Silver Steel #3 - Stainless Steel

Stainless steel inherently possesses a resistance to rust compared to carbon steel thanks to extra materials in its internal composition, but it tends to be slippery on whetstones as a result. This makes sharpening stainless steel knives somewhat difficult.

However, Silver Steel #3 stands out not only for its sharpness but also for its exceptional balance between ease of sharpening and edge retention. It can be considered an exceptionally well-balanced knife steel, especially as a stainless steel.

Of course, the performance of a knife is not solely determined by the material but also by the manufacturing processes behind its creation and forging. The key characteristic of Silver Steel #3 in the world of stainless steels is that "the forging process significantly influences its performance."

In fact, with most commonly used stainless steels, while the forging process may alter the shape of the blade, it has minimal impact on its overall strength. However, in the case of Silver Steel #3, a forging process involving the use of a belt hammer is employed by knife craftsmen. This process helps break down the carbon structure within the steel into fine particles, spreading it through the entire blade.

Silver Steel #3, having a composition similar to carbon steels, such as White Steel #2, benefits greatly from this forging process. It enhances the overall strength of the blade, prolongs its sharpness, facilitates easier sharpening, and results in a blade less prone to chipping. This makes Silver Steel #3 a popular and premium blade. Also, you can still expect to see Damascus finishes on the blade as well, making a truly luxurious piece such as our Silver Steel #3 Wa-Santoku. You'll also see the steel used in knife styles normally reserved for carbon steel knives, such as deba, usuba and yanagiba knives.

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, Silver Steel #3 falls in this position on the graph below

The sharpness and edge retention, plus ease of sharpening - all in a stainless steel!

Let’s look at the tables below and explore the composition of Silver Steel #3 more deeply. The secondary tabs reveal some crucial information - or perhaps a lack of in a way.

What sets Silver Steel #3 apart when compared to other stainless steels is the absence of Molybdenum (Mo), Nickel (Ni), Vanadium (V), and Tungsten (W). This characteristic is the reason it's referred to as a "stainless steel similar to carbon steel" as White Steel also does not contain these.

Some people might wonder, "Why not include Molybdenum or other rare materials? Wouldn't that make it better?"

Molybdenum, Vanadium, Nickel, and similar elements are usually added to stainless steels to make them more resistant to wear. While this makes the blade wear-resistant during cutting, it also makes the steel harder to sharpen. Essentially, the more of these rare materials you add to the composition, the trickier it becomes to sharpen.

Additionally, while there is a cost advantage in producing knives with good performance without the need for a complex forging process, if proper forging is undertaken, this cost advantage may not be as large for the knifemaker. The artisans do also need to earn a good living, after all!

To sum up, the merits of Silver Steel #3 include improved performance through hammer forging, and easy sharpening while retaining good sharpness. While the steel price of Silver Steel #3 is lower than VG10, the overall cost can be higher due to the labor costs involved with the forging process, making it sometimes more expensive than VG10 in the pre-sharpening stage.