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Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

new.knife.day

11–20 of 89 posts

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#11
post #10

Impressive work. I've always wondered how it's possible to "decompile" steel types. For example, one of my everyday use knives is a Kabelmesser pocket knife (WW2). It's probably from Solingen, although there's no logo on it. I really like it because of the high-carbon steel, but I have no idea what specific type of steel was used, as I don't see much of such steel these days.

It's not hard, just expensive. You need to pay a lab to do it, and the testing is very much destructive most of the time.

XRF might be able to non-destructively tell you the alloy.

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#12

Anyone else like ceramic knives? I have a couple paring knives. Super sharp but very brittle.

We received a two knife set as a wedding gift many years ago. This was well before they were common, and it was quite a nice gift. I strongly agree with the "don't buy a knife you can't sharpen" point that folks often make, but ceramic knives do have their niche.

They're great for minimizing oxidation along cuts. E.g. cutting iceberg lettuce and avoiding having the edges turn brown. They're also very lightweight, which is nice for some things, while being bad for others. I'd never use them the way I do my workhorse chef's knife, but there are certainly tasks I prefer them for. Dicing lots of hot peppers comes to mind, oddly enough, as does some very precise and relatively tedious knifework like making very even matchstick cuts for carrots/radishes/etc (the large one has a very wide blade, which is great for this, and is lightweight enough to reduce fatigue).

Overall, I can see why folks like them. It's not really the "no need to sharpen" point. It's more the "lightweight and very thin" part, along with a non-oxidizing edge.

I'm still kind of opposed on principle, I suppose, but I do use the set we were gifted fairly often, despite having some very nice steel cutlery that I'm very fond of. I can't blame anyone for buying them now that they're priced more reasonably than they used to be.

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#14
post #13

> [Maybe attach the screenshot here if HN allows, or link to it] I think the AI intended for you to edit out this part?

Shhh, I like those placeholders as dead giveaways that content was AI-produced. Don’t call too much attention to them or we’ll lose this way of identifying slop :)

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#16
Hmm, it feels like there'd be some interesting crossover between this and https://seattleultrasonics.com/pages/knife-database but while the "Quantified Knife Project" has a lot of numeric test-result data, it looks like they only have "marketing names" for the steel used (if you click through the links in the "model name" column for each knife.)

(Ah, the raw data is available https://github.com/seattleultrasonics/Quantified-Knife-Proje... has a "Blades" tab which might be enough to correlate.)

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#18
I looked through most of the charts, and I it seems like you cannot get the best of two worlds. Can you get good edge retention, ease of sharpening and toughness at the same time?

It would be nice with an example on how knife steel properties work. I assume there are balanced tradeoffs.

Re: Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

#19
post #13

> [Maybe attach the screenshot here if HN allows, or link to it] I think the AI intended for you to edit out this part?

Shhh, I like those placeholders as dead giveaways that content was AI-produced. Don’t call too much attention to them or we’ll lose this way of identifying slop :)

I'm fine with ai slop if it provides value, the value here being questionable, because now I don't know if the values in the comparison are fact checked or hallucinations.
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