I discovered my favorite knife in the free box in my apartment building's lobby, its blade wrapped in a wad of paper towels and bound tight with a few old rubber bands. If it wasn't for the obviously well-used, full-tang handle sticking out, smooth as satin and almost black with years of sweat and cooking oil, I may have passed it up. But who can resist such character, such potentiality? This clearly was a knife with a past, a knife that had done some time in the kitchen. What delicious secrets did it hold? I pulled off the paper towels and held it for a moment in my right hand, testing the balance. There was no doubt about it, this was one sexy knife and it was coming home with me!
The most important thing about a knife is how it fits in your hand and this one fit like an old friend. The blade, which was a little longer and narrower than what I'm used to, balanced the heavy handle nicely and created an elegant proportion. I was happy to see by the color and staining that it was carbon steel, which is becoming my favorite kind of knife but has sadly fallen out of favor these days due to maintenance issues. This was a handsome old knife, for sure, but can it chop, slice, dice, and peel?
I brought the knife into the kitchen, gave it a bit of a clean-up and got to work on chopping some vegetables for lunch. The previous owner did me a favor and had it sharpened before leaving it in the free box. Either that or they never used it because it was razor sharp and cut through my veg beautifully. The best thing about a carbon blade is that it can be honed to a sharper edge than stainless steel, and it holds that edge for a longer period of time. It only needs to quick pass with the steel to stay super sharp. Between the long, sharp blade and the heavier handle, my new knife worked like a dream.
Even before finding this knife, I've been looking into carbon steel for kitchen knives but I'm far from being an expert on the subject. From what I understand, carbon blades need to be cleaned and dried immediately after use to avoid rusting but that the patina is a good thing as it prevents this rust and helps with the other issue with carbon blades: they sometimes react with acidic foods. So the patterned grey/blue stain on my knife was not only beautiful, it was functional as well.
Like a good lover, my carbon blade knife's little bit of extra maintenance pays off in superior performance and a unique beauty that delights and inspires. You can keep your shiny bright, this-years-model, celebrity endorsed fancy knives! Me and my super sexy, deeply patinaed, carbon steel baby are in it for the long haul and man, oh man, did I score on this one.
Related: Weekend Meditation: The Romantic Notion of a Pocketknife
(Image: Dana Velden)
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I recently discovered the beauty of carbon steel knives. Luck find for you!
My mother, way back when Julia Child was THE tv chef, was on the "one good knife" bus. It was a carbon blade chefs knife, and by the time I was in high school and Julia was on her third or fourth TV incarnation, it was still going strong and I had learned to love it, too.
Over the years the blade sort of changed shape as a result of all of the times it had been shown the honing steel, but it still only took a couple of swipes to get it back to awesomely sharp.
I'm sure she still has it.
I've never understood the problem with carbon steel and the need to dry it immediately. Doesn't everyone do that with any knife? (or wok?) Or are those the people who put their knives in the dishwasher and thus wouldn't know a good knife if it stabbed them? :)
most of my knives are like this one, I have one 9-10" french knife with odd short grooves in the blade, and without the thicker 'finger guard' bit that makes sharpening such a pain.
I grew up with rusty blades, and If I can find them I buy them... I've just re-handled a couple of the smaller ones where the blades are near paper thin now. (8d nails make pretty good rivets btw...)
can never understand why people don't like them...
That is a beautiful knife.... but the use of the non-word potentiality in this post bothers me. Why couldn't you just say 'potential'? It's like Methodology, a word created by morons to make them seem more intelligent to other stupid people.
As a wedding present (33+ years ago) we received 3 Sabatier carbon steel chef's knives, six, eight and ten inch. I used them for years, but after repeated sharpening the part of the blade near the tang has become concave and no longer touches the cutting board. They remain, however, incredibly sharp.
Perhaps I should take them out to the woodshop in the garage and use my bench grinder to grind the tang down so the concave area can be honed out. The 6" especially, would be great for mincing shallots and garlic. I currently use a 3 1/2" Wustof paring knife for that purpose, but it doesn't have the heft and sharpness for fast work.
I'm also considering buffing off the patina. The surface is very rough, due to irregular corrosion over the years, creating a drag as they cut. I could buff them smooth and then treat them with a liquid called gunsmith's cold bluing.
I have lots of kitchen knives, but this post has inspired me to bring back some of my old, retired tools.
Reading this brought back memories of the metallic tang of apples sliced with my mom's carbon steel knife. Hers was half worn away from decades of sharpening, like yours.