Posted on 03/21/2019 12:37:05 PM PDT by Red Badger
I prefer Mexican to Guatemalan avocados, they seem to taste better and last longer............
My wife..........
Someone told me that a dishwasher will dull a sharp knife.....................
Freezing foods breaks apart the cells because water molecules expand when frozen. This creates soggy wet food.
I’m mildly curious to know your personal or professional expertise regarding knife blade materials.
Thanks for the ping. Good idea about leaving the pit in. I usually take plastic wrap and press in it the half, pressing out any air. If I make guacamole I do the plastic wrap on top too.
In general, with “high carbon” steels, hardenability and the potential sharpness of the edge is related to carbon content...
Common HC steels, like 1095 for instance, has .95% carbon and the remainder is iron with sometimes a trace of other elements like maybe chromium and vanadium added for rust and wear resistance...
High carbon steels are favored by professional chefs due to potential (if heat treated correctly) to take and retain extremely keen edges...High end handmade Japanese sushi knives for example where cleanest possible cuts are desired, are typically carbon steel...Trade off is HC steel blades are subject to rust without proper care, and take stains (patina) from acidic foods...
Again in general, lower carbon steels are used where toughness is desired (RR spikes are about 1035, axes might be 1050/1060), and high carbon (1095, Japanese paper steels, etc) where maximum sharpness is the goal...Some of this is due blade geometry, some to properties of the steel and the rest to heat treat...Very oversimplified...
Good to know!.................
Not specific to knives, but I most of a decade working with a specialized range of iron alloys that gave me a fair background in metallurgy. That is on top of a MS thesis about forming technique effects on crystal morphology and grain structures in another class of materials.
OK. Thanks.
I wonder if you’re aware of modern high carbon stainless alloys (AUS8a and similar).
Honestly not familiar with it. As I said, I didn’t work with knife steel specifically. As general rule though, the stressed structure that makes a good edge is also chemically reactive.
The wonderful thing about materials is advancements make new things possible. The alloys I worked in were specialized, but allowed the creation of devices that would have been impossible at the time without them. They were also expensive and other technologies moved up to make those alloys unnecessary and thus I don’t work in that industry anymore. I don’t know how much kitchen knives made with AUS8a would cost, but they aren’t anywhere in the mainstream.
Uh ... I do. I'm not going to throw it away just because I don't want to eat the whole thing in one sitting.
I have several stainless knifes that are sharp as a razor and hold an edge quite nicely (lasts about 3 to 4 weeks for me). In cooking school I was told that washing a knife in the dishwasher can ruin the temper.
May be impractical for opening avacados).
My childhood fantasy was to recreate the BAR with replaceable barrels, larger magazines, and a pistol grip, to make it more usable and durable, a la BREN.
Seed = Fruit.
Have to laugh at the half dozen or so steel experts on this thread. Wow.
Dishwashers don’t run hot enough change the steel temper. It is the chemical attack of the caustic detergents that damage the steel, causing rust. I would never recommend putting your knives in the dishwasher but I suspect if you did then you would find rust spots on the cutting edge.
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