i was sharpening a stainless steel knife on soapstone and I wondered why haven't bronze or other soft metal knives made a comeback? If you are dressing animals why not a material you can easily maintain? It isn't like you're going to be cornered by crazed miners you ripped off on a riverboat and need to stab your way out or anything, bronze doesn't rust so you don't need any chemicals for preservation on it and you can sharpen it on anything.
Why not bronze
- Thread starter Oolong
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Carbon steel is pretty easy to sharpen and holds and edge better than bronze. Stainless has been a bugger for me, at least my Randall has been, until I used an EZE-Lap diamond sharpener tool.
Carbon stains and discolors, but it doesn't hurt anything. It doesn't bother me if my carbon knives are discolored. Rust can be a problem if you wash them and leave them point down in the dish rack. The green scotch-brite dish sponges will keep them somewhat shiny though with a little work.
Carbon stains and discolors, but it doesn't hurt anything. It doesn't bother me if my carbon knives are discolored. Rust can be a problem if you wash them and leave them point down in the dish rack. The green scotch-brite dish sponges will keep them somewhat shiny though with a little work.
bikerdoc
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If you want soft and easy to touch up any of the inexpensive 440a knives would fit that role.
entropy
Member
They were all the rage 5000 years ago.......
RetiredUSNChief
Member
Because it's SOFT. Too soft, in fact.
A knife is more usefull if it can take and keep an edge as well as have the physical strength to hold up to a variety of stresses under use.
I strongly suspect if you actually had a knife with a bronze blade, you'd quickly grow frustrated with it under actual use.
Also, I think you'd find that such soft metals don't take a keen edge very well. When you stroke the soft metal across a stone, the edge tends to "curl" just a tiny bit on the side opposite the stone. Next time you sharpen a 440 stainless blade on a stone, run your thumbnail across both sides of the blade's edge (across, not along). You'll notice the thumbnail will "catch" on the side of the edge opposite the one you just stroked across the stone.
Carbon steel isn't that difficult to sharpen and maintain.
Most of the cheaper stainless blades (like 440) are already irritatingly soft to me.
There are commercially available bronze knives for non sparking applications.
www.intercon1978.com/hardy-tools/aluminum-bronze-tools/knives
Bronze lacks the strength and abrasion resistance to compete with iron or steel for use in a blade.
www.intercon1978.com/hardy-tools/aluminum-bronze-tools/knives
Bronze lacks the strength and abrasion resistance to compete with iron or steel for use in a blade.
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