]

I love Ginsan. It's best of both worlds. I can get it crazy sharp and it holds the sharpness well. My second favourite is aogami super. I find it easy to sharpen and very crazy sharp. Even it doesn't hold sharpness not as long as the Ginsan knives. But that's what I like. Sharpen is fun!

[justbuck]

My favorites so far are R2 and Aogami 2. Most of my knives are made from them. I've actually found Aogami 2 to be very forgiving, and yes, incredibly easy to sharpen.

[AlvinAu]

For restaurant especially in a high intensity michelin stainless is the way to go you don't always have the time to wipe down your carbon knife and your colleagues might not treat the carbon knife aswell as you would to it and risk getting it rusted. Sometimes you get called onto a different job on the fly whilst using your knife like go to the walk in fridge to get something or drop onto a different station. For home you can go what you like

[snowman]

I'm a glass canon, all the way. It's Shirogami for me with the Mutsumi Hinoura Kurouchi line and they are SCREAMING SHARP. They slice through older, starting-to-wrinkle bell peppers like they're fresh-picked with rock hard skin. A single, confident, no non-sense, laser beam slice, every time. It's like holding a god damn lightsaber for veggie and meat prep, it's unreal.

[patify]

Great overall description of all the steel found in knives. Thanks

[KitchenKnifeGuy]

Absolutely incredible video. Great edits. My favourite steel is Aogami Super Steel. I don’t own a HAP40 and I was afraid it would be difficult to sharpen. But it’s no ZDP-189.

[simptrix]

This video is fantastic! I prefer stainless (lazy to go above clean and dry) and got place in my kitchen for both Wusthof 20cm chef knife and 21cm ginsan kiritsuke gyuto depending on the task. R2 would be next to buy even when I dont need it I still want it 😃.

[dogoftheg]

For me, it’s vegetables vs meat.

Stainless steel for vegetables and fruits. There’s more “slide” when cutting. I can cut oranges and onions without needing to wash 10 seconds after cutting.

Carbon steel for meats, especially cooked beef. There’s more “grab” from my white steel; makes for more even and predictable cuts. Stainless, no matter how sharp, always slides on a steak before cutting in. White steel grabs immediately (if sharp enough, like my beloved Fujiwara’s), which makes me less worried about cutting my fingers.

[binsfooyong]

I love this video, very informative. I just wish you had this at least 8 months ago as I your videos helped me decide in buying my first Japanese knives. Though I am happy with my Aogami Super gyuto and petty knives, I think this would have helped me better and decided to choose an R2 for my butcher knife.

[olan]

No AUS10? you should add "Sharpness" criteria to the rating system, i read that grain structure have role to sharpness, so pure high carbon steel (less alloys = less carbides, and impurities) like shirogami and PM (Powder Metallurgy) steel will be sharper than other steel. I read that PM steel will slightly less sharp after being sharpened even though you don't use it.

[JMms]

Nice video. I’d also like to add, my vg-10 knives have a horrible feel compared to blue #1 and 2 when I sharpen them. They take longer and have this almost sandy feel.

[KwaPaNR]

Im not super experienced with different steel types. Ive got a gyoto from Shiro#2 and a Nakiri from Ao#2. I'm not sure weather to agree or disagree with your rating. I found it super easy to get a decent edge on both of these knives, even though I'm not really good with free hand sharpening. It could also be due to the very small thickness behind the edge, it only takes a few strokes on the stone to create a burr. Same with the edge retention. I used the knives one year in my kitchen before resharpening and they still cut fine, which also could be because of the blade geometry. Only sharpened because some day I realised I couldnt penetrate tomato skin anymore.

[Cedershuset]

the best knife i have ever used is a miyabi 6000mct (SG2 steel) it retains an edge for long and i just hone it to get the edge back, i have not sharpened my knife in over 9 months, and i work as a chef. i'm actually amazed by how well it is made, bought the knife about 11 years ago and it still got a long way to go.
(ive had wusthofs, tamahagane, yaxell, goko hamono, global and a few others to compare it to)

[gibbonswd]

I was waiting to see a video that's about all the steel types and additives in those steels, my favourites as of today are super aogami and r2

[sonkekoster]

Hi Gage, I disagree with your toughness rating for HAP40 / ZDP-189. HAP40 is by far the toughest steel compared to the other stainless steel because of the lesser chromium content. And of course it is a high speed powderered stee! - like SG2! There are sofisticated articles and material science papers to dokument this (>50% tougher than SG2/VG10! and even more for ZDP-189). But thanks for the nice comparision of the different steel types. You might have guessed it - my favorit is HAP40. But I also like SG2, AS, Ginsan and S#1. As you said it depends all from the maker....

[MichaelSmith-onig]

I have a R2 Gyuto and a 1000-3000 grit whetstone and a 3000 grit ceramic honing rod to get started. Is this a good package? This is my first step into Japanese knives and I was reading alot before buying. My knife is still razos sharp after cooking a few meals and cutting a whole lot of vegetables. I tried sharpening some cheaper European style knives with my equipment and I got them pretty sharp. So I'm looking forward to sharpen my good knive in 1/2 year or so.

[jcw]

Such a good video! Thanks for sharing all of this knowledge.

[oldjoeclarke.]

It is such a massive subject that a final score is always gonna cause reaction. The two Shiros with the poor score for chipping can be given a 5 if you have good technique and a board with a good janka sweet spot, ramping those steels up the chart a bit further, but using it on a crappy bamboo board now brings back the chippy-ness into the equation and down they go again. I do understand that this video is purely about the steels in their own right but there are so many other factors before an ultimate conclusion is found and by then, there will be a new alloy to muddy the water again 😁

As ever, a great video and a great starting point for the new folks getting into knife life.

Cheers...

EDIT, Oops! Favourite Carbon steel = Shirogami #1 for pure insane sharpness and patina. Favourite Stainless = SG2 2k stone then 0.5 and 0.1 stropping (SG2 loves stropping I find)