White Steel #1 - High Carbon Steel

Shirogami steel, otherwise called White Steel, is created by minimizing impurities as much as possible. White Steel can then be further subclassified with numbers such as 1, 2 or 3, indicating more precisely the composition of the steel’s materials. White Steel #1 is made by increasing the carbon content in that White Steel with a core focus on improving sharpness as much as possible.

One of the most important features of carbon steel-based knives is their sharpness. However, in order to focus on and improve that sharpness when making the knife, it also becomes necessary to increase the blade’s hardness. The consequence of this is the harder the knife is, the more difficult it is to sharpen.

White Steel differs from this trend though, due to its relative lack of impurities and additives. This means sharpening White Steel with a sharpening stone is actually relatively easy, making this an exceptional material that is both sharp and easy to sharpen.

Forged, annealed, quenched and tempered - White Steel is meticulously crafted and treated through all its stages, resulting in a steel that once honed, cuts brilliantly and is easy to take care of. Thanks to these qualities, it can be said that White Steel knives are the pinnacle of knives tailored for Japanese cuisine.

Steel material is crucial for indicating a knife's initial performance (amongst many other things related to craftsman ability and more). Below are some comparisons to give you some understanding showing what a particular step of the process does in terms of impacting sharpness, balance and maintainability.

There’s three key pointers in the above chart to focus on.

• Steel Material has a large impact on sharpness and maintainability (ease of sharpening and resistance to rust).

• Apart from sharpness, heat treatment and the sharpening process in knife creation also have a large impact on sharpness.

• Measuring a knife’s strengths is more than just its sharpness. Balance and maintainability also need to be considered.

Based on the above steel mapping chart, White Steel #1 falls in this position on the graph below

As you can see, White Steel #1 has a sharp blade edge, good edge retention yet is still relatively easy to sharpen! It’s truly an amazing steel to use for knives, maximizing a chef’s skills and letting them truly shine.

Wonderful cutting power, and easy to sharpen!

Let’s look at the tables below and explore the composition of White Steel #1 more deeply.

Compared to White Steel #2 that is incredibly popular for Japanese kitchen knives, White Steel #1 tends to favour having more carbon than its counterparts, as you can see in the example above comparing the two steels from Hitachi Metals. Depending on how much tempering and treatment is done, it tends to have a Hardness Rockwell Counter of 66, making this steel an incredibly hard one.

Additionally, this steel does not contain tungsten or chromium, which are elements you will see in Blue Steel. This is one of the key reasons why White Steel is regarded as pure and easy-to-sharpen.