/cult/ - culture and media

Sell me on titanium coating; why would I want this over straight 1095 carbon steel?

Also, how do you go with sharpening,etc?

That is one beautiful set of knives. I have a really soykafty knife set but look forward to buying a nice new set when I move out of the place I'm currently in. The person I live with currently would just ruin them.

>>703
I'm guessing the titanium is a cheaper way to harden the steel?

>>703
>>703
If those are made out of steel, you would sharpen them like any other steel knife. The titanium coating, depending on who does it, is just a way to prevent rust or to market to people who aren't familiar with knives.

Real titanium knives built from blade smiths such as Warren Thomas aren't sharpened normally like steel knives. You strop the flat edge, provided it's chisel ground, and that's it. Users have reported that the aggressive carbide edge can sharpen itself when you cut into cardboard.

I don't use titanium knives since I don't like how it holds a such a toothy edge, are more expensive depending on who you buy it from, and have a weird feel to them, especially if the guy knows whats he's doing and fuses it with carbon fiber the lighten the overall weight.

Personally I use Bob Kramer's production series chef knives from J.A. Henckels and they're quite a joy to use. If you wipe the blade down consistently and strop the edge, you'll be fine, whether it's carbon steel or stainless steel. Don't cut acidic stuff and leave it on the counter for hours, otherwise it'll rust and you'll have to buff it out with steel wool and rubbing compounds.

>>715
A titanium coating does nothing to harden the steel; actually, there's a misconception that titanium is superior metal to carbon steel in regards to making a knife.

There are two ways to see this:

One, the person making a titanium knife wants a lightweight, low maintenance knife, can bypass trivial metal detectors, (think the ones that are at bars and concerts, not TSA or CBP ones) that is rust proof, and has a extremely aggressive cutting edge due to edge being carbonized. Like I said in the previous post regarding coatings, the only time I've ever seen anyone advertise or market a titanium coated knife on a carbon steel or stainless steel blade, is to make people think you're getting a superior product when in fact you really aren't.

Number two, a manufacturer could use a better coating such as zirconium carbon nitride, PVD chromium nitride, diamond like carbon coatings (commonly known as DLC), or Cerracoat except I've only seen that on knives that are in the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars range. Or firearms. At that point, you'd have to be doing some serious abuse to the knife to wear off the coating. I've never seen that on a kitchen knife either; those coatings are normally put on heavy duty folding knives, or outdoor fixed blade knives.


Titanium has a better strength to weight ratio then steel. Whereas steel can hardened more to achieve a knife edge that can split hairs, titanium can't be hardened as much. To compensate that, normally guys blast it with carbides to make an extremely aggressive edge that's excellent for cutting rope, cardboard, or people if you're buying the knife for that purpose.