Welcome!

• Most people care about food contact safety. This page is for them.
• If you want to learn why it's important to have a Food Contact Safe knife, this page is for you.
• If you want to learn what materials are Food Contact Safe and why, this page is for you.
• If you want to know where these guidelines come from, this page is for you.
• If you are a knife client or customer and want to be sure you are buying a Food Contact Safe knife to prepare food for your family, this page will answer your questions.
• If you are a professional chef, and have wondered about and been bothered by rusty, corroding knife blades or stainless steel knife blades that won't hold an edge, this page will answer your concerns.

Knife-smart or Knife-dumb?
Clinging to 19th Century Ideals

Food safety is a major concern, because we know that bacteria, viruses, germs, metals, plastics, and chemicals can be transferred to our foods. Though mankind overall has survived for many millennia without this knowledge, countless people throughout history have been sickened and died from food-borne and contaminating pathogens.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 1 in 6 people in the US get sick every year from food borne illnesses. That's 48,000,000 people. 128,000 of them are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Consider also that we have no way of measuring or knowing how accumulation of contaminants, metals, and chemicals affects our body over time, weakening us and affecting our immunities from other diseases. Given what we do know about pathogens, contaminants, and routes to related illness, this is atrocious. Merely surviving food borne illnesses is not enough.

You might be shocked to understand how important these protections are. Research the origin of physicians washing their hands before attending childbirths, and you'll realize how far we've come since Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered how important cleanliness was in 1846. When you read about his breakthrough, you'll also see how resistant physicians themselves were to any change. It's horribly sad to discover how this doctor's brief success was ignored, and that he died of infection in an asylum. Yet it's reassuring to know that his practices were eventually accepted as factual and correct. It's still disturbing to think we still have a problem with some medical professionals merely washing their hands and hospitals maintaining a clean environment—

My point is that people are resistant to learning and changing, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the knife world. Old steels—dirty, corroding, decomposing steels—are still made and sold today for chef's knives, even though we are well-informed about their tremendous limitations. It's funny to think that we are concerned about our environment, about plastic exposures to BPA (Bisphenol A), and the toxicity of heavy metals, yet the knifemaking community and manufacturers are still pushing and selling corroding, reactive, decomposing non-stainless carbon steels specifically for food service work! While I have occasionally poked fun at this on my website, it is a very serious issue, with millions of knives made of inferior, corroding steels being sold each year purposely for food service. This has got to stop; I look forward to seeing this end in my lifetime.

It probably won't end though, because people are stubborn and—unfortunately—ignorant about steels, particularly steels used to make knives. Most knifemakers and most knife manufacturers further this ignorance by directing their production, marketing, and sales toward what they want to cheaply make and sell, rather than what is in the best interest of their customer. They perpetuate myths about ancient Japanese technology, truly poor and primitive by today's standards. They perpetuate low alloy carbon steels as being useful and safe in the kitchen, even though this is easily disprovable. They sell knives made with cobalt-bearing steels, hoping the public doesn't recognize their potential carcinogenic risk. They push damascus pattern welded steels as being superior in food service and preparation, when they are clearly inferior in every single characteristic, and made and sold simply for the pretty look and decor pattern. This is all "knife-dumb" and it has to stop.

On this website, you have read many non-conventional truths about knives and steels that I'm certain will eventually be widespread and accepted as standards. This may happen years after I'm gone, but it will happen. There is a probable, almost certain future to the direction and understanding of technology and human interaction, and knives are not exempt from this.

Even so, knives have progressed painfully slow during my lifetime. There are a lot of negative influences, plenty of primitive and antiquated practices being touted as worthwhile, and poor and cheap knives being made and hyped as desirable. Worse, media tends to tout the mystery of steel and processing, with contests and televised programs replete with sparks and embers and mindless drivel about blacksmithing practices that the rest of the modern world left behind at the beginning of the industrial revolution. There is a reason these tired old ways were abandoned and no modern steel application or use relies up on blacksmithing. As I've stated before, there is no blacksmith in any machine shop, anywhere.

While this may make interesting entertainment, using antiquated, rusting, decomposing corroding, and bacteria-harboring rough-surfaced knives to prepare food is horribly careless, yet it is foolishly promoted by cheap and uncaring knifemakers, manufacturers, and ignorant chefs. This has got to stop!

This is all knife-dumb. No carbon steel can outperform modern high alloy stainless steels, no hand-forging process can create any knife blade or any other instrument that is in any way better than high alloy stainless steels and modern processing. No plain carbon steel can outperform a high alloy, hypereutectoid stainless steel in any way other than being cheap. No rough, blackened, or irregular surface can be easily cleaned. These are inconvenient truths, and this clearly a failure of our tradecraft and industry to be honest and factual with the public, our customers, and even other knifemakers.

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Knives and Food Safety
The Third Rail of Knifemaking

After you read this very page, your concepts of knives in the world of food service will be completely and forever changed. This is my promise to you as a writer, as a professional career knifemaker, and as a person who cares about the most personal yet wide-reaching act that man must perform daily during his entire life, the preparation of food.

There is a truth that knifemakers and some knife manufacturers don't want the world to know, and this truth has a profound impact on any knife used with any exposure to food. Knifemakers will not talk about this, manufacturers don't want it discussed, foreign and domestic sales interests will avoid the subject at any cost.

When you are finished reading this, you may throw away your carbon steel kitchen knives in disgust, and you may even throw away some of your stainless steel kitchen knives. You may curse the fact that you have been duped into thinking a carbon steel knife blade is somehow superior in the kitchen, but duped you have been.

Some people reading this will have a visceral reaction to being ripped-off by big-name knifemakers who have been promoted by the media as so-called masters of the trade, when they are using antiquated, even primitive steels and processes. You will be correct to think that foreign and (particularly) Japanese knife interests are taking advantage of media and popular hyperbole to peddle inferior junk to American consumers, while laughing up their sleeves at the frenzy for this third-world hammered-out garbage.

There are some that will read this and fume. To those of you who do have this reaction, please don't bother to write me; I know the truth. Write instead to all of the sources and organizations I'm going to detail on this very page; insist they discard their classifications, ignore their knowledge, reject the many studies and conclusions that they and the rest of the scientific community have proven. Write to your congressman; tell him or her that Food Safety guidelines should be dismissed. See how far that takes you.

For those of you that are on the fence, you will no longer be; this is my promise to you. You will be changed, for the better, and you'll know why. It is for you that I write this.

The third rail of knives is that food safety—particularly Food Contact Surface Materials—is rarely revealed or detailed, particularly in handmade knives. Discussing this, disclosing this, and illuminating this has the potential to shatter entire industries based on the shared ignorance and stubborn clinging to outdated process and materials.

Worse, the most important fact is that very, very few handmade knives made and sold today for the kitchen qualify for a SAFE Food Contact Surface Material! Knives manufactured in the Japanese or "primitive" styles are nearly all unqualified as a Safe Food Contact Surface.

Read on; this is information you have been denied.

Quick! Shoot the Messenger!

You would think that nearly all people—knifemakers particularly—would want to assure that they were making Food Contact Safe knives for their clients. You would think that having the most hygienic knives for their customers would be a top consideration, since their customers would be expected to use the knives to prepare food for their family. You would expect them to read about safety and guidelines established by learned authorities and official sanctioned organizations, and make knives that were within those recommendations. You would think they actually care about the people they make knives for.

You would think this, and you would be wrong.

It took a bit of time before this page started getting referenced, but as soon as it did, the anger and fear erupted. Mostly on forums—but on other venues—knife enthusiasts, knife makers, and knife hobbyists let loose a fusillade of vile comments, vicious insults, and foolish commentary. This commentary was  not directed at the official entities that research, write, legislate, or enact the guidelines and requirements for food safety in public and private kitchens and restaurants. No, this pure, seething hate was directed at your favorite knifemaker.

They acted like I wrote these guidelines myself; like I created these sections of official documents from whole cloth, secretly inserted them into the procedure of testing, results, and citations, without anyone else knowing, using my special knifemaker spidey-powers to initiate radical concepts and change the knifemaking industry! Who knew I had such capability? Who knew that I had the inside track on federal and state safety instructions? Good grief!

Then, they went on to try to attack my knives, my business, my way of making a living, and even my personality. Please understand that the people who post this way do not know me, have never met me, do not have any contact with me, and do not own a single one of my knives. Not a one of them has actually sent an email about their concerns, ever. I can only guess that they have never written the federal authorities about Food Contact Safety, or their congressmen, or their local authorities on the matter, either. It's much easier to post, sometimes anonymously, from the safety of their keyboard, and direct their anger at a singular professional knifemaker who actually does care about his clients.

Their attacks, of course, do nothing, since I've been doing this for over 40 years, but it's worth a shot, right? Just to try to get Jay to be quiet about regulations, guidelines, and food safety overall is worth slander and potential legal action against them.

As you read this page, you'll see exactly where these guidelines, requirements, and data come from, and it's not me, it's not other knifemakers, and it's not the client who gets stuck with a rusty, corroding knife blade. It's the law, and unfortunately, the current attitude is that laws and guides are simply meant to be ignored, not enforced.

I'm just the guy who happened to cite the actual guidelines and requirements that exist in the legal and scientific community. I didn't write them, yet if you read some of the disgusting, ignorant slop from some of these commenters, it seems that I'm the evil one just for bringing them up!

"How dare Jay Fisher even mention Food Contact Safety! We had everybody shut up about our rusty, corroding knife blades!"

"Yeah, let's shoot the messenger; it's the only thing to do. Let's just bury our heads in the sand; maybe the truth, the guidelines, the regulations will go away, and we can continue to beat out some knife blades from a rusty old saw blade we found at the dump."

"And shhhh! Nobody mentions any feds; we don't need no stinking rules here!"

I've got news for the rest of the knife community. You had better get ready: regulations, laws, requirements, and worthwhile oversight is coming soon. Clients and customers are becoming educated. And it's about time.

I'm sure it's my fault that this is happening as well—

More about the backlash below.

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Carbon Steel Taste Test!
Prove it to yourself

I dare you. Here is what other knifemakers, companies, and manufacturers of carbon steel knives don't want you to ever know!

If you really need a clear demonstration of the limitation of carbon steel (non-stainless) to prove it to yourself, I've developed a simple test. This was not done with technical help from metallurgists, research scientists, or promotional and advertising professionals. This was developed in a simple moment, with logic, common sense, and clear intent.

After you perform this test, you will never, ever again consider carbon steel of any kind for food service, for exposure use, and possibly for any knife, unless it's surface treated or hot-blued. Even then, you won't want it in the kitchen at all, ever again in your lifetime! You won't want your meal prepared by anyone who uses a carbon steel knife, you will seriously avoid those sushi bars where the chefs slice up raw fish and vegetables with a dark, funny-shaped thin carbon steel Japanese-named knife with a straight handle and a stick tang. You might even start asking your butcher, favorite restaurant owner, and accomplished chef what they use for a knife, only to correct them by suggesting this very test! You think I'm exaggerating?

Read on and pay strict attention; I'm about to change your perception of carbon steels forever!

That's a pretty bold claim, and you might think I'm just trying to sell you an idea, but here's the thing: you will make this transformational decision by yourself, once and forever, and you'll never go back again... ever. Your own experience will be so profound that you will show others. Others will be transformed, instantly. My only request is that you properly credit me for this test by using my name, Jay Fisher, and maybe even include my website: www.jayfisher.com in your repeating of this test.

You don't need any special equipment for this test. You will need a few basic items that you, no doubt, have, since you are reading this text:

1. A knife with a carbon steel blade. Any carbon steel or non-stainless alloy will do: 1080, 1095, 5160, 52100, L6, O1, pattern welded damascus made of any of these, etc. Please feel free to use Japanese "White Steel," "Blue Steel," or any other color of so-called high carbon steels, since, no matter what you may read, they are plain carbon steels. The blade must not be blued or coated with oil, wax, paint, ceramic, plastic, or anything. If it's already darkened with oxidation, this doesn't matter too much, but bare steel is best, since it's the same condition as the cutting edge. For maximum effect, scrub the blade well with a ScotchBrite® pad or lightly abrasive cleanser, since this reflects the condition of the cutting edge. The cutting edge, you see, is never coated or protected in any way, since it's sharpened and any coating would be instantly gone at the first sharpening. So a bare blade is what you need. The blade must be wide enough for safety (see test below). The finish is not important; it can be rough, sanded, or mirror polished. You just want bare steel like the cutting edge will be.
2. A knife with a stainless steel blade. This can be any stainless steel: 440C, CPM154CM, ATS-34, even D2 and 420 stainless. As long as it's a true stainless steel with at least 11.5% chromium (which is the classification for stainless steel). If you don't have a stainless steel knife blade, use some typical stainless cutlery (a butter knife or spoon).
3. Soap or cleanser
4. Your tongue

Take both knives to the sink, and clean them well. Use soap and water (anti-bacterial or dish soap is common and accessible, and what you would be washing the knife with anyway). Be careful not to cut yourself, scrub the blades clean of any oil, fats, or greases. This is just like cleaning your silverware or cutlery in your own kitchen. The point is you want the side of the blade as clean as the cutting edge, which is always bare steel. Of course, be careful of the cutting edge; you don't want to slice your finger. Get the blades as clean as possible, just like your silverware. Dry them.

The test:

1. The blade needs to be wide enough to avoid the cutting edge; stay away from the sharp edge!
2. I like to try the carbon steel knife first, for the maximum effect.
3. Keeping away from the cutting edge, press your tongue against the flat part of the blade that you have cleaned and hold it there for one full minute. Time this, if you like, or count in your head to 60, or have a friend count for you. Press your tongue against it, involve the tip and the first inch of your tongue; don't just touch the tip of it gently like a lizard tasting the air; get a good, flat, solid taste of the steel blade. Your tongue will wet some, this is okay; this is what a tongue does; helping you enjoy the taste of the surface. Do not stop after you start to sense something, get the full effect of your tongue reacting with the carbon steel surface for one full minute.

Spoiler alert! Don't read this before performing the test if you want to experience the full effect!

Here's what will happen: Your tongue will start to salivate as the carbon steel reacts with the moisture. You will feel an astringent pull—kind of a dry chemical reaction—before the ever-increasing glow of full iron overwhelms your entire tongue surface in contact with the steel. The bitter iron taste will be strong: stronger than blood when you bite your lip, stronger than you will ever expect. The iron will permeate your tongue, and dry and sour the entire surface of your tongue for at least 30 minutes after you've pulled away in utter disgust. You will slobber, you will pucker, you will hate the taste that is now stuck on your tongue. It's as bad as being burned by hot coffee in a hasty sip, worse than any bad cheese or salty lemon you have ever experienced. You will absolutely hate it; it won't go away until your mouth is fully rinsed and cleaned several times! The taste effect may literally last for hours! I could still taste the corrosion after 8 full hours and several meals!

Your conception of carbon steel blades will be changed forever and instantly, and you will thank Jay Fisher.

Now, test the stainless knife. Heck, you don't even need a knife, because this will be the same as putting your mouth on your stainless silverware. Nothing will happen. You'll be surprised that there is no taste, no flavor, no iron, no reaction. This is why we have stainless steel cutlery, after all.

What has happened and what it means: The moisture in your tongue along with oxygen in the atmosphere has reacted dramatically with the surface of the carbon steel blade. The steel has immediately broken down in a chemical reaction, producing iron oxide which is essentially rust. The oxygen aided by moisture combines with the metal at a molecular level, forming a new compound called an oxide and weakening the bonds of the metal itself. Rust consists of hydrated iron(III) oxides Fe₂O₃·NH₂O and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO_OH, Fe_OH3). Surface rust is flaky and friable, and it provides no protection to the underlying steel. You are eating rust, and rust is now bonded to the surface of your tongue. You will probably experience temporary dysgeusia, a distortion of the sense of taste. Dysgeusia (dis-goo-see-uh) is not a pleasant experience, but it will go away.

If you don't clean your tongue-mark off the carbon steel blade, and revisit it in a couple hours, you'll see the contact area in clear discoloration. Sometimes, this only takes minutes. Since rust is permeable to air and water, corrosion will continue. Left alone, overnight, the steel will start to darken more, in another day, you'll see microscopic flakes, followed by pitting.

If you really like the taste of your carbon steel blade, let it pit and flake and start to dissolve into corroded flecks and then use a wire brush to sprinkle them on your cereal, or perhaps your cappuccino, hot dog, or steak. Nice fall colors can be presented over potatoes, a kick can be added to your chilled watercress soup or your mango-lime cheesecake.

If you think I'm being overly dramatic, and realize that chefs and cooks have been cooking with carbon steel blades for centuries—so why would Jay complain—think of this: since the dawn of stainless steels, all table cutlery has been made of stainless steel for a reason. Sure, there are some gold and silver spoons and forks, and they don't have a reaction with your tongue, either. The point is that nobody is eating with an iron spoon, nobody is using a carbon steel fork to lift their cake to their mouth, no butter is padded onto toast with a carbon steel butter knife. There are no carbon steel cutlery sets for a reason, and because of this test, you now know why.

So why do people still use disgusting carbon steel knives for food?

In man's history, stainless wasn't available until the early 20th century, and then, it wasn't wear-resistant and good for cutting, so we were still stuck with carbon steel knives. That all changed in the latter part of the 20th century, and now we have incredible stainless steels, far superior to carbon steels, but no one has told the chefs, or they simply can't afford them. They naïvely haven't moved into the 21st century, the one where we have the finest high alloy stainless tool steels ever to exist in mankind's history. In some cases, they are buying the Japanese "superiority" complex, where hammer and black scale are considered the normal knife finish, because it looks old, and so must have been made by an ancient samurai warrior—corroded and black and foul-looking.

In other words, it's just plain ignorance or bad habit to be using carbon steel knife blades in the kitchen.

Corroded, blackened, or even simply darkened carbon steel is not "protected" by the corrosion, no matter if you call it a patina, an oxide, or a surface finish. If you think carbon still is protected by the oxide, just wet the surface of a darkened blade, rub it a little and smell it. It's not as shocking as the taste test, but you'll understand exactly what your nose is telling you.

The reason for all of this chemical effect in carbon steels is that corrosion instantly occurs upon exposure to air or moisture, and it's detrimental to the dish, the food, and the palate. A knife slicing through a piece of fish may well move fast enough to not flavor the fish with corroded rust, or you may have just gotten used to the hint of steel, so slight as to not be perceived. Perhaps the nasty flavor is overwhelmed by the taste of the fish, but it is still there.

Worse, the carbon steel is corroding at the cutting edge. It's dulling and dissolving quickly and at every slice, so the chef or cook is constantly scraping his cutting edge on a hard steel or porcelain rod, which flakes off the corroded surface (swarf) and deposits it wherever it can. This can be on the surface of the knife blade, on the next piece of food cut. Or it may be on a nasty rag the chef uses to wipe off the metal swarf hanging from his waist or draped over his shoulder. He may use this rag right before he goes on to cut more of your food...but how often do you see a chef go to the sink, wash the knife with hot soap and water, and dip it in the sterilizing bath at 170°F?

One more important thing: the test you performed was with the moisture on your tongue. The pH of your saliva is about 5 to 7, slightly acidic. What do you think happens when carbon steel blades are use to cut tomatoes (3-4 pH) or lemons with a pH of 2? How fast of a reaction and how deep the corrosion then?

My point here is... WHY? Why do this when fine, better-made high alloy stainless steel blades are available, and they don't react, rust, pit, stink, or sour your food? Why are makers and foreign (Japanese) knife companies pushing carbon steels?

They are doing it because it's cheap, fast, and easy to make a knife from carbon steel, and you can whip up a cutting edge with a chef's steel (rod) quickly since the blades are so soft to begin with. A good, high alloy stainless steel blade needs to be sharpened only once a year or so, a carbon steel blade once a day (or session).

One more important thing: this very test, the reasons that you can taste carbon steel, the corrosion and dissolving of the metal is why CARBON STEEL IS NOT A FOOD CONTACT SAFE MATERIAL! The USDA, FSIS, CDC, ASTM, and other agencies very clearly declare that all carbon steel knife blades are NOT FOOD SAFE.

Don't fall into the carbon steel trap! Do the test, make others do the test, impress your friends and family, and be done with carbon steel knives, particularly in the kitchen, the most knife-important place on the planet!

I dare you.

Don't forget to visit: Chef's Knives and Kitchen Cutlery!

Return to Topics

What are Food Contact Surface (FCS) Materials?
The Official Agencies

What our food comes in contact with is vitally important to our health and safety. This is why there are standards and actual regulations set by official organizations. Who are they?

• USDA—The United States Department of Agriculture, is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, and food
• FSIS—Under the USDA, the Food Safety and Inspection Service is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
• FDA—The U. S. Food and Drug Administration publishes the Food Code, a model that assists food control jurisdictions at all levels of government by providing them with a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment of the industry (restaurants and grocery stores and institutions such as nursing homes). Local, state, tribal, and federal regulators use the FDA Food Code as a model to develop or update their own food safety rules and to be consistent with national food regulatory policy.
• ANSI—The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States.
• NSF—The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health.
• NSF—The National Sanitary Foundation is the leading global provider of public health and safety-based risk management solutions while serving the public, the business community, and government agencies. Their mission is carried out by over 2,700 global employees, including microbiologists, toxicologists, chemists, engineers, and environmental and public health professionals.
• CDC—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the nation’s health protection agency, working 24/7 to protect America from health and safety threats, both foreign and domestic. The CDC increases the health security of the United States, and indirectly, the world.
• NIOSH—Under the CDC, this is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Their mission: To develop new knowledge in the field of occupational safety and health and to transfer that knowledge into practice. NIOSH is about the workplace, and in this subject, those who use and sharpen knives.
• IARC—International Agency for Research on Cancer is part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations. Its role is to conduct and coordinate research into the causes of cancer.

Wow! Who knew there were so many official organizations dedicated to our health and safety and, in particular, the safety of the food we eat? When reading about these organizations, you might recognize the players, if not, please do some basic research on these entities and organizations to understand how important their role is in our health and safety. Most of us take them for granted, and they deserve our support and recognition for the great job they've done. Don't think of them as large bureaucratic entities; understand instead that they are people: professionals, educated scientists, scholars, and researchers who, one by one, support our health.

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Food Contact Surface
The Definition

Now that you know the players, what, particularly, is a Food Contact Surface Material? This is easy; it's exactly what it sounds like—the material in contact with food at its surface—simple enough.

You would think it would be obvious to people that what is in direct contact with our food is important. Materials that break down, leach, corrode, dissolve , decompose, or impart chemicals, elements, or compounds into our food would be of high importance. You are correct. Rough surfaces and materials that harbor dangerous pathogens and bacteria are also a serous concern.

Would it surprise you to know that these agencies, organizations, and modern civilizations have set specified limits, guidelines, and regulations as to what materials classify as being food-safe? Of course they have; in every modern country in the world, food safety components and exposures are regulated. Many countries follow the United States model, and since I'm here in the US, this is what I will detail.

If you are reading this and are not in the US, please do some internet research into your own country's standards, and you'll find that they are similar to ours, since all humans are physically the same, and pathogens and exposures can affect us all.

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The FCS (Food Contact Surface) Standards
The Sections and Codes

What are the standards and what role do they play in food contact?

In designing sanitary implements, containers, vessels, and equipment for food service exposure, there are several simple, basic considerations that official entities use for classification and standards. Since we are discussing knives, I won't get into how plastics leach into the environment, or how coatings on vessels must be of a certain thickness to be considered sanitary. These subjects—and many more related to food safety—fill textbooks, and you can research a tremendous amount of these on the internet.

What you choose to use in your own home kitchen is entirely up to you. If you want to eat your food with a stick that you found in your yard, nobody is going to regulate, legislate, or prosecute you for doing so. No one is going to tell you that you can't eat from a lead and cadmium pot, with a meal served on an old newspaper you found on your porch. No one is going to tell you not to use the same spoon, day after day, without ever washing it. I know these concepts are totally ridiculous, but I want you to play along a bit further with the idea.

Since every adult would understand the danger of lead pots and the horror of bacteria growing unabated on a dirty spoon, it's not too much to ask, "What is enough food safety?"

In other words, where is the line drawn where we can be reasonably certain that our food is safe for consumption? This is the job of these official entities. They inform us so that we can expect reasonable safety in our eating. These guidelines, rules, and directives are adopted by the entire restaurant and food service industry for these reasons. No one, anywhere, would ever suggest that these are not important, or that we go back to eating with our unwashed hands off a cave floor.

The guidelines are then our reference for knives, because food service knives; knives that are made and sold distinctly for preparing and consuming food are utensils that need to have the same food safety as any other FCS material.

The food safety directives about utensils are simple, sensible, and clear. From a physical aspect, it starts with the construction of the utensil. Let's first get some simple, clear standards from the FDA Food Code (2017):

This makes a lot of sense, so let's see how that applies to knives.

1. The knife should be strong enough not to break, or present and injury hazard from failure. This is clear enough, and most knives meet this requirement.
2. The knife should fulfill its intended purpose for the duration of its life expectancy. No problem here, most knives will last until they are used up. However, better-made knives may last for several generations!
3. They should maintain easy cleanability. If they are not cleanable, this can allow for the harborage of pathogenic microorganisms. This is a huge issue! Any knife that has a rough surface, a blackened, scarred, or pitted surface can and will harbor pathogenic microorganisms. No matter what the knife source (maker or manufacturer) claims, a dirty, roughened, scarred surface DOES NOT MEET FDA FOOD CODE FOR SAFETY! Any knife with a hammered, irregular, or unfinished flat (common in Japanese-style and poorly handmade knives) should never be used for any food service application, anywhere!

From this section of the food code, you may now clearly, with sound mind, accept that a darkened, rough surface is not what you want on any kitchen knife, yet millions of these knives are sold every year for use in the kitchen! There is a reason that smooth surfaces are paramount in professional kitchens and why utensils are smoothed and polished, just as there is a reason that instruments in an operating room are very smooth and often polished.

Why don't some knifemakers and knife manufacturers offer a cleanable, smooth surface on their knife blades made and sold for kitchen use? This is a really simple answer. Consider this: when you see a roughened surface on a knife blade, it is almost always the flat. More on the flat in the next topic.

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The Unfinished Flat
Style or Laziness?

In the last twenty or so years of professional knifemaking, I've seen an increased propensity for knifemakers to leave an unfinished flat on the knife blade. The flat is the part of the knife that is not the grind, hollow grind, or what some people incorrectly call the bevel. The grind is the part of the blade where the knife is thinned so that an edge can be formed. We have machines and processes that easily produce a grind (by grinding, of course), and in doing so, by necessity, the metal of the grind will be smoother and, well, ground! So the grind is almost always the cleaner, brighter, and better-finished part of the knife blade.

The flat is the rest of the knife blade that is not part of the grind. It's detailed on my Knife Anatomy page at this bookmark and illustration. It is simply flat. But because the flat is harder to finish and must remain parallel and even on both sides, it takes more skill and time to execute well.

Knifemakers in the late 1980s and early 1990s started trying some shortcuts to "finish" this part of the blade in a much easier way. I emphasize the word finish because the flats aren't actually finished; they are totally unfinished! These makers discovered that they could hammer, scar, facet, tumble, peen, gouge and roughen these surfaces—rather than grind, sand, and finish them. Knifemakers would then leave forge marks, blackened decarburized crust, and nasty fire burn and firestain on the flat, and they could still sell the knife, claiming it was their "style."

No matter what you may read about the flat being primitive, working, or natural, the truth is that the knifemaker or manufacturer doesn't have the skill to finish the flat, or they don't care enough about their customer to finish the flat part of the blade. It is a cheap and lazy practice, and all knifemakers know this, yet few will say it.

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Actual Primitive Knife History
Smooth, even, decorated flats

Since knifemakers like to call this a primitive style, let's consider what finishing practices actually are a primitive style. Historically, all knives that were well-made were finished completely throughout the surface of the blade. Knifemakers and armorers have always known that a rough surface encourages corrosion, and the smoother a surface is, the less likely corrosion will start.

Consider some of the most ancient steel knives, like the "Sax," created by the Saxons in the 4th through the 8th centuries. The flat was actually the most highly finished part of the blade; it was often highly embellished with runes, carvings, piercework, decorations, and engravings. The grind or the bevel was actually the least-finished surface. This is because the grind was expected to be used, sharpened, and honed over and over until it was gone. The flat would never be expected to change. This is completely opposite of current practice based on hurried and unskilled knifemaking. And these knifemakers go on to excuse an unfinished blade flat as a primitive style, when in actual historical knives, the opposite is true.

Examples of knife blades from the Bronze age onward display this property. Please look over some historical texts of knives and you'll be shocked at how un-primitive man has been with knives since the beginning of recorded history. Throughout every culture, the best knives were always well-finished, from Asian to Eastern, from European to African continental societies: this is a universal practice.

Remember that I'm not describing the low-class, cheap tools used by peasants, but well-made knives. After all, why hand-make a knife in third-world methods and then try to push it as a work of art in our first world society? Why put a modern electric-driven belt grinder against a blade, use a modern steel, carefully control the heat treating and processing, and then fudge or fail on the finishing? This while charging a high price for the knife— They do this because they can get away with it, as long as the public doesn't get educated on knives, and as long as you never read what you are reading right now.

That's the dirty little secret. Makers who do this want to quickly grind up a bevel, or hollow, or convex grind, and they want to hurry on to the fittings (if they even make fittings) and then they want to get to the handle, and get the knife sold. It takes a lot of extra time and skill to finish the flat.

So, years ago, knifemakers started touting how great the scarred, blackened, and rough surface looked, how macho, how work-ready, how tough it appears. Knife customers dutifully accepted the unfinished flat as the signature of a knife being "handmade." In truth, the knife is unfinished, clearly lacking handmade attention.

It didn't help that foreign (particularly Japanese) makers and manufacturers realized that since roughened surfaces were successfully being sold, they would also neglect the flat and crank out black, roughened blades for sale. This would save them the cost of finishing the entire blade. These makers and manufacturers then touted this as a great "style" that indicated handmade work.

This was and is still a big lie. Many of the knives coming out of foreign countries are not handmade, they are made in factories, and the reason to leave a flat unfinished is lack of hand work, lack of skill, and lack of care. To top it off, it's a dirty, bacteria and pathogen-harboring "style."

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Why is the Flat Unfinished?
Too Much Trouble, Too Little Care

It's a difficult, laborious process to finish the flat of the knife blade, and the flat often takes more time to finish than the grind. This is because of the nature of flatness. It's easy to screw up the parallel geometry of the flat sides of the knife blade when grinding, sanding, and finishing the flat. A mistake there throws off the geometry of the knife spine thickness and skews the grind lines severely. Any irregularity can be easily seen by the unaided eye because the clearly visible nature of flatness.

New knifemakers discover this right away, and then the knife then looks horrid because the grind lines don't match on both sides of the knife. If the maker goes back to the main grind (or bevel) to correct the bad geometry, this changes the flat and the grind lines. Then he goes back to the flat to correct that, and then back to the grind... I hope you get it.

The trick is that by leaving the flat roughened, any irregularities in geometry and alignment of the grind lines are simply obscured or ignored. A lot of rough, dark irregularities hide a lot of errors, and every knifemaker or metal arts worker knows this. Jewelers know this; so do sculptors. Machinists know this, and the entire metals industry knows this. This is why finished surfaces represent the greatest cost in the metals trade. Accurately finished surfaces can easily increase the cost of a metal product over 300%.

Simply put, because of economy and lack of technique and skill, it is tremendously easier to leave the flat unfinished and call it a style: a dirty, nasty, and bacteria-harboring style!

Another often seen "treatment" of the flat part of the blade is grinding irregular facets, or peening with a hammer, or marring or scarring the area with a tool. Makers then claim that they are leaving it finished this way because of their particular style or look. If this were truly a beneficial style or look, why not finish the entire knife this way including the grind, the handle, and the fittings? The reason they don't is because it's uncomfortable to hold and ridiculous to try to keep clean. Any irregular surface is a bacteria and pathogen-harboring surface that's impossible to keep clean. An uneven, irregular surface is cheap, common, and foul.

What about scratches? I've read and heard from knifemakers for years that the reason they leave a blade unfinished or roughly sanded is that if they mirror-polish the blade, it would look bad the first time it got scratched. So, instead of offering a clean, uniform surface, they "pre-scratch" the blade so that additional scratches won't be so obvious. That way, the blade starts off looking shoddy and scratched. At least this is what they claim, but this practice is a feint, a trick to divert attention from the fact that a clean, smooth surface is very hard to create, and they simply don't want to bother, or they don't have the skill.

Of course a polished blade, like every knife blade, will show some signs of use, though they are very light and look more like a fog in the finish than a scratch. By the way, the only thing that can scratch a knife blade is something harder, which would be rock, sand, and grit, or another knife. A kitchen knife is not used this way, and after decades of use, a mirror-polished blade is still tremendously easier to clean than a rough, sanded, or scarred surface is. Here's an example. Remember, this knife has been cleaned with abrasive pads (Scotch-Brite®) and abrasive cleanser (Ajax®) for over 30 years. This surface is still Food Contact Safe.

Clearly, an unfinished or roughened flat in any knife sold for kitchen service is the sign of a lazy, unskilled, uncaring knifemaker or a very cheaply made knife. You might wonder what other shortcuts he's taken. Above all, the unfinished flat does not meet FDA food code standards!

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FDA Food Code Characteristics
Five Simple Things

The food code specifies very clear characteristics for food contact safety materials:

In the section description, you'll notice that the utensil may not allow migration of substances or impart color, odors, or taste to the food. If you've taken my Carbon Steel Taste Test, you'll understand why no carbon steel knife should ever be used in the kitchen.

Look over the details in this section and you'll see some of the text emphasized. I didn't do that; this is how it's emphasized in the Food Code. This is because the FDA thinks that these are the most important parts of this section, so let's look at them individually:

Corrosion-resistant: This is a big one. No food safe contact surface corrodes, dissolves, or reacts in a way with food or the environment as to impart contaminants into the food. For knifemaking this means that NO STEELS OTHER THAN STAINLESS STEELS ARE FOOD SAFE! That's clear and it's astounding to think that food-contact unsafe knives are being sold to the masses, specifically for the kitchen! This includes all plain carbon steels, alloy steels, and special alloy steels that are not stainless steel.

Warewashing: In order to be washed repeatedly, a steel knife blade must have corrosion resistance, or it will rust and corrode away. Also, rough surfaces can not be effectively washed. Again, NO STEELS OTHER THAN STAINLESS STEELS ARE FOOD SAFE!

Smooth, easily cleanable surface: This goes hand-in-hand with corrosion resistance and washing, and NO ROUGHENED, BLACKENED, TEXTURED, OR UNFINISHED SURFACE IS FOOD SAFE!

Resistant to pitting....decomposition: This is a long string of requirements, but pitting and decomposition are specifically mentioned. All NON-STAINLESS STEEL DECOMPOSES AND PITS! That is the actual technical difference between stainless steels and steels that are not stainless.

Good grief, how simple can this be? The governmental agency who regulates these matters is very clear:

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Dangerous Pathogens and Rough Surfaces
Clinging Villains

What are these dangerous pathogens and how do smooth or rough surfaces play a role in contamination? While contamination may take many forms: bacteria, viruses, and parasites are dangerous, and they can contaminate the surfaces of the knife blade, handle, and the chef's hands. Here is a list of the most common ones:

• Salmonella—this is actually a group of organisms that make up one of the most common bacterial causes of diarrhea and the most common cause of foodborne-related hospitalizations and deaths. Confirmed responsible for 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the United States every year. Food is the source for about 1 million of these illnesses.
• Clostridium perfringens—a very common bacteria in our environment. It can multiply very quickly under ideal conditions, produce enough toxins to cause sickness in the form of abdominal cramping and diarrhea. Confirmed responsible 1 million cases of foodborne illness each year.
• Campylobacter—is a common cause of diarrhea. Most cases of campylobacteriosis, the infection caused by Campylobacter bacteria, are associated with eating raw or undercooked poultry and meat or from cross-contamination by utensils and bad kitchen practices. Confirmed responsible for 1.3 million illnesses each year in the United States.
• Staphylococcus aureus (staph)—is commonly found on the skin, throats and nostrils of healthy people and animals. It can cause illness if it is transmitted to food products where it can multiply and produce harmful toxins. Staphylococcal symptoms include nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting or diarrhea.
• Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli, are a large group of bacteria, some can make you very sick. One strain, E. Coli O157:H7 (STEC) is commonly associated with food poisoning outbreaks because its effects can be extremely severe. Confirmed responsible for 265,000 illness, 3,600 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in the United States each year.
• Listeria monocytogenes— can cause a dangerous infection that primarily affects individuals who are at a high risk for food poisoning: older adults, pregnant women, young children and people with weakened immune systems. Listeria can grow at refrigerator temperatures where most other bacteria cannot grow. Confirmed responsible for 1,600 cases and about 260 deaths each year in the US.
• Norovirus— Very serious: one of the leading causes of food poisoning and often results in symptoms similar to stomach flu such as stomach cramping, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Foods, drinks and surfaces also can become contaminated with the norovirus. It causes 19 to 21 million cases of acute gastroenteritis, leads to 1.7 to 1.9 million outpatient visits and 400,000 emergency department visits, primarily in young children, and contributes to about 56,000 to 71,000 hospitalizations and 570 to 800 deaths, mostly among young children and the elderly—every year.
• Toxoplasma gondii— a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis — Toxoplasmosis is considered to be a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More than 40 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness.

All of this is very serious. We are talking about critters, bugs that live with us and sometimes inside of us, and yet if they are allowed to enter our food and contaminate it, if they are allowed to reach certain foods because of unsafe kitchen practices, it can cost some of us and those we love or cook for our very lives.

We know that we should wash knives between using them to cut chicken and vegetables that will not be cooked. We know that our cutting boards must also be washed with soap and water. But what about the knife surfaces, the smoothness, roughness, and bacterial adhesion?

It's been proven that bacteria prefer a rougher surface, even on stainless steels, where they can cling and hold. Then, other bacteria join them and form colonies because they can cling on each other, once the rough surface gives them purchase. Of course this makes logical sense, and it makes rougher surfaces harder to clean and rid of bacteria as well. Some bacteria cling to certain sizes of scratches in the steel, others don't. There is no clear route to an absolute standard for finish when considering a surface resisting all types of contaminants, but generally, a smoother surface is cleaner.

Once an effective bacteria, virus, and parasite-resisting bio-film material becomes available, it will help considerably, but this is also in the classification of the flying car that people my age were promised when we were kids...

While the study of bacteria clinging onto steel surfaces can get very deep and very complex, even this is not the main issue. The main issue is that knives must be able to be cleaned of foodstuffs. The food, the biological medium that bacteria, viruses, and parasites feed on and cling to must be able to be removed from the knife. The best way to aid in this is to have a smooth, easy-to-clean surface.

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General Overview of Food Safe Surfaces and Utensils
Good Manufacturing Processes

There are many standards for food processing and food safety, and nearly all of them pertain to food packing, preparing, and serving industries and businesses. There is no food safety standard or regulation for your home or private kitchen. While regulatory agencies can and should oversee and inspect local restaurants and food-related companies, they can't waltz into your home and dance around your kitchen island with a handful of regulations offering the prized window sticker that certifies your kitchen practices and equipment as sanitary.

Being the intelligent person you are (since you are reading this), wouldn't you want to know and follow the basic, general philosophies of the cleanest possible environment? Of course you would. Because there are so many details, here is a simple, easy way to consider the aspects of your own personal relationship to kitchen knives.

This excerpt is from Food Safety Magazine (yes, there is a Food Safety Magazine) August/September 2005, written by Forensic sanitarian Robert W. Powitz, Ph.D., MPH, RS, CFSP.

Though it's over ten years old, the standards are still the same, and Dr. Powitz sums them up quite nicely:

You've no doubt noticed that Dr. Powitz is writing about a food processing plant. What is the difference between the food plant and your kitchen? Only the size and scope of the operation, that's what. A kitchen is a place where food is processed, just like a plant, and sanitary construction, design and operations apply equally to both. There simply is no reason a regulated manufacturer should be a clean place and your home kitchen and unclean place.

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Food Safe Knife Practice
Practice, not Law

Because there is no absolute restriction or enforced prevention regulating how knives are made for food service use, poorly made, badly finished, corroding knives are frequently used in the home kitchen. No matter how detailed this section, no matter what agency, specialist, or authority makes suggestions for food safety, there will be people who insist that corroding steels, damascus steels, and rough surfaces are exactly what they want in a knife used to prepare food for their family and friends. They probably don't care enough about food safety to even read this page or research the matter in any way.

What is surprising is that many of these types of dirty knives are found in restaurants. You won't find them on the table where you dine, but you will find them in the kitchen, in the sushi bar, in the back places where knives are used. Authorities rarely examine knives for cleanliness; it simply isn't done, because people know so very little about knives, overall.

This is a very serious issue, and the more it's brought to light, the more focus there will be on pathways to pathogens, contamination, transmission, and exposure. This has been lacking in our modern world, and I believe that as soon as one single outbreak of food-borne illness is traced specifically to a knife used to cut contaminated meat and then used to cut lettuce in a restaurant, the free-for-all of anything goes in knifemaking will be over. The knife needs to be examined and considered as a vehicle of transmission of disease. After all, scalpels are highly regulated and considered, and they are nothing but small knives.

I'm not suggesting that chef's knives need to be sterilized before every use, but it would be reasonable to treat them the same as table cutlery: cleanable, with a smooth surface that can be easily cleaned, made of non-corroding material, properly treated and sealed.

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The Knife in the Restaurant
Guidelines, Not Prosecutable Laws

Talk to anybody about this subject and you'll eventually get the comment, "Well I worked in a 5-Michelin Star restaurant and we used nothing but carbon steel knives. The health department was breathing down our backs and they never said a thing about our knives, so this concern is all bogus."

This is a sad reality. most inspectors don't ever check to see what materials knives or any other materials used in the kitchen are made out of. They are more concerned with immediate contamination from rodents, bugs, or lack of heat in hot dishes or cool in cold dishes. They are concerned with temperatures of open food service vessels; they are concerned with lack of sanitizer; they are concerned with the temperature of the rinse bath. They want to know that service workers wash their hands, that their hair is tied up and that they use gloves for direct handling of food.

I know plenty of professional chef's who assure me that inspectors aren't checking every knife blade for corrosion or steel type. After all, most Japanese sushi restaurants are using carbon steel knives, so it's okay, right?

This doesn't change the fact that the guidelines are the guidelines and they exist for a reason. They are, after all, subject to local inspectors and their preferences. These guidelines are not prosecutable laws, they are guidelines, after all; they don't put a person in prison for undercooking chicken, but people can and do get sick and even die from contamination.

What would be the reason for the guidelines? Why wouldn't a restaurant use carbon steel plates, forks and table (steak) knives? Carbon steel is okay for the chef, so why not for the customers? Is it because rust would form and chef's don't let rust form on their knives?

Great! I'm all for maintaining knife blade steel so it doesn't rust! The problem is that inspectors are often unfamiliar with knife blades, most of the public knows little about any fine knife, and even most knifemakers ignore this fact:

High alloy stainless steels are better performers over all carbon steel knife blades. That's better corrosion resistance (stainlessness), better wear resistance, better toughness, and better finish potential. What inspector knows about this? What inspector checks this?

This is not an excuse, this is a problem. It's not going to go away; it's not going to just evaporate because the local inspector doesn't check it out. It's still the argument of a rusting, corroding, knife blade that needs constant use, cleaning, waxing, oiling, and coddling, and for all that, you get a steel that is softer, duller, and rusts frequently and easily. Why?

There are bad stainless steels, like AEB-L and 420, which are low alloy, hypoeutectoid (low carbon) stainless steels that have given stainless steel a bad reputation. Yet, these and other similar steels all fit the requirement of NSF §7.1. These poor low-alloy stainless steels are why some chefs insist on having their carbon steel blades, even though they don't meet food safety requirements. And  no inspector is going to get between an angry knife-wielding chef and his carbon steel knife!

This is why you see many chefs stuck in the 19th century knife business. They've never seen a stainless steel blade they like, and they aren't going to have anybody tell them they are using outdated technology.

However, if you are a consumer, a client, a customer, you have the right to know this information. Take it or leave it.

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Cast Iron, Temporary Exposure, and Ongoing Process
Corrosion Worsens in Time

Another factor that is often claimed to forgive knife material and finish inadequacy for food contact use is the "cast iron ongoing process" stipulation. When cast iron is used in a food contact situation, it is allowed, as long as the exposure to the cast iron is short. In other words, if a cast iron pan is used and it is part of an ongoing process of the food line, it is allowed as long as the food is moved through a cycle with a short or intermittent exposure.

Certainly, you don't want your food to sit in cast iron for any length of time, since any acidic food will start to break down the cast iron and cause corrosion. Cast iron is porous, so it can harbor pathogens, but since most cast iron uses are preceded with heating, the heat kills any latent bacteria. If you wonder about your food being served in a small cast iron skillet at your table, you might want to eat it pretty fast before it corrodes—

Because knives in the kitchen are also claimed to only have temporary exposure to food as part of an ongoing process, many kitchens allow non-stainless steel knives. However, there is a critical distinction about knife blade steels when comparing them to cast iron that is ignored, even by specialists and those trained in food safety!

That critical distinction is CAST IRON IS NOT CARBON STEEL! Please read on...

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Cast Iron is not Carbon Steel!
Carbon Steel is Not Food Safe

Cast iron has much greater corrosion resistance than carbon steel. This is why cast iron gates, and fences, architectural features, and equipment are popular. Cast iron can and does rust, but because of high silicon content and graphite formations in cast iron, the oxidation rate of cast iron is markedly lower. This happens because of the free graphite that combines to form an insoluble layer of graphite decomposition products on the surface, which inhibits further corrosion. This is also why early cast iron piping survived. Many older homes have cast iron drain pipes that are still functional to this day. But that's cast iron.

Carbon steel has no such surface reaction, and instantly and freely corrodes. Carbon steel will scale, flake, and dissolve continually until it's gone. Put a piece of bare cast iron and a piece of carbon steel outside in the weather, and both will show signs of rust, but the cast iron will still be there long after the carbon steel is turned to a pile of orange rust flakes.

What about harboring pathogens? Cast iron cookware is accepted because it's expected to be preheated and heated during use, effectively killing all bacteria. A knife blade is never, ever heated because that would destroy its temper.

So using the cast iron exception is not valid in while referring to knives, and I wonder why this is overlooked. Could it be that knife ignorance is once again in play? Of course it is, because the public and even food sanitation specialists know very little about knives in general.

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What about Mill Scale and Patina?
Not Food Safe

Many makers will claim that mill scale left on the blade will inhibit corrosion. They also like to state that a "patina" on the carbon steel blade helps inhibit corrosion. They are clearly wrong on both counts.

Actual mill scale is created in the rolling process in the manufacture of the steel, as the hot surface reacts with oxygen. The surface is compressed under tremendous pressure; it's dense and slightly corrosion-resistant.

Mill Scale is sometimes left on the flat of a knife blade by some knifemakers and even some manufacturers. They do this because of lack of skill and laziness, or because of a cheap manufacturing process. Most steels are simply rolled out as bar stock and then left in that unground condition. Removing the mill scale and grinding to an exact thickness is called "surface grinding" and can double or triple the cost of those bars. Why do that if surface ground condition is not needed or if specific and strict thickness of the bar is required? These are some of the same factors I mentioned in the topic above, The Unfinished Flat.

Mill scale can inhibit corrosion for a while, but in short time, this effect diminishes markedly and the steel rusts. This is well-documented. Add to that the propensity for the roughened surface to have pits, voids, and microscopic openings where moisture and pathogens can hide and remain, and one wonders why anyone would prefer their food exposed a mill-scale surface. Most metals with mill scale also harbor oils and industrial lubricants used in rolling the steel, protecting it during processing, storage and shipment. If you want to find out how prevalent and substantial this oil and chemical contamination is, then try this: Dampen a paper towel or white cloth with lacquer thinner or brake cleaner, and then briskly rub the surface of mill scale. Be prepared for what you will see—yuk!

Many knifemakers mistakenly claim that heat treating and forging scale is what protects their beaten, blackened surfaces. Instead, the surface is oxidized or even burned, contaminated by oily residue from oil quenching or exposure to oxygen in processing the knife in a forge. A burned, blackened, surface from oxygen exposure during hand-forging is much thinner than even mill scale, and inhibits corrosion even less!

All of this is can be a ploy to misdirect, since any steel that would need a patina, mill scale, bluing or other process to protect the surface is not a stainless steel, and therefore is not a food contact safe material! The fact that any darkening agent appears on a food service blade means its a non-stainless carbon steel, and is not food safe.

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Patina (Oxidation)
Not Food Safe

Knifemakers and manufacturers who use carbon steels for their knife blades realize that they can't leave a bare steel surface on their blades. Whether carbon steels are used completely and uniformly for the blade, or the blades are made of layered pattern-welded damascus, the carbon steel cannot be simply left bare and unprotected. If it is, it will immediately rust in the presence of moisture and oxygen. The moisture in the air alone is enough to start uncontrolled darkening, rusting and pitting. Since this is the case, why would anyone suggest a carbon steel knife blade be used in any application where moisture is a component of the cutting task?

Man has known for millennia that "pre-corroding" steels can create a surface that improves corrosion resistance. Early steels were darkened, oxidized with solutions and chemistry, and this practice eventually led to bluing.

Bluing is the process of exposing the steel to chemistry that causes a reaction of the surface that creates a penetrating layer of darkened, corrosion-resisting steel. Bluing, at its very best, can slow corrosion slightly in carbon steels, but it is not a corrosion preventer. For instance, even the very best blued firearms must be oiled or waxed and protected from exposure to any moisture, since they will readily rust!

A patina is even less protection than bluing. Many metalworkers call patinas in carbon steel "poor man's bluing." The reason I emphasize the word "patina" is that actual patinas on metal surfaces like bronze (the accepted standard of the word) are created with strong surface chemical reactions and heat, creating a completely passive and long-lasting surface that resists corrosion—even in outside exposures—for centuries. These patinas bond fiercely with the metal surface, dramatically changing the entire chemical makeup of the bronze surface. Ask any patineur, and you'll find this is an entire science to itself, and can be quite complicated and detailed.  This is far and away from a knifemaker's poor man's patina which is usually created with acidic or caustic foodstuffs (coffee, mustard, ferric chloride, etc.) slathered on the bare steel to darken it.

This is not corrosion protection. Carbon steel knife blades treated this way will easily corrode, and that is why all knifemakers and manufacturers who offer this type of blade insist that the blades be oiled, waxed, or protected in some additional way. As I referred to on my Chef's Knives page at this bookmark, these blades so quickly and readily rust that makers blame the knife owner, and then peddle kits with sandpaper and oil to maintain their inferior blades!

Even if the very best blotchy, dark, so-called patina is applied to the blade, it inhibits corrosion very little. Beyond that, the cutting edge, which offers bare, exposed metal every time the knife is sharpened or used is never, ever protected from corrosion.

Clearly, mill scale or fake mill scale (burned oil residue and forging oxides), patinas, and darkened oxidized surfaces of carbon steel are not corrosion preventers in any way and may actually harbor bacteria and harmful pathogens due to their roughened surface and unhygienic nature. Why would anyone expose themselves and their family to this?

Again, the fact that any surface treatment of a steel surface to darken it or inhibit corrosion means that it's not a stainless steel and is not food-safe! The only exception would be true stainless steels that are in the list below that have been hardened and tempered, and are blackened for appearance only. In my own work, I only offer this on tactical combat knives, and never on kitchen knives since they need to be clean and as smooth as possible. No stainless requires any patina or scale or any coating to resist corrosion. Stainless steels don't need to be painted, coated, coddled, waxed, oiled, or preserved in any way; only non-food contact safe steels need this.

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Stainless Steels, Iron, Copper, Bronze, and Brass
Requirements and Limitations

Here's a clear, simple guide for Food Safe Contact Surfaces from Food Safety and Sanitation, Penn State Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences:

Let's look at some more detail about these materials from the guide:

Clearly, stainless steel is the preferred material. I suppose that according to this resource, using a carbon steel knife to chop dry nuts or grains is fine—but no moisture! This means that your $20,000.00 damascus decor carbon steel knife has really one safe use, and that's chopping nuts. I only included this because I've never heard of anyone chopping grain, but you never know! In any case, that's one expensive nut and grain chopper that should never be used to cut any meats or vegetables!

I included the copper, bronze, and brass section because many knifemakers use these in fittings. I've done a few times only by request from clients, but I'll probably never do it again.

I could go on and on and on, but I think you're probably getting this by now.

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Fittings and Seams
Sealants Required

I think it's important to include this subject, since all guidelines suggest that no crevices, joints, or seams should be left open. This is easily handled (sorry for the pun) with food-safe adhesives, sealants, and closures in knives. For instance, I currently use a food-safe sealant in all the bolster to blade junctions, and food-safe solder in all hidden tang guards, split guards, and appropriate joints. The handles are sealed with food-safe materials, and joints of metals inside of the handle are welded in stainless steel.

I won't go into the details of the sealants used; there are a whole host of them available in many types of application. Look up "Locktite® Food Safe Adhesives" in your search engine for some examples. What's important is that joints are sealed, permanently, with food-safe products. Ask every knifemaker selling knives for food service and kitchen use what food-safe sealant he uses for his kitchen knives.

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Types of Stainless Steels, Chromium Content, and Regulations

Would it surprise you to know that not all stainless steels meet food safety requirements?

Would you be surprised to know that there is a fixed, certain percentage of chromium in stainless steels that are allowed?

Do you know that in order to be classified as food-safe, certain stainless steels must be hardened and tempered or post-weld treated?

Would you wonder if that appropriate heat treatment was absolutely required to be cryogenic?

Would you be shocked to know that most knives by individual knifemakers made and sold for kitchen use do not meet this minimum requirement? Let's get into the gritty truth here; this is information you need to know!

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The Stainless Steel Standard
NSF §7.1

Further sections go on to detail aluminum alloys, copper alloys, etc. Let's dive into these various types of steel so you have a clear understanding of their applications and limitations:

AISI 200 Series Stainless Steels
Limited Use

Stainless steels in the series of 200 are low nickel, high chromium grades of stainless steels that have seen increased use in the last several decades. These are austenitic stainless steels, and are non-magnetic and are easily mistaken for 304 stainless steel because of their lack of magnetability. This is a problem because they are not as corrosion-resistant as 304 stainless steel. 200 series stainless steels are attractive because they are markedly cheaper than 300 or 400 series stainless steels. They are not a highly desirable stainless steel in food service for these reasons. Foreign suppliers of kitchen equipment have been noted as mixing 200 and 300 series stainless steels, and substituting the wrong steel for food service applications. There has been a big problem with this in the last several years, particularly in the Asian steel markets.

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AISI Grade 304 Stainless Steel
The Standard

Grade 304 Stainless Steel is the most commonly-used stainless steel alloy in use in a wide variety of industries. As a material, 304 stainless is highly useful because it can resist corrosion caused by a wide variety of chemicals. 304 may be electropolished to a smooth, shiny, easy-to-clean surface. However, some corrosives and excessive exposure to chemical salts can still degrade 304 stainless steel. None of these corrosives are found in food. Most silverware (cutlery: spoons, forks, butter knives, etc.) is 304 stainless steel.

304 stainless steel is an austenitic stainless steel containing 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel. The nickel is tied up and bound in the structure, it is not liberated as in nickel-silver and nickel plating. Also, stainless steels create a passive oxide that protects the surface from degradation. Therefore, 304 is safe even for people with nickel allergies. 304 stainless steel is not hardenable to any extent useful for a knife blade, but it excels in fittings, bolsters, guards and components on a kitchen or chef's knife. More about 304 stainless steel on my Handles, Bolsters, Guards, and Fittings at this bookmark. At the bookmark, you'll read why most knifemakers and manufacturers are hesitant to use 304 stainless steel and it's always because of the difficulty of working with and finishing this very tough steel. Again, cheap and easy rears its ugly head.

316 austenitic stainless steel is another big player, and is slightly more corrosion-resistant than 304, but this is not typically necessary in food service use. 316 is more often used in acid and caustic exposures, such as piping, pumps, and equipment for highly corrosive environments.

In food service, 304 is king and a zero-care, 100% lasting material that is food contact food service rated, and will last indefinitely. It's resistant to all surface contamination, as long as it's smooth and contains no voids, pockets, or roughness.

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AISI 400 Series Stainless Steels
Not All Are Food Contact Safe!

Carefully read the standard. The important number here is that all food equipment materials standard is 16% chromium. This is critical for a variety of reasons. Let's look at bolsters and then blades:

Bolsters, Guards, and Fittings:
304 Stainless Steel and Little Else

• No steel containing less than 16% chromium is food contact safe, unless used in cutlery, and then only after hardening and tempering.
• Bolsters, fittings, and accessories are never hardened and tempered in knives, so steels that have less than 16% chromium can not be Food Contact Safe.
• 410 stainless steel, the darling of the novice handmade knife crowd, is NOT Food Contact Safe! It only contains only 11.5% chromium, barely the minimum to be classified as a stainless steel, and this does not meet the AISI standard! It would if it were properly hardened and tempered, but this is never, ever done in knifemaking! NEVER.
• 416 stainless steel, another darling of the novice handmade knife crowd, is NOT Food Contact Safe! It only contains up to 14% chromium, and this does not meet the AISI standard! It would if it were properly hardened and tempered, but this is never, ever done in knifemaking! NEVER.

To learn more details about the inadequacy of 400 series stainless steels in use in any knife fittings, please read this section on my Bolsters and Fittings page.

This should make you think a bit. Knifemakers are commonly using 410 and 416 on bolsters, guards, and fittings, just as they are using carbon steels, and none of these are food contact safe. OF course, many are still using nickel silver and brass, which are also not food contact safe. This includes mounting fasteners such as Corby bolts, machine screws, and composite pins, which are often copper, brass, and other metals. None of these fasteners are food contact safe! NONE! Copper can actually produce toxic oxides!

It might surprise you now when you see media-hyped knives by big-name makers of chef's knives, still using brass and nickel silver bolsters guards and fittings, along with mosaic pins of copper, brass, and aluminum. These guys are clearly making inferior food-unsafe knives, but since they are pattern-welded damascus, and since the media fawns over patterns in steel, they ask incredibly exorbitant prices for their inferior, food-unsafe knives. And they laugh, and sell sandpaper and WD-40 so you can scrub up the stinky corrosion that you will see on every one of their blades. More about this.

Precipitation Hardening Steels
Not Listed in the Standard!

The NSF § 7.1 Stainless steel standard does not specifically identify precipitation hardening steels, but it's easy enough to determine their food contact safety. Since the best and only one of these steels commonly used in kitchen knives is 17-4PH, let's reveal a bit about this steel. This is a very poor steel for any knife, yet is used in a lot of cheap, imported factory kitchen and chef's knives. It's inexpensive to acquire, economical to stamp out and grind, and the heat treating consists of just baking it in an oven for a few hours. The downside is (according to the foundries that make it) that it can only be hardened to about 45C on the Rockwell scale, which is extremely soft. This steel shouldn't be used on any knife, it will simply wear away and dull. It's even a poorer performer than 420 stainless and AEB-L, the stainless steels that give stainless a bad name. Because it has a high chromium content, it is classified as Food Contact Safe, but who would want such a lousy, poor performing knife? More about 17-4PH on the Blades page.

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Blades:
Not All Stainless is the Same

SAFE: Only stainless steel blades are Food Contact Safe, and some of them are even safe when unhardened and tempered! This is because they have over 16% chromium. Some of the players in this category are 440C, CTS-XHP, CTS-40CP, M390, 20CV, CTS204P, N690, Vanax and some others. This is actually a very small category in knife blade steels. However, these steels are food contact safe even if left unhardened and untempered, hopefully something that is never done in knife blades! The reason I cite this is because these steels could be used in fittings, without hardening and tempering. I'll also add that this is rarely ever done, because all of these steels are difficult to machine and finish and make fittings with.

SAFE, CONDITIONAL: All stainless steels used commonly in knife blades WHEN PROPERLY HARDENED AND TEMPERED are safe. This means that lower chromium steels like D2, which classifies as a stainless steel, is food contact safe "when hardened and tempered by an appropriate post-weld heat treating process." This is where the corrosion potential gets in the weeds. Most of the more common stainless steels used for knife blades have about 14% chromium. 14% chromium content is seen over and over again in these steels, an almost universal amount, since so many steels have about this percentage of chromium. They are 420SS, ATS-34, 154CM, CPM154CM, S30V, S90V, AEB-L, 13C26, 14C28N, S35VN, and others. They are true stainless steels, but must be properly processed.

What does properly hardened and tempered mean? Does it mean conventional heat treating that will leave up to 30% retained austenite? Does it mean dry ice bath quenching that is not truly cryogenic? Does it mean actual shallow cryogenic processing, or deep cryogenic processing? The standard doesn't detail this, so it's up to the consumer and knife user to understand the skills and expertise of the knifemaker or knife manufacturer, if they are using these steels.

In other words, the steels in the "SAFE" list above with 16% chromium and more can be heat treated in conventional methods, or not even heat treated at all, and they will qualify as Food Contact Safe by AISI. However, all the other stainless steels in the "SAFE, CONDITIONAL" list must be properly hardened and tempered. Since each method of hardening and tempering differs greatly for each steel, AISI doesn't specify strict standards. Why would they bother when so many consumers, restaurants, kitchens, and chefs don't even know that they are using unsafe, non-stainless carbon steel blades?

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The Special Case of Cobalt
Carcinogenic!

There is a unique numerical identifier used to classify every chemical substance known in open scientific literature. This is called the CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) number or the CASRN (Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number). NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health lists all appropriate chemicals by this number and describes their role in safety in the workplace. The number 7440-48-4 belongs to cobalt.

While it is very unpleasant to taste carbon steel and non-stainless alloys in your food (experience the Carbon Steel Taste Test on my Chef's Knives page), it's not dangerous for the most part. For most chemicals related to knives there is no known danger of exposure.

However, if you sharpen a knife, you are grinding the steel with an abrasive. Even a slightly abrasive chef's "steel" (a rod used to sharpen and condition chef's knives before using) will leave a residue of the blade steel and the abrasive (silicon carbide, ceramic, aluminum oxide, other steels, etc.) behind. This residue is called swarf. How many chefs have you seen whip a knife blade on a rod, then go right to cutting your brisket? How many wipe the swarf onto a grimy rag that hangs over their shoulder or around their belt before cutting your salmon? How many actually go to a sink and wash the knife with soap and water before returning to the block or cutting board?

The concern is the occupational exposure to the alloy contents contained in swarf. If you sharpen a knife, and particularly if you sharpen them a lot, you are exposed—by your occupation—to these chemicals. Use a steel knife, sharpen it and breathe in the dust, or eat the dust with the food prepared with the knife and your exposure is fairly low. It's not particularly a nice thing to think of steel: iron, carbon, chromium, molybdenum, vanadium, silicon, etc. entering your lungs and digestive tract, but it's probably not going to cause you physical harm.

Enter Cobalt. Cobalt is used in high speed steels (HSS) for a variety of metallurgical reasons, many of them beneficial for cutting tools that are working at machine-speeds. I won't go into the metallurgy of why cobalt is used, but some knifemakers and some knife companies use steels that contain cobalt. I believe this is a problem, and here's why:

This is the direct quote from NIOSH. The text goes on to detail resources on how to limit and control the exposure to cobalt. Read carefully the parts I've highlighted in red. This should give you cause for concern.

Anybody who sharpens a knife that has cobalt in the blade steel is exposed to a suspected carcinogen. Anybody who is eating food that has been contaminated with the dust and swarf of sharpening the same blade is exposed to a suspected carcinogen. While the level may be very low, there is, nonetheless, exposure.

I'm sure that some people reading this know that cobalt is a necessary element for the human body and is found in leafy greens and vitamin B12, but this is cobalt that is bonded to other elements, compounds that contain critically small amounts. This is far and away from breathing in or eating cobalt-containing dust as a residue of knife grinding or sharpening— thus the serious statement by NIOSH above. The argument of levels and amount of cobalt exposure is also why International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that cobalt is probably carcinogenic to humans.

Maybe you're not worried about cancer. Cigarettes are also probable carcinogens, and, after all, they are legal. Evidently, there is no prohibition on using cobalt-bearing steels for food service use just as there is no prohibition on carbon steel blades that leach, corrode, or dissolve, just as there is no prohibition on cigarettes.

What is critically important here is that there simply is no reason to make and use a cobalt-containing knife blade steel. There are so many excellent knife blade steels in the world today that don't contain cobalt; why would a knifemaker or manufacturer allow or encourage the use of a steel that contains any probable carcinogen? Why do this? Why do it to the knife client, owner, user, or his family? What about all those he prepares food for and serves? Why endanger them in this fashion?

This is why I've never used and will never use a cobalt-containing steel for a knife blade. There simply is no reason to bring this dangerous element into my environment where I grind and machine knives, and there is no reason to bring it into my client's environment, either.

If you put "VG-10 Kitchen Knives" into any search engine, you'll find many, many Japanese knife suppliers making knives from this very high cobalt steel. You'll read about how great it is, what a premium material it is, how fine overall. You'll also notice that most of these knives sell to the low-to-middle market, many less than $300.00, which isn't the market for particularly fine knives, knives that actually would be made of premium steels.

One man's premium steel is another man's carcinogenic threat. Is there some issue here that should be looked at by our federal health and safety authorities regarding imports and use from foreign markets?

Some people may claim that this concern about cobalt has nothing to do with knives, knifemaking, or the knife-using public. This is untrue. Even professional and semi-professional sharpening organizations are concerned, and rightly so!

Some claim that the only cobalt that may cause cancer is the radioactive version. This is incorrect.

I'll take the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the American Cancer Society's recommendations and eliminate my exposure to cobalt. I suggest you do too! If you disagree, I suggest you contact these agencies and insist they re-write the CAS and reports on cobalt. Good luck.

I've listed the cobalt-containing steels that are often used in making knives in the table below citing Safe or Unsafe. To me cobalt = unsafe.

"Jay Fisher says VG-10 will kill you!"

Special Note on VG-10 and Bohler K390: One of the most highly touted and recommended knife blade steels pushed by Asian knife cutlery firms is VG-10. This steel contains high amounts of cobalt. K390 contains even more cobalt. There is a distinct lack of regulation in cobalt-containing alloys, and you might wonder why this is so. You are not alone in noticing this danger posed by grinding and sharpening these knives and being exposed to the swarf. It's up to you whether you allow this substance in your environment.

If you research this topic enough, you're bound to come across this statement ("Jay Fisher says VG-10 will kill you.") by some idiot on the internet. This is typical of the uneducated—jump to a ridiculous overblown statement to try to paint someone (me) as over-hyping. When you read a statement like this, you're supposed to fall in line, roll your eyes, realize that Jay Fisher doesn't know what he's talking (or writing about) and disregard any input by Jay Fisher.

This is a foolish tactic to try to get you to ignore the truth. No facts needed here, no input from any "NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety)", no "American Cancer Society," no "Sharpener's Report," no "Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry" needed. All of THOSE organizations are just made up, according to the anonymous poster of the comment; they don't matter.

Notice this: these anonymous idiots posting on forums don't attack NIOSH, ACS, SR, or ATSDR official entities. They don't say a word about these official agencies of health and safety making the recommendations. Instead, they attack Jay Fisher for bringing it up. This is because they know they don't stand a chance of convincing the officials of their point, and they can't argue that these health and safety professionals know what they are talking about, they wouldn't dare. They wouldn't dare writing to their congressman, writing to the organizations themselves, openly attacking them on their anonymous forums. Instead, they would rather attack a professional, career knifemaker who simply republished the information from those entities.

Yeah, that will work. And when interested people read this very section, they can make their own decision about the matter.

This is the major problem with the dark side of the internet. Anonymous fools are given a voice, and Google gives them preference, spreading misinformation, fake news, and lies. They attack with schoolchild mentalities, knowing NOTHING of what they post, and other idiots glom on, spreading more ignorance. Sad, truly sad.

Here's my clear statement: Why use any steel that contains a known carcinogen, knowing a client will, sooner or later, sharpen a blade, and be exposed to the carcinogen? Why do this when there are so much better steels on the market that don't contain carcinogens? Why saddle a knife owner, client, or family with this?

Obviously, if you choose a cobalt bearing steel for your knife blade, you are either ignorant or you simply don't care.

Ignorance is treatable, by reading, studying, and learning. This is how we know, by the way, that cigarettes and smoking can cause incurable cancers. Yet smoking continues. Either a person is ignorant of the cancer link, or they simply don't care about it.

Not caring about a client, not caring about a knife owner or user is a choice. It says a great deal about someone when they say, "Cobalt doesn't matter; all those agencies are just lying."

They are, in effect, saying this: "I don't care about knife users; I don't care about cancer, I don't care about scientific studies and health and safety. I only care about my cheap knife blade made of cobalt-bearing steel."

Well, I do care, I care enough to write this section and educate others on what I've learned. If you still don't believe it, any of it, I suggest this:

1. Don't get your information from a forum, any forum. Forums are full of anonymous fools who don't have a clue what they are writing about. While there are a few intelligent and informed sources posting of forums, they are rare, and you'll have to filter through a lot of drivel to find them.
2. Do your own research. Do some investigating at the websites of professional entities, like the organizations I listed on this page. They are easy to find, and they absolutely do know what they are claiming and revealing.
3. Stay away from open-sourced sites altogether. These are well-known for lies, misinformation, and misleading claims. Wikipedia is the worst, even though there may be some useful information there, it's not worth the effort to identify it.
4. Buy a book; read a scientific peer-reviewed study; take a course online from a reputable university. Find out where the information comes from. To be clear, I've done that on this very page at great effort, and this is why it's so heavily researched, referenced, and despised by the ignorant.
5. Learn, rather than be entertained by gibberish, ignorance, and conflict. Rise above the fools and fakers, they are the only ones insisting on their opinions as fact. I, on the other hand, insist that you do your own research through official entities. That alone tells you a lot about the issue, doesn't it?

It's easy to find endless discussions, particularly about VG-10, and the concern about exposure to cobalt. The uneducated flock to forums; they are not experts, they do not read scientific studies, they do not believe the CDC, the American Cancer Society, or any of the numerous organizations that warn against cobalt exposure.

"Show me the reports," they say, yet they are unable to find the very references that the rest of us can easily locate through the organizations that are listed on this page. The reports are numerous; the medical professionals and scientists don't just make this stuff up, but in order to benefit from the information, you have to read.

Ridiculous idiots claim that you would have to grind up and eat knife after knife in order to be exposed to enough cobalt to cause cancer. They know this because they are toxicologists (ahem), and know that metal exposure recommendations are a conspiracy by nut jobs (uh-huh). I guess all the nut jobs work for the CDC and the American Cancer Society... right?

They sometimes go on to compare cobalt to chromium, vanadium, and other alloy elements, saying that they are just as dangerous. This is typical ignorance on forums. All of these elements have been extensively studied, and cobalt has been found to cause cancers, while the others have not. This is the reason I state over and over, "Don't get your information on a forum of any kind!"

Experts, professionals, and scientists don't post there; open forums are mainly occupied by the uneducated and unknowledgeable anonymous masses, hobbyists, and part-time knifemakers and enthusiasts who know very little about knives overall. If you believe them, then you'll believe that the best steels are hammered together in an open fire, just like it was done in 1875. You'll believe that the entire modern metals and machining industry does not know anything, and that some oaf with a hammer can make an improved axle, planer blade, or turbine part. After all, you saw it on the History Channel®...

The funny thing about this is no one ever asks these anonymous forum posters where they get their information, or what level of participation, in knifemaking, in metalwork, in being a medical professional on the subject of which they write or speak.

Nobody ever ventures to ask, "How do you know what you claim?"

No one asks, "What is the source of your education, your experience, and your knowledge on the matter?"

Nope, not even a hint of doubt; it's as if an anonymous poster on a forum is automatically excused from citing sources, information, or references about their claims.

I, on the other hand, have been very clear where the information comes from, and what organizations and entities make these claims. Yet, my reference of these facts is somehow suspect...

If you are reading this, you deserve to know the truth. Or maybe the thousands of professionals at the CDC, IARC, NCS, NIOSH, and in the medical and scientific research community are all wearing tin foil hats... sigh. Welcome to the internet, where the idiots get the same voice as the intelligent, damn the truth!

Now to top it all off: VG-10 and Bohler K390 are not particularly great steels for knives. They are relatively cheap steels used on cheap knives. K390 isn't even stainless steel, and that alone precludes it from being a food contact safe blade material. Yes, it will rust and corrode at the first opportunity.

VG-10 is not a particularly high-performing knife steel, this is why it is seen in so many production and manufactured knives, and knife blade blanks sold by knife supply companies. Read more about VG-10 on the "Blades" page at this bookmark.

There are so much better blade steels available; why saddle a client with a tainted steel?

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What about Handles?
Stiff, Solid, and Sealed

The types of knife handles that are food contact safe are wide ranging, but some common sense here is necessary. Clearly, handles that are porous are not food contact safe! The handle must be stiff, with no movement, as movement creates and worsens gaps.

This, unfortunately, means most unsealed woods, so I'll specify that all woods must be sealed with food contact-safe sealants. Again, as in the fittings, voids, crevices, and gaps section detailed above, woods and porous surfaces must be closed so that pathogens cannot hide. There are numerous ways to do this, but the first thing to do is to start with surfaces that are fairly impermeable to begin with.

Harder woods work well, but only if sealed. Woods like bamboo are too flexible and soft to seal, any sealant will be quickly broken down as they expand and contract dramatically with changes in moisture. The only exception would be if these softer woods (bamboo is actually grass) are pressure-stabilized with high strength polymers or phenolic resins by professional stabilization methods under extremely high pressure.

The same goes for horn, bone, or antler, which must be pressure-stabilized by professional methods in order to stiffen the material, resist moisture and exposure, and prevent the harboring of pathogens.

Metals are good, but often uncomfortable and unappealing. If metals have rubber, soft, or cushy inserts to aid in grip, these are often un-sealable, since there will always be a gap where the softer material meets the metal. This is because of movement, which is seldom considered. The rubber will move, but the metal won't, and a gap between them will work and open and close and be impossible to seal. Ultimately, it will harbor pathogens and be impossible to clean!

Most plastics and manmade materials are impermeable, and since they are cheap and easy to construct and assemble, they are the dominant handle material.

Gemstones are impermeable, and all surface voids can be and should be sealed with food-safe sealants. Gemstone has the added advantage of being extremely hard and stiff, and there will be no movement that would loosen any surface treatments or sealants. I consider gemstone the premium material, since it will outlast the blade! Of course, I'm biased for gemstone, but that's me...and the very first knives made for food processing before Homo sapiens even existed were stone!

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What about Cutting Performance?
Better Steels Make Better Knives

Many knifemakers and a lot of manufacturers claim that the reason to choose carbon steels over stainless steels is because of "performance." This is probably the largest lie in our field and it goes on and on with persistence. All hypereutectoid (high carbon) stainless steel alloy blades outperform carbon steel blades in every conceivable way but one, economy. These modern steels are more wear-resistant, tougher, stronger, more corrosion-resistant, longer lasting, and they hold a cutting edge many, many times longer than carbon steels. They are also capable of having extremely high finishes, creating surfaces with lower asperity and lower surface roughness that are smooth and hygienic, and easy to keep clean. They will easily outlast all carbon steel blades, all damascus pattern-welded (decor) blades. They will outlast all blades made of steels that are called by their color of wrapper that are claimed to be "high purity" by Japanese knife manufacturers and makers. They are true tool and die steels, not plain carbon steels or low alloy steels and there are many reasons they are the premier tool steels of our time.

Yet, year after year, knifemakers repeat the same tired and false reasons they think carbon steels are better, suggesting grain bonding, carbon distribution, grain size, lack of toughness, and other made-up garbage that keeps people convinced that knifemakers are all hammer-wielding oafs stuck in the 19th century. Or, they try to claim special knowledge about steel microstructure that somehow escapes all the machine tool trades, scientists, and scholars—this while shoving a bar of steel in an open fire and beating it with a hammer until it deforms.

Machinists, engineers, and metallurgists all know of the distinctive and proven wide-ranging advantages of modern high alloy stainless steels, and that is why they are used in the most demanding of applications that far surpass anything a hand knife will ever encounter. Of course, they also realize that these steels require intensive knowledge of heat treating and cryogenic processing to bring out their supreme characteristics, and that's hard to tell a knifemaker who is sticking a bar of steel into an open forge and forcing together different steels tacked together with a wire-feed welder. Look, it's okay to make hand-forged knives and use carbon steels, just as long as you don't lie and imbue them with some performance they simply don't have.

There is no valid argument for the use of carbon steels and low alloy steels apart from economy and decor. Yet knifemakers and some manufacturers are asking a premium price for these antiquated steels that are unsuitable for any food preparation environment. More about damascus steels.

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The Sharp Knife
The Recent History of Dullness

Julia Child was one of the most popular chefs in our televised, media-driven recent history. When she started, there were no good stainless steel chefs or kitchen knives. The knives she was forced to use were carbon steel knives, because of the lack of high carbon, high chromium stainless tool steels available in knives at that time. It was, after all, the 1950s, and knife interests had just discovered that the lack of sub-zero quenching would leave extremely large amounts of retained austenite in knife blades made of the stainless steels available at the time. Retained austenite creates many issues with stability, microstructure, and the ability of a knife to hold a durable and long-lasting edge. See more here.

Because kitchen knives were at the bottom of the totem pole in price, materials, construction, and quality, and because they were simply mass-manufactured and marketed to the common kitchen cook and chef, there really weren't any high quality knives being made in any material. Consequently, in the 1950s through the mid-1980s, chef's knives and kitchen knives in stainless steel, particularly, were very poor.

Child was forced to use carbon steel, since stainless was so bad at the time. Carbon steel blades were easy to sharpen, since they aren't extremely wear-resistant, and they were the dominant blade for the higher-end kitchens of the time. It would be quite a few years after this era for knives to catch up, and, simply put, most factory or commonly made knives are still inferior.

Even today, most companies and most knifemakers don't opt for truly premium stainless high alloy hypereutectoid stainless steels, they are just too expensive to mass-produce kitchen knives with. They are using low alloy stainless steels, so stainless still has a bad reputation. Additionally, high carbon, high alloy stainless steels require complex and lengthy deep cryogenic heat treating to reach their zenith of performance, and this is clearly out of the range of interest, expense, and complexity for most knifemaking pursuits. Cheap, low alloy stainless steels then continue to dominate the mass-production knife industry, no matter what you may read about their superiority. Knives that are claimed to be "top end" are actually low performers when you consider them from the standpoint of a machinist, or premium custom knife maker's perspective.

The sad fact is that most people, and most fine chefs have never even seen a genuinely fine knife. I hope this changes in the future; for the very best steel, treatment, and very best knives ever to exist in man's history are being created right now!

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Why are so many stuck in the past with carbon steels?
It's about the Sharpening

This one is actually incredibly easy, and when you read this, you'll see why so many knifemakers and knife users are stuck with carbon steels. It's all because of the sharpening.

Because high alloy stainless steels are so very wear resistant, tenacious, and refractory, they are extremely difficult to sharpen when using traditional sharpening tools. These historic methods of sharpening are simply antiquated, and yet they persist to this day. What are the outdated players?

• Hardened steel ridged rods for chefs (called a "Chef's Steel", or just a "Steel")
• Ceramic abrasive rods
• Silicon carbide sharpening stones (the gray ones)
• India oilstones (the brown-red ones)
• Aluminum oxide sharpening stones
• Novaculite chert stones (Arkansas stones)
• Japanese water stones
• Ceramic stones

All of these are old-technology! What? You might wonder about this because, after all, there were no ceramic rods prior to 1983 so that's new tech, right?

No, and none of this matters. High alloy hypereutectoid stainless steels, when properly hardened and tempered are extremely difficult to abrade on all of these antiquated stones and rods, thus they are often claimed to be unsharpenable! I've seen this over and over again in my career. People (chefs included) are stuck with their sharpening methods and tools and expect all steels—even the newer, better high alloy stainless steels—to respond to their old sharpeners. The intense carbide structure developed in these steels stubbornly refused to budge and grind away, and they can't get a good, fast, easy edge on these modern steels. So they gripe and moan about how stainless steels can't be sharpened!

The answer is simple and clear, and it's to use diamond hones and stones. Diamond-plated hones and sharpening tools are cheaper than ever, and there is absolutely nothing they won't hone up! No steel, not even carbide, not even ceramic metal can withstand a diamond abrasive, and you can hone up an astoundingly sharp edge with diamond on even the most advanced modern high alloy steel. Additionally, the edge will last and last and last because these modern steels are so wear-resistant!

Just know this: you can shape, flatten, and grind any of the traditional sharpening stones listed above with a diamond sharpening stone. It cuts the sharpening stones that will only cut older, antiquated steels. Diamond is then the the sharpening stone for the sharpening stone!

Another great advantage is cleaning. Diamond sharpening stones are solid stones, with a plating of diamond on top of steel, plastic, or other impermeable material. They don't clog, they don't have crevices or pores that will hide dirt, swarf, oil, moisture, or pathogens. They clean easily with soap an water and most of them can actually be put in a dishwasher. Just don't let them contact anything else, though. Because they are so incredibly abrasive, they will scratch anything they touch, which is how it should be.

Diamonds are fantastic, yet guys just can't give up their old dirty rocks and rods and glazed-over pads to move on with the rest of us... so they make up and perpetuate the myth about how stainless can't be sharpened.

This is the reason so many are stuck with carbon steels. They are less wear-resistant, they dull often, and all you need is any old rock to sharpen them (a floor tile will do well), and you can get a really sharp edge on them quickly. Then, of course, they dull right away, so you grab your steel rod and do the flourishy-wipey, wand-dragging thing, and everybody just knows your a real chef... or a magician. Harry Potty would be proud.

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Who is Responsible?
The Knife Maker

To my knowledge, there is no official entity currently forcing regulations on knifemakers who make and sell knives for food service use. However, I believe this will change in the future, sooner rather than later. There are many indicators in the field that this will happen, and it's about time.

If you want to know where all of this is going, please put the term—"U. S. Food and Drug Administration— Determining the Regulatory Status of Components of a Food Contact Material"—into your favorite search engine, and read about the requirements and procedures and the related statutes.

What is clear is that it's the responsibility of the manufacturer, just as it is in all products related to food. For the consumer, the knife user, owner, and chef, there are three things he has a right to know:

1. The identity of the substance
2. Specifications of the substance (physical properties)
3. Limitations or conditions of use

What does this mean for hand knives made and sold for the kitchen?

1. The identity of the substance is easy enough; it's what the knife is made of. That's the blade, fittings, and handle, since these are exposed to food contact. While this seems simple, many people and companies selling knives are hesitant to give this information. Merely claiming, "stainless steel," or using the worn out fake name, "surgical stainless" is not enough. Neither is using a Japanese paper wrapper term (Blue Steel, White Steel, etc.).The consumer/user/owner has the right to know exactly what substance is in contact with his food and the food he prepares for others.
2. Specifications of the substance (physical properties) are often never detailed in knife sales of kitchen and chef's knives. The consumer/user/owner has a right to know how their steel is treated, what condition it's in, how it's finished, sealed, and treated. They deserve to know what conditions may limit its use—like a rough surface harboring bacteria (ahem), or a carbon steel cutting edge that will dissolve continually into food. Because of the minimum 16% chromium limitation on approved Food Contact Surface in stainless steels, the owner of the knife must know how his steel was heat treated and tempered to know the physical properties! That way, they know if it does or does not meet FCS standards.
3. The knifemaker or manufacturer should detail the limitations or conditions of use, and this is a very big deal. After reading this page, you now know why carbon steel knives can only be used in dry foodstuff preparations—nuts and grains—and how they do not meet the conditions for vegetables, meats, or any other moist or acidic exposure. Do knifemakers offer conditional use information for their limited blades? Do they tell you not to use them on lemons, how to properly sharpen them, how to clean them, maintain them, and when not to use them?
   I do, and the actual limitations of the steels I use are very few, if any. Most knifemakers do not specify limitations and conditions, and makers of carbon steel knives will reject this, since their knives are not FCS approved, anyway.

The FDA puts all of this on the manufacturer, or the maker of the knife. The days of using antiquated technology, hiding inferior knife characteristics, neglecting to inform the customer, and blaming the customer for rusty, corroding, and FCS unsafe knives is over. As knifemakers, we bear the responsibility and the burden of detailing these conditions to our clients.

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Cleaning Kitchen and Chef's Knives
The Brush, Detergent, and Hot Water is Your Friend

Not every stainless steel knife is easy to clean. Since nearly every advanced knife made isn't meant for automated dishwashing, this means that hand-washing of knives must be performed. How a knife is washed means how much foodstuff may be left for bacteria and parasites to feed on and contaminate.

How are knives as utensils properly washed? The best source for this information comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The FSIS guidelines exist in the Sanitation Performance Standards Compliance Guide. This document sets forth standards for the entire food industry and recommends procedures and conditions for compliance. Compliance to these standards will produce reasonable certainty that food is processed safely. This is why these standards are referenced, adopted, and used by restaurants, food handling industries, and regulatory agencies that protect the public.

Just as mentioned before, these compliance standards are not rigid, fixed rules, requirements, or laws. Any person can choose to handle food and utensils (knives) in any fashion he chooses. However, these standards are proven guidelines to healthy, safe practices we all should know and use to the best of our ability.

How are restaurants required to clean and sanitize their utensils? How does this differ from cleaning and sanitizing in the home kitchen? There are some serious differences, and because of those differences, the home chef needs to take special care in cleaning his knives!

Let's look at the serious differences between the two environments and how this relates to actually washing a knife in the home kitchen or the restaurant kitchen.

• Remove visible soil: This is the same for both, apart from the three-compartment sink. You're unlikely to have a three-compartment sink at home, but you still need to rinse, scrape, and soak your knife to help loosen soil.
• Wash: This is the same, whether at a professional restaurant setting or at home. Washing happens with water at at least 110°F (43°C), which is well within the heat range for most home water heaters in the US. Most water heaters recommend a setting of about 120°F (49°C), which is too hot to hold your hand in for several seconds, but won't scald. Home water heaters can be set as high as 145°F-150°F (63°C-66°C), which absolutely will scald your hand if you hold it for more than one second. For safety, 120°F (49°C) is a common setting. If dishwashing water is allowed to cool below 110°F, it is not within the recommended range. By the way, 110°F is completely tolerable for most people's hands, so this is typically not a big deal. In washing knives, I always recommend a brush, rather than a sponge, rag, or cloth. This is because you're unlikely to cut yourself with a brush, since your fingers are kept away from the cutting edge, and the brush can reach into corners (bolster-to-blade corner) and into filework (relatively large cuts in the surface of the spine). A rag, cloth, or sponge can be easily sliced through, right to the fingers. Ouch!
• Rinse: This is also the same in both circumstances. At home, this is usually done in the second sink, but not always; the detergent is rinsed away with hot water from the tap.
• Sanitize: You'll notice that this cell in the table is left blank in the home kitchen setting. This is because this is almost never done; most home kitchen settings do not have the facility to provide sanitizing. In the restaurant or professional food-handling environment, a sanitizer is typically held in the third sink. Very few home kitchens even have a third sink, much less one that could be dedicated to holding sanitizer. The sanitizers are either chemical (using chlorine, iodine, or quaternary ammonium), and/or extremely hot water. The temperature of hot water for sanitizing is at least 170°F (77°C), and it has to be held there for at least 30 seconds. This is far beyond the capability of home water heaters; it is very, very hot. Also, your bare hand contacting 170°F (77°C) water for only one-fourth of a second will quickly cause a serious burn. Because of these limitations, home kitchen sanitizing is usually not done.
• Dry: The same for both. Never wipe fine knife blades dry; they can cut through any cloth and reach your fingers (ouch!). It's not a good idea to place fine knives in any dish drying rack, since the edges can cut through the coating of a dish rack, and dull on the metal underneath. It's best to dry the knives after rinsing with hot tap water and laying them on a microfiber dish drying pad, letting them air dry before storing.

Sanitizing
Not Typical at Home

You've probably noticed that the only significant difference in washing chef's knives in the home versus the professional setting is the sanitizing. You are not likely to have the equipment and procedures to clean and sanitize your knives like a restaurant or food processing facility would. This is why it's extremely important to clean the knife thoroughly with detergent and a brush, and rinse it well.

This reinforces the idea that the the knife with an easily cleanable surface is extremely important, since the home chef will not be able to sanitize his knives, and/or won't be able to achieve the high temperature necessary for this. Because the home chef can't sanitize, it's critical that his knives be even more cleanable than knives used in the restaurant setting!

The rougher, etched, scaled, coarse, darkened, and pitted finish is more apt to be contaminated in the home than in a restaurant. This is because the roughened surface tenaciously clings to grease and fats. A restaurant typically has a hotter cleaning solution, and stronger dishwashing detergents overall, simply due to the volume of dishes and utensils cleaned. Contamination is also more of a concern in the home kitchen, because the restaurant has a sanitizer step, and the home kitchen does not.

The Home Dishwasher Appliance
Scalding, Etching, and Baking

Washing fine knives, handmade knives, and most other knives in the home dishwasher appliance is never recommended. Why is that?

1. The home kitchen dishwasher has a very long cycle. Because of water restrictions and "Energy Star" ratings, these machines are designed to use less water. This results in extremely long wash cycles in modern dishwashers. This continued immersion is detrimental to most knife handle materials, unless they are molded plastics that have a high heat resistance.
2. The water is very hot in a modern dishwasher. Again, because of water use restrictions, the hot water coming from the tap is often heated to an even higher temperature in the dishwasher, hot enough to melt some plastics! This is detrimental to woods, sealants, and adhesives.
3. The extremely hot water is sprayed by force. While dishwasher manufacturers don't reveal the pounds per square inch (PSI) of their power sprayers, this high pressure force of hot, detergent-laden caustic water can be destructive to woods, plastics, bonding, and sealing agents used in knives. Using a shorter time cycle typically requires the dishwasher appliance to increase the already high spray pressure to get the same cleaning done in the shorter time!
4. The chemical exposure in the prolonged heat and wet environment of dishwashing detergents is detrimental to sealants and handle materials in most knives. Some of these detergents, when activated by the prolonged and high heat cycle can actually etch knife blades. Some of the detergents contain bleach. Remember, knife blade steels are not austenitic stainless steels like pots, pans, and table cutlery. They are hardened and tempered martensitic stainless tool steels, and have less corrosion resistance than the 304 stainless typically used in other food service products. A hot spray of caustic water can cause corrosion, even in the very best food-safe stainless tool steels. Imagine what it does to a non-food-safe carbon steel! For some real fun, try it sometime and watch the utter destruction of the carbon steel blade and handle. Don't blame me; I warned you!
5. The heat created in the drying cycle is very high. It is so high that many dishes, cups, plates, utensils and food preparation items are labeled with "no dishwasher" warnings. High heat can bake, dry, and even melt some plastics. It can also cause high pressure and temperature differences in some ceramics. If these have hollow cores, they can rupture! High heat can cause knives made of different materials to separate, since these different materials have varying thermal expansion coefficients.
6. The dishwasher may have a sanitizing cycle or period. This means extra-hot temperatures that are detrimental to woods, plastics, bonding, and sealing agents used on knives. This can also cause breaking of adhesive and bedding bonds due to varying thermal coefficients of expansion.
7. The dishwasher heater creates hot spots. In the typical dishwasher, you'll see a big, round electric heating element that creates the heat for boosting the water temperature. It also creates the heat to dry the dishes. Near this element, the air temperature can get so hot, it can warp or melt some plastics! This is highly detrimental to woods, plastics, bonding, bedding, and sealing agents that must be used on knives.
8. Knives can be dulled by the dishwasher. This is a reality and while it may be partially caused by the etching action of caustic detergents, more damage can be caused by the violent actions of the sprayers pushing the knife around and beating it into other utensils. In a long cycle, if the cutting edge pounds against a piece of stainless steel, or worse, a ceramic dish or another knife blade, it will get dulled. Ceramics are very hard by nature, and this is why sharpening stones are made from ceramic, after all.
9. Well-made knives are dangerous in the dishwasher. This is a hands-on issue. Extremely sharp, keen knives are (and should be) as sharp as a razor. Loading them in the dishwasher is dangerous. If your hand touches the blade or point, you will get cut. If you put them in point down, they will slice through the coatings of the dishwasher racks, slice the plastic of the silverware bins, or ride through the dishwasher cycle on the stainless steel rack, dulling them. If you put them point-up, you might forget about where they are when you unload the dishwasher, and stab your hand just reaching in! Why take that chance?

The results of these high-energy, caustic exposures is that:

• Woods will split and crack
• Copper will etch and corrode
• High alloy, high carbon stainless steel blades can etch and corrode
• Cast iron will etch and corrode
• Aluminum will absolutely etch
• Polyethylene, acrylics, polyester, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), thermoset epoxides, polyvinylchloride (PVC) and other plastics will warp, weaken, unbond, and even melt.
• Adhesives, bedding agents, sealants, and bonding materials will be damaged by the hot caustic spray.
• Different materials expand at different rates in the heat, causing breaking of adhesive bonds and separation from the knife tang and fittings.

The answer is simple. Choose food-safe materials for your chef's and kitchen knives, treat them with care, hand-wash with a brush in hot tap water and detergent, rinse in hot tap water, let air dry by laying on a microfiber dish drying pad.

My Particular Knives and Cleaning
It's all in the brush!

In the past, I've made chef's knives that are more difficult to clean and chef's knives that are easy to clean. Some of my chef's knives have filework and some of them have actual holes through the blade. Other knives have dimples, depressions, grooves, or other irregularities that may hinder cleaning. Most of these features are the result of a client's wishes.

When people look over as many knife designs as I have, they often forget that many of these are based on direct input from clients. Some clients want the reduced weight of a milled-through blade, some insist on filework to aid in purchase and grip of an otherwise slippery knife. These are client preferences, but never have I had a client ask for a rough, blackened, crusty, irregular surface. Some knives are more difficult to clean, some easy and some are impossible to clean. It's all in the size and shape of the brush.

With most knives used in the kitchen, the brush is your very best friend. Not enough credit is given to brushes. The very top drawer on my main workbench is dedicated to brushes. Mankind makes a bewildering amount of brushes, and always will. You clean your own food cutting implements (your teeth) with a brush, and that's a pretty good indicator of how effective they are. Brushes dislodge stubborn, sticky foodstuffs, and with the addition of a helper—toothpaste in the case of your teeth, detergent in the case of your chef's knife—you can be sure your implements will be clean and effective.

If a knife blade has milled holes in it, a small bottle or tube brush is handy to have if cutting sticky foodstuffs. If I mill-through a blade, I'll polish the inside of the holes so they are easier to clean. For most filework, a regular dishwashing brush worked across the top of the blade is enough to clean it. Since the handle shouldn't see food contaminants (unless the chef is very sloppy), the brush shouldn't be needed as often in handle filework. However a smaller brush may be helpful, the size of a denture brush or toothbrush is just about perfect. On all knives, a good brushing at the front bolster removes any stubborn debris.

It's all about the sizes of the indentations, file cuts, and milled features on a knife. It's one thing to have filework that can be cleaned by the easy reach of a brush bristle, it's altogether another to have a crusty, flaked, etched, rough surface with pits, holes, and microscopic voids that cannot be reached by the bristle of the finest brush.

For my clients who want the simplest cleaning possible, I make chef's knives without any filework and as smooth as possible throughout. A custom knife is all about a client's preferences, after all. I'll reiterate that no client of mine has ever asked for a rough, etched, blackened, peened, ground, corroded surface on any part of their chef's knife. It's not surprising that no one has ever asked for a carbon steel, alloy steel, or non-stainless steel chef's knife of any kind—

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What to Do
Simple and Clean

The fact that you have read this far tells me that you are serious about the knives used to prepare your food, your family's food, and the food of your friends and patrons, particularly if you are a professional chef. So much of knife knowledge is based in the past, and so much of it has yet to catch up with modern standards and safety protocols, that there is a huge lack of understanding that I hope to see eradicated in my lifetime. This very page is my contribution to this understanding and I hope it helps.

It comes down to five simple points:

1. Always choose stainless steel for any kitchen knife blade.
2. Always choose a smooth, completely finished knife blade with no darkness, tiny depressions, or surface roughness of any kind.
3. Know what type of stainless steel is chosen; ask your knifemaker or manufacturer about their heat treating process if uncertain.
4. Always choose knives that have stainless steel fittings with more than 16% chromium, which usually means 304 stainless steel.
5. Always choose a stiff, rigid, non-permeable handle material.

That's pretty much the whole thing, and now you know why Food Contact Safety materials are so important to those who prepare their food with knives and eat! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and please don't take knives for granted. There are thousands of years of development we have with steels, and millions of years of using knives, yet the knife world and the world of food safety is rapidly changing even today. Don't be stuck with poor, rusting, corroding steels of the past; there really are better steels overall that are clean, durable, easy to sharpen with the right stone, and hold an incredibly sharp edge for a tremendously long time.

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What About Integrals vs. FCS Sealants?
Appearance with Critical Limitations

An "integral" knife is one where the front bolster or guard is part of the blade. Typically, they are forged or milled from thick stock. Some wonder if this is the answer to a food-safe knife. Here's an email I received:

One would think that the answer to food-safe handles is a solid handle-to-blade junction. Is there a totally safe blade-to-handle junction that has no seams whatever? Some knifemakers are fond of the "integral" style of knife that has the bolsters or guard as a solid piece of steel, the same steel as the blade, only cut-down or with the handle area milled away. This is called an "integral" style.

On the surface, it sounds good. The metal that makes the blade is the same metal that makes the fittings on the handle, so there is no seam between the bolsters and the tang or the guard and the tang. Let's look over some specific, detailed points about this type of knife construction. These are points that knifemakers and manufacturers want you to overlook:

• One way integral knife handles are made is to forge the blade into the bolster, that is, forge-widening and thickening the bolster area by heating and plastically deforming the metal. If you understand high alloy steels that are intrinsically food-safe (greater than 16% chromium), you’ll know that these cannot be successfully hand-forged without ruining the steel with extensive decarburization and creation of highly stressed, unstable areas exactly where the blade meets the handle. This is where the knife should be its strongest, and that is the area that is compromised in the forged integral. Hand-forging steels like 440C is out, and this is the same with all the high alloy stainless steels. Knifemakers have forged them in the past, but when they do, they are damaged steels. As some of my hand-forging friends have correctly stated: “hand-forged high alloy stainless steels are ruined steels.” This is why many integral knives are damascus pattern-welded steel, low alloy steels, or carbon steels not high alloy stainless steels.
• The next consideration would be hand-forging knives that are not intrinsically food-safe (less than 16% chromium). They are often lower alloy, and lower carbon stainless steels. This is typically done with steels like AEB-L and 13C27, and these steels, when hand-forged must then be properly heat treated and post-weld treated in cryogenic processes. Even if this is done, there are additional issues (below).
• Knifemakers and manufacturers can use milling, or a CNC mill to make an integral knife from high alloy stainless steels that meet the FCS standard whether treated or not from single, thick stock. This is very expensive to do but this hasn’t stopped knifemakers from doing it. Besides the shaping being surrendered to a machine, there are additional problems with this method.
• If a knife blade is made to have the front bolster or guard as an “integral” part of the handle, in order to have no seams, where does this stop? In other words, is there a handle material (scales) involved anywhere on the handle that is not the same, seamless stainless steel? If so, this represents additional joints or seams in the whole assembly, which negates the reason for an integral. This is conveniently ignored by knifemakers. They claim it’s “cleaner” to have a solid front bolster area, but ignore the handle scales mounted behind the bolster, which have seams!
• If then, no joints or seams is a requirement in the entire knife handle, then the knife must be made of a solid piece of high alloy steel, including the handle. This would be ridiculous, since the handle would weigh several pounds. So, this isn’t done.
• There are knives that have a hollow core, a completely welded, die-formed handle, so that there is essentially a “balloon” of steel at the handle. One wonders what might lurk inside this hollow handle, since there must be a void there. In order for the handle to be lightweight, if it is dropped or impacted, the "balloon" of thin stainless steel can be dented. If there is one microscopic pinhole, the entire inside of the balloon becomes contaminated and absolutely uncleanable!
  • Let’s look at the usage of the hollow core handle first. Gripping an all-steel handle is not comfortable, it’s cold and its slippery, since it has to be completely cleanable. So, in order to be securely held and gripped, these are slightly contoured with ridges and easily-formed lines so the die-press can shape them. They have to be attached to the knife blade, so welding must occur. Since high alloys are not typically welded on these knives, they are mostly made of low alloy stainless steels, not great performers in any sense of the word. 420 stainless and the equivalents are frequently used, and these are horribly poor steels by any standards.
  • The "balloon" handle is often etched or textured to aid in grip, since bare steel is hard to grip. Heavy etching means harder to clean, and is contrary to Part 110.40 of the Current Good Manufacturing Practices, part 2., recommending that food contact surfaces shall be easily cleanable.
  •  If a knife is to have a hollow handle and it’s attached to the knife blade, when in the knifemaking process does this occur? Is it before or after heat treat? Both of these are a problem. Before heat treat mounting means that the welds or attachment points must be treated with the blade, and this then means an improper heat treatment, just like a Damascus pattern-welded blade. You have dissimilar metals being welded, and then treated. If it's the same steel, it's a low-durability stainless that is easily formed and pressed, like 420 stainless steel, an absolute horror, only capable of achieving 50-52 HRC hardness, which is very soft.
  • If it means heat treating the blade and then welding on the handle, this induces weld points that will compromise blade integrity! This is all getting pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?
• When I’ve seen similar knives made with this method in mind (the hollow balloon stainless steel handle) they frequently attach some cushy grip treads, or rubbery inserts, or some other material to aid in gripping this type of handle since it is slick and smooth and often round-shaped because of limitations in the die process. When doing so, again, you have a seam problem, made worse because rubbery, flexible parts on a knife handle can’t be easily and effectively cleaned. Pathogens can be trapped when the rubber flexes, between the rubber and the stainless steel.
• Remember that the blade steel used should be FCS safe, which means properly hardened and tempered less than 16% chromium stainless, or any condition of greater than 16% chromium stainless steel. In both of these cases, the hand will be contacting the handle. The blade material, even in the greater than 16% chromium category is far less corrosion-resistant than austenitic stainless steel (like 304 or 316). There simply is no way to make the blade steel more corrosion-resistant. So the hand is in contact with stainless that is less corrosion-resistant than added bolsters. In full tang knives, there will always be an exposed spine or tang made of the blade material that is not as corrosion-resistant as the bolsters are. This surface area is incredibly reduced in a bolstered knife when compared to an integral knife where the bolsters and/or fittings are less corrosion-resistant because they are made of the blade material.
• In order to easily fabricate hollow-core handles and knife blades, they are typically made of extremely low alloys, mostly 420 stainless steel or similar types. 420 stainless is a horrible steel, with one-tenth the carbon of 440C, and cannot be made harder than 52 Rockwell on the C scale. Nearly every knife of this type is 420 stainless steel, the very same steel that gives all stainless a bad name. 420 cannot be made harder than a needle, drill, or even a cheap saw for wood. Think about using a common hand-file to sharpen a wood saw, and you'll realize how soft 420 stainless is. Read more about this awful stainless steel used for most chef's knives on the Blades page at this bookmark.

When someone asks about integral knives, what they are really concerned about is the visual appearance of the front bolster-to-blade seam. This is easy to see in most photographs, so people tend to focus on this obvious seam between two dissimilar metals. There is a very simple, clear, and easy way to seal this seam, and the answer is Food Contact Safe Sealant! A tiny bit of sealant between the bolster and blade permanently and safely seals the joint, for  the life of the knife. This is the same as sealing the other joints in the knife handle, where handle material and other bolsters and fittings are attached. It’s a small, fast, and easy step in making a knife that is Food Contact Safe, and lets you maintain a highly corrosion-resistant bolster or guard area, and a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing handle material.

By now, you may realize that an integral knife construction is only for appearance. It does not add to the security of the handle material, it detracts from the corrosion-resistance, and it doesn't aid in sealing of the handle in any way, since the integral knife has handle material that has seams. Eliminate all seams and you have a solid steel handle, or a hollow balloon handle, uncomfortable and unwieldy, and, by necessity, made of poor performing steel.

For the ultimate food safety, perhaps a skeletonized handle is what one might consider. This is, after all, how most surgical instruments are made, since they have to go through sterilizing procedures. However, gripping the tiny, narrow, and slick stainless surface of a surgical instrument is not going to be appreciated when you have to work up a big stir-fry with a small crate of vegetables. After all, meal prep is not delicate surgery, or all knives would be made like scalpels with pencil-sized handles to match.

Remember, there is nothing wrong with any choice of handle type, as long as the knifemaker can assure you of the food safety of the knife. Since food safety is only a recommendation, and not a legal requirement, the chef can use any knife they choose, in any condition in preparing his meals for himself and others. It is a choice, and my goal is simply to inform. The industry won't change because of what I write here, but they also won't offer this very information to you so that you may make an informed judgment. But I will; you deserve to know.

Now you know; it's up to you.

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List of Food Safe and Non-Food Safe Knife Steels and Materials
The Safe and Unsafe

This is actually a simple chart. I'll go through the steel types knifemakers use and sell for kitchen knives and identify why they are considered unsafe, and what conditions some have to be in to be made safe for use and apply to the FDA Food Contact Safety guidelines. That way, when you are looking over knives made and sold for kitchen use, you'll be able to see who is attempting to sell you Food Contact Unsafe materials and who is offering Food Contact Safe materials.

Beware that many, many chef and kitchen knife manufacturers will not tell you what steel alloy is used in their knives! They'll tout the great qualities of their blades, assure you that the blades are of some mysterious premium material, but leave out the actual alloy identification. This is a horrible part of the knife industry that there is simply no reason for. In the age of information, not informing the customer or client of the type of steel used for knife blades is insulting and underhanded. The reason that they don't disclose this is pure deception; they don't want the customer to know for a reason, and that reason is usually because the alloy is a cheap, poorly performing steel. That's fraud, pure and simple, yet it goes on and on.

There will be many knifemakers and manufacturers who will steam when they see their favorite steel with the word "unsafe" next to it. There is no other way to put this. If a material and condition is deemed Food Contact Safe by regulatory agencies, then the materials that do not qualify for this designation must, by definition, be unsafe. We can't say that blade steel A is safe, but blade steel B is somewhat less than safe, or a little bit not safe, or could be safe if you don't use it very much: this is not regulatory language. It is either safe or unsafe.

I emphasized what I consider to be unsafe with cobalt steels in red. If you are confused by this, please reads the section on cobalt above. Evidently there are no laws or regulation regarding limiting sales of cobalt-bearing knives to the public in the USA, just as there are no laws preventing the sale of cigarettes. I'll leave you with the information, and you decide what to do with it. That's more than you'll get from any other knifemaker and more than you'll get from any knife manufacturer, ever!

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What the Table of Knife Blade Steels Shows
Four Basic Groups

The table is not a complete list of all the various steel types used to make knives, but it does list most of the common players.

First Group (Carbon and Alloy Steels): unsafe in any condition because they are not stainless steel. Adhering to the Standard NSF § 7.1. Clearly all plain carbon steels (steels listed by "10XX" numbers) are not Food Contact Safe. All of the alloy steels listed (52100, 5160, 8670) are food contact unsafe. All of the Japanese paper wrapper color steels (blue, white, yellow, red, etc.) are unsafe. All of the high alloy hypereutectoid steels (O1, W2, M2, M4) are food contact unsafe. The reasons these steels are unsafe for food contact is because they are not stainless steels. They also do not satisfy FDA Food Code (2017) §4- 101.11 This is a pretty simple concept that is ignored by most of our society!

Second Group (Cobalt containing steels): unsafe in any condition because they contain cobalt. I've listed steels that contain cobalt for the reasons in the cobalt topic above. Since there are only a few of them, I wonder why anyone uses them at all, since there are so many other great choices for knife blade steels that do not contain probable carcinogens. These steels are available in non-stainless, conditional stainless, or high chromium stainless steel, but the one thing they have in common is that they contain cobalt. It's scary to think that many Japanese knife firms are exclusively pushing VG-10, since it contains a high amount of cobalt!

Third Group (Conditional Stainless Steels): stainless steels that are safe, but only if properly hardened and tempered. Adhering to the standard NSF § 7.1, most of the steels that fall in the "Safe, but treated" category have between 12% and 15% chromium. These absolutely, positively must be properly heat treated for maximum corrosion resistance. This requires cryogenic processing for all of them; no stainless steel listed in this group processes well enough in conventional methods to reach maximum corrosion resistance. This conditional requirement then relies upon the absolute skill of the heat treater, and also the skill of the knifemaker, even if he is having heat treatment done by an outside contractor. This surprises most people, but steels can be radically altered by post-treatment grinding and finishing done by the knifemaker. Just overheat the steel a bit, and it loses its corrosion resistance because it's over-tempered and thus annealed. Logically, the easiest place to have this fault happen is at the cutting edge, where corrosion resistance is the most critical.

My point is that the knifemaker has to be trusted and well-versed in this procedure, or the steel that has less than 16% chromium can fall out of that required treatment that makes it Food Contact Safe in the first place!

Forth Group: (Safe in any condition): high chromium stainless steels. The final group is safe, even if left completely untreated. A knifemaker can totally miss his mark in the treatment, and yet these steels still meet Food Contact Safety requirements, because they have at least 16% chromium as required by NSF § 7.1.

All of this last group are stainless steels that have high corrosion resistance, but they vary quite a bit, and some are not necessarily good steels. Some are ruined by a low-temperature heating (ZDP-189), and some are very low in carbon and are hypoeutectoid, creating blades that are not extremely wear-resistant (N680). Some are very close to 440C in alloy makeup (N685, N695). Some are high in vanadium, and this is not particularly a good thing, since high vanadium knives cannot be mirror polished, which is a condition of superior corrosion resistance and compliance with Food Contact Safety guidelines (N390, 20CV, CTS-204P, Elmax).

Now you might understand why 440C and CTS-XHP are some of my preferred steels for chef's knives, though many more are applicable and make great knives. Another favorite is ATS-34, and its powder metal technology equivalent, CPM154CM. All of these steels, when deeply and extensively hardened and tempered in cryogenic processes, and are mirror polished, make great kitchen and chef's knives that meet all food safety standards.

Just make sure your maker can tell you exactly why he uses what he does, how he treats it, and make sure he is certain that he is using Food Contact Safe materials in your chef's knife and finishing it properly!

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Damascus Blades
Pretty Doesn't Cut It!

Damascus knives are decor knives. No matter what you may read, the reason that two different steels are heated and pounded together in a forged weld is to create an appearance on the surface of the steel. Pattern-welded damascus blades do not improve the performance, durability, or food safety in any way. In fact, creating a knife blade this way decreases the performance of the best steel used in the billet, decreases the durability of the blade, and decreases the food contact safety overall.

You won't read or hear this from people trying to sell you a pattern-welded damascus knife blade for the kitchen or for any other use. If you want to know technically why this is so, please take a few minutes and read this section on my "Blades" page:

What about damascus steels?
It's all about the pretty.
Decor in Knives at the Cost of Performance

If you've read the section, you now know why damascus blades are simply about an appearance of the surface and little else. There is no way that they can outperform high alloy uniform, homogeneous, isotropic steels and that is why they are never used for any application that requires substantial wear resistance, toughness, strength, durability, or corrosion resistance.

How do damascus steels rate in the kitchen and as chef's knives, particularly in the range of the subject of this page, food safety? There are two types of damascus steels to consider.

Damascus Made of Carbon Steels and Non-Stainless Steel Alloys
Not Food Safe!

If you've read this page, you'll understand that no carbon steels, no alloy steels, no specialty steels are food safe. In order to be food safe according to the American National Standards Institute, National Sanitary Foundation and the Food and Drug Administration, FCS blades must be stainless steel. Simply put, corroding steels are not food safe.

Therefore, any pattern-welded damascus knife blades made with any of these non-stainless steels are unsafe, no matter how much is used, and no matter how they are incorporated in the decor design of the blade. Clearly, they will rust and corrode, decomposing and dissolving into foodstuffs, and this is why the FDA, ANSI, and the NSF do not classify them as Food Contact Safe.

I can hear the screams all across the country at this revelation. For decades, I've seen this type of blade tooted and praised by the guys who make and sell them as chef's knives, as being desirable in the kitchen. This practice expanded to foreign companies who manufacture non-stainless pattern-welded damascus knives who direct their sales precisely at chefs.

This revelation is not what they want you to read or understand, but here it is, the truth. Any steel that corrodes, no matter how it's incorporated into a knife blade, no matter who makes it, no matter how many centuries of experience they claim to have, no matter how many corroding pattern-welded damascus blades they've sold before: all of these are food contact-unsafe.

This has gone on for too long in our tradecraft. People who don't make knives are easily mesmerized by the look of patterns in steel; they think that it's something amazing and astounding and they really, really want to believe that these blades have special and desirable properties. The reality is that the only property they have that is desirable is their appearance. They fail in every other aspect of performance, particularly when compared with high alloy stainless steels that are uniform, homogeneous, and isotropic.

By the way, there is no such thing as "mono-steel." This is a lazy term made up by forum wannabees. More on that on my Knife Definitions page at this bookmark.

Damascus Made of Stainless Steels
Generally Unsafe!

You now understand why damascus blades made with non-stainless will corrode, which leaves them out of the NSF and FDA qualifications for food safe materials. If those steels are replaced with stainless steels in pattern-welded damascus, wouldn't that qualify for FCS materials?

This sounds like a good reason, but a little closer examination reveals why this is generally untrue.

1. Stainless steels most commonly used in stainless damascus are low alloy stainless steels, due to the difficulty of welding them in an open forge. Steels like AEB-L, 420, and 13C26 are common players, and they are low chromium (<16%) stainless steels.
2. In order for lower chromium (<16%) stainless steels to qualify for the NSF and FDA standards, they must be properly hardened and tempered.
3. In damascus pattern-welded steels, there can never be a proper heat treatment. As detailed in the section on the "Blades" page, since damascus is at least two different kinds of steel, and only one singular heat treatment method must be used. This means that only one steel of the pair is actually properly heat treated. The other, by elimination, will NOT be properly heat treated. This violates the NSF § 7.1 stainless steel standard. Since one of the steels is not properly heat treated, that steel will not satisfy the corrosion resistance standard. There is simply no way around this fact.
4. Most stainless steel damascus blades are deeply etched. Etching cuts away the surface of one of the steels used in the blade (the lower chromium steel) and etches the other layer less or not at all. This develops the visual contrast that distinguishes the steel as pattern-welded damascus. The etching creates a roughened surface, making the steel harder to clean, and this is detrimental to meeting FDA Food Code (2017) § 4- 201.11 part D., for a smooth, easily cleanable surface. This also does not meet Part 110.40 of the Current Good Manufacturing Practices, part 2., recommending that food contact surfaces shall be easily cleanable, and free of breaks, open seams, cracks or similar defects. By the way, even in the very best pattern-welded stainless steel damascus, there will always be defects; this is the result of the casual process of hammer forge welding two dissimilar steels together. These defects can be microscopic, but so are bacteria, so this makes sense.
5. The surface that is highly etched is harder to clean, and foodstuffs can remain and could harbor pathogens (think about greases and waxy fats). An etched surface is created when a mordant, acid, or caustic substance dissolves the surface of the material, leaving a rough, toothy surface with high asperity. The depressions and voids can be very small. This is very difficult to clean and sanitize, and this is why the FDA Food Code recommends a "smooth, easily cleanable surface."
6. Durability is usually never mentioned by people and companies who make pattern-welded damascus, but it deserves special consideration here. FDA, ANSI, and NSF require high durability to meet their standards for food safe materials. Chef's knives, unlike other knives used for hunting, utility, and in the tactical field, are usually ground very thin, particularly at the very cutting edge and point. These thin areas take a lot of mechanical stress and pressure, and in pattern-welded damascus, fractures can easily occur due to weld boundaries, element drift, and typical weld stress issues. This is why every metalworking trade is focused on eliminating as many welds as possible, since they are a source of failure. Fractures on a microscopic scale can leading to high wear and even outright breakage of the blade, always at a weld boundary. Imagine a piece of a damascus steel knife tip breaking off and winding up in a food processing line! Because of dissimilar metals, carbon drift, numerous welds, inclusions, voids, and irregularities, this is why damascus pattern-welded steels are never used for any application in the industrial, medical, or military field. They are simply decorative and not expected to perform to the high durability standards of uniform, homogeneous, isotropic high alloy stainless steels which actually are used in those industrial applications. Pattern-welded damascus steels are simply not durable.

You might wonder why I used the sub-header of "Generally Unsafe" in this topic on pattern-welded stainless steel damascus blades. There could be a condition where this type of blade meets ANSI/NSF and FDA standards for food safety. Both of the steels would be greater than 16% chromium so that no matter the condition, the heat treatment wouldn't matter. The welding would have to be done in an inert atmosphere so that there were no voids, inclusions, or exposure to oxygen during the welding. The forging would have to be at an extremely high temperature (typically over 1700°F, 927°C) for effective welding necessary in this type of alloy. This would have to be done by a machine so no possible mistakes or irregularities could occur in the inert gas or vacuum chamber where this would have to happen. Also, the knife blade would not be etched, and would be smoothly and cleanly finished, and then you couldn't really tell if it was a pattern-welded damascus blade, unless you held it in the light just right...

None of this is ever done with pattern-welded damascus steel, but you never know. In any case, there are much, much better steels that actually do meet the standards for food safety and they outperform damascus in every single way. More on use and limitations of damascus steels for knife blades here.

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List of Food Safe and Unsafe Fittings, Handles, Fasteners, and Hardware
Extremely Narrow Field!

There are actually only a very few materials that are classified as food contact safe using the NSF § 7.1 standard. Here's a table that details the players in the fittings and hardware.

Note that there are only three materials in the table that are NSF Food Contact Safe in this whole bunch! I've detailed the reasons in this section above for clarity. Shockingly commonplace is the use of brass, nickel silver, copper, and aluminum in chef's knives, as none of these are considered Food Contact Safe, yet they are used over and again! If you wonder why, the answer is simple. These are soft metals, easy to work with, easy to machine, sand, and polish. They are not hard, tough, or refractory like stainless steels. They definitely and readily react, corrode, and dissolve. Some of them actually have and impart a strong offensive odor (brass and copper). Again, the choice of easy and cheap to make is the deciding factor in using these easily corroded metals.

You'll also see that the condition of stainless steels is important, and I've listed the 400 series as "unsafe." The reason is—that in order to meet the standard— these steels must be properly hardened and tempered. This is simply never done in knifemaking fittings, pins, mounts, guards, or accessories. While it would be great if hardening and tempering were actually happening with these fittings, the maker or manufacturer using these stainless steels would be boasting about "hardened and tempered fittings," and you will never see this! This is because it's not being done.

If you doubt this, ask your maker or manufacturer what their 400 series stainless steel fittings, hardware, pins, or fasteners are hardened and tempered to. They should be able to give you a Rockwell hardness number. They should also be able to tell you their cryogenic processing method, since 400 series stainless steels must be cryogenically processed to reach their highest corrosion resistance condition.

The 200 series are less corrosion resistant but qualify, but are rarely used. More about them here.

From the chart, you'll see that there really are only two regular, dependable players that meet the standard in any condition: 304 and 316 stainless steel. Both are great steels, highly corrosion-resistant and food contact safe, in any condition. This is why most cutlery, stainless steel pots and pans, and utensils are made of these two stainless steels, and should be!

More about Handles, Bolsters, Guards, and Fittings

More about Mosaic Pins, the Costume Jewelry of 1980s Knives

Next, the chart for chef's and kitchen knife handles:

Plastics are nearly always suitable and meet the standard; there is no surprise here and this is why 95% of all knives sold for kitchen use have manmade (or plastic) handle materials. You might question the movement of plastic. Plastic expands and contracts, bends and moves in opposition to knife blade steel, therefore can develop cracks and gaps between the plastic handle and the knife over time. This can be prevented by a rigid handle tang design, heavy, mechanically mounted bolsters, and stiff knife blade design. Most kitchen knives in the low-end market don't bother with a rigid handle design; they don't expect their knives to be around that long. I'm aware of no studies on older knives as a source of contamination, but you can use your common sense here. If a plastic-handled knife has gaps between the blade tang and the handle material, this is an un-cleanable area where pathogens can hide.

Woods are a special case. Only tight-pored woods should be used, and then they should be sealed. There are many methods and chemicals used in sealing wood, but not many qualify as food-safe. I would never use any open-pored wood (like oak or walnut) on a kitchen knife handle, since they have pores visible to the naked eye. A good wood knife handle can be made by pressure stabilization, which, when professionally done, creates essentially a block of plastic with wood fibers running through it—but it should be done professionally. Many makers try this at home with vacuum pumps and air compressor pressure, and this is far and away from the tens of thousands of pounds per square inch and catalyzing phenolics and resis used in professional stabilizing.

A good bet with woods is either a pressure-stabilized block or a tight grained, hard, stiff wood with surface sealant. The maker or manufacturer should be able to detail how the wood was sealed.

I gave a special mention to bamboo, because of foreign knife markets and the common use of this weak, flexible, and highly porous material. Bamboo is actually grass; it is very cheap, and that's why it's seen so often on Asian-style knives. To my knowledge, I've never seen it pressure-stabilized and that would be the only condition that is food contact safe. Like the crude, rough, dark, pitted, and scoured finish, bamboo is often used to mentally link the knife to some old, ancient Asian or Samurai culture; a decor rather than food contact safe implement. Think carefully about food safety and that sushi now...

Antler, horn, bone, and ivory likewise must be professionally pressure-stabilized for use. If not, they will definitely expand and contract not only from temperature changes, but also from moisture, and they will eventually work loose from the knife tang. They are not good choices for handle material overall for chef's knives, and not commonly used for these reasons. Plus, all elephant ivory in knives is illegal in the US.

Metals are conditional for chef's knives handles. They should meet the standard to be food contact safe, NSF § 7.1, which means 200 series stainless steels, 300 series stainless steels, or 400 series stainless steels that are hardened and tempered. Also meeting the standard are the stainless steels listed in the blade chart above. More about the limitations of metal-handled knives above.

Gemstone makes an excellent chef's knife handle material, when properly surface-sealed. This eliminates any voids, vugs, or pockets in the stone where pathogens can hide. Since gem is rock, it does not move, flex, bend, or separate from the tang, and makes a permanent, extremely long-lasting chef's knife handle material. It is expensive and hard to work, and that is why it's so rare. The gemstone handle of a well-made knife will literally outlast the blade and endure for millennia. It is, after all, rock. The longest-lasting material man has ever used has been and will continue to be stone. This is why the finest countertops are always tough, hard, and durable stones like granites.

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Public (Forum) Comments About This Page
Guidance, Not Law, and Jay Fisher Hating

Let's get this out of the way.

I knew that writing this page would stir up some emotions. Why? My first question is why, out of all of the knifemakers in the world, out of all knifemakers in history, that I would be the only one to take the time and effort to research all of this data, dig deep into the subject, and clearly and precisely detail the most common misconceptions and absolute truths about knives in our modern world? Why didn't someone else do this before? Why do I even bother?

Did nobody else see this coming? Do knifemakers and manufacturers actually think that the world of dirty, corroding, decomposing, rusty knife blades would continue, ignored by modern scientific practice? Or is it just that the visual interest of pattern welded damascus and hammered, darkened steel would be considered the premium material forever?

I can see it now; in the future world, where we might actually have flying cars, a cure for cancer, an end to world hunger, and perfect control of the weather, that we would have to rub, scrub, baby, coddle, and tolerate RUSTY KNIVES, because some oaf says that it's the way it's always been...

So, in this section, I'm going to detail all of those confusing tricks guys (and gals) use (mostly but not always on forums) to pull comments out of context, to make broad generalities, to justify their own preferences, and mislead the public and their own knife customers. I'll try to keep it very clear; you will know where I stand, take it or leave it. I'll paraphrase to make it clear but not attacking, though all these guys are happy to troll, attack, and decry what I write, when all I'm doing is repeating what the official authorities have to say on the matter. After all, it's far easier to attack a singular knifemaker than take on the USDA, ANSI, or CDC!

By the way, I can't wait for these following comments to be taken out of context by anonymous forum posters who actually have no experience making fine knives. After all, they have 12,000 posts, making them an expert. Where are their 12,000 knives? Hmmm?

Let's see just how many forum posters actually get to this position in the page... not many I'll guess; that's a lot of reading when you're in a hurry to anonymously post a bullying comment. After all, the world needs the comments of forum posters, not official entities and sanctioned research organizations, right? Isn't the best education gotten on forums and YouTube instead of in books, research, and experience?

Jay Fisher Hating

 If you read a lot of forum fluff, you'll easily find the Jay Fisher haters, and they are many. Thankfully they don't contribute any way to my way of  making the very best knives possible, and haven't stopped me from having a successful, 40 year career in making knives for some of the best people in the world. This is completely due to my clients, who appreciate the information as well as the knives I've provided for the last four decades.

Bully-fingered forum haters post comments like, "he makes good knives, but they don't look like they are for working."

Evidently the military and counterterrorism professionals I've made for don't see it that way. Same for the restaurant chefs, hunters, and cattle ranchers who own and use my knives.

Online forum bullies insist, "Nobody uses gemstones on their handles, seriously."

Because my knives are not like the mainstream, there must be no interest in my work. Yet, the many hundreds of gemstone-handled knives you see on this website are in the hands of happy owners. Other knifemakers get kudos and gasps of amazement for using a piece of jade or lapis on their handles, yet no one notices that I make more gemstone-handled knives than any maker in history, many hundreds to date. Oh, well.

One of the most foolish cyber-bullies comments, "He keeps to himself and doesn't help other knifemakers."

This comment was made while looking at and reading the largest, most detailed and comprehensive website by any knifemaker, ever created, in the world. At over 600 web pages of information, over 13,000 photos of knives and knifemaking, the most patterns (over 500), the largest and most detailed knife anatomy page to ever exist, the largest knife definition list of words to ever exist (over 300), and the most informative, detailed and researched Heat Treating and Cryogenic Processing of Knife Blade Steels page, and somehow, someway, I "keep to myself" and "don't help others." Wow, such ignorance. No wonder people think knifemakers are hicks.

Some will admit that I do make a good knife—but the admission pains them so...The hating must be difficult to maintain, but they are dedicated individuals.

The funny thing is that they are reading any of this. Why are they on my website?

If you don't like the meals that a restaurant serves, do you go into their establishment, scowl over the menu, and then go back to your local paper and cry about what you have seen? If you don't like a brand of vehicle, do you go into the dealership, read the information, look over the vehicles and then scurry away to a little forum to spread your hate about the company?

This is standard fare on internet forums, and one of the main reasons I tell new knifemakers, "Don't get your information on a forum, a forum of any kind." Forums are designed for high-school mentality conflict, to attract clicks, click-bait for the advertisements and membership money they pick from participants and views.

Contrast that with what  you are reading here, every bit of it for free; no membership, no purchase required. This is my service to my tradecraft and art. And if someone doesn't like what they see, they are one click from being anywhere but here. Nobody forces anyone to read my website, yet they do... why?

Let's get to the specific claims:

Claim: "Jay Fisher only makes these claims because he uses stainless steels and wants to sell his own knives. "

Truth: This is pretty funny, considering I'm years in backorders and turn down most jobs and projects. I do have a few knives for sale on the website; I will as long as I'm alive and able to make knives. However, my preference for using high alloys is because high alloy hypereutectoid stainless steels absolutely make superior knife blades. They are, after all, the results of ever-advancing metallurgy. I write about high alloy stainless steels because they are better steels in every single performance aspect. I don't write because I'm desperate to sell a stainless blade. It would be far easier for me to make knives out of plain carbon steels and low alloy steels; why would I go to all the trouble of using those high alloy stainless steels? They are expensive, difficult to machine, grind, and finish, and heat treating them properly is expensive and requires a lot of costly specialized equipment.

If you're into knifemaking for the hobbyist, part-time, fun knifemaking thrill, plain carbon steels are cheap, plentiful, and easy to work with. But that doesn't make them better, quite the contrary. Carbon steels are not food contact safe; they do not satisfy the basic requirement of FDA Food Code (2017) §4- 101.11 Parts 1. and 5., since they aren't corrosion-resistant and decompose. They don't meet NSF §7.1 Stainless Steel Standard, since they are not stainless steel.

It might surprise you to know that I do use non-stainless steels. What? Sure, I do, just not in the kitchen. Take a look at my page on O1, and you'll see that non-stainless steel knife blades do have their place, just not in the kitchen.

By the way, there are also bad stainless steels! AEB-L is horrible, so is 420 stainless. A truly awful stainless is 17-4PH, a precipitation hardening steel. These low alloy, hypoeutectoid stainless steels are the mainstay of kitchen knife manufacturing, and the reason stainless steels got a bad reputation to begin with, and continue their bad reputation among mass-produced knives. Of course, there is the price point, as these are very cheap and economical steels that are easy to shape, easy to heat treat, and easy to finish (or not finish, as is typical for most knives).

Claim: "Man has survived using carbon steels in the kitchen up to this point, so what's the big deal?"

Truth: Man has survived polio, smallpox, and high infant mortality. Mankind has survived hurricanes, drought, and environmental disasters like the dustbowl, plagues, and famines. Okay, that's all big stuff, but hey, "man has survived."  I don't know about you, but just to claim "man has survived" isn't the highest form of encouragement. Mankind as a whole can survive a lot of things.

Take smoking, for instance. Mankind has survived this. Therefore, survival makes it okay, right? Maybe we should encourage smoking amongst our kids; after all, "mankind has survived." What? you wouldn't do this?

Why not?

Is it okay to eat corroded metal in small portions? Sure, why not? After all, since it's gone on for millennia, that makes it okay. Maybe we should supply corroded metal to our children, in small doses, of course, knowing that mankind will survive.

"Mankind's survival" is about the dumbest argument I could imagine. Let's go back to the horse and carriage, after all, mankind has used it for millennia...this is the argument against vaccination, against washing your hands before dinner, against taking a shower...with soap! Mankind will survive, after all.

Claim: "I wouldn't call carbon steel unsafe-"

Truth: Well, thank God that you don't work for the CDC, USDA, or NSF. You are in charge of your own home, and there, you can do whatever you like. If you do work in a restaurant, you need to be fired.

Claim: "Jay uses stone handles and they are porous, so all of his arguments are wrong. "

Truth: The gemstones I use for chef's knives are completely non-porous or they are sealed with Food Contact Safe sealants, so this is an easy correction. No, they are not porous. Of course, wood is porous, and yet both are Food Contact Safe. Do some research, and you'll find that wooden spoons (and cutting boards) are safe if used properly... what? Good grief how simple can this be? A smooth surface, easily cleanable that doesn't corrode or leach into food. Lots of high school biology and chemistry going on here—think!

Claim: "The geometry of the blade is more important to cleanability than the material."

Truth: The geometry is important, in as much as a utensil must be easy to clean. A knife is not typically a complex object with undercuts and voids that are not cleanable, unless, of course if you leave the blade with deep blackened gouges, rough etched damascus pattern welded surfaces, rough pitted surfaces and ...wait. This guy is making my point.

Claim: "I eat from a cast iron pan and a cast iron pot, and I'm okay."

Truth: Cast iron is not steel. Chemistry 101 here. Cast iron forms a passive silicon-graphite surface, unlike carbon steel that freely corrodes until it's gone (in your food). Please read the section about the Cast Iron Exception which clearly explains the difference between the two materials before you post that cast iron and steel are the same thing; they are not. I knew this misunderstood comparison would be made; that's why I wrote the section.

Even so, cast iron exposure is also limited by official guidelines. Read the section, get educated on the matter.

Claim: "It's good that all frying pans and water pipes are made of stainless steel."

Truth: I'll pray to God that some brain cells develop in this facetious, ignorant guy's mind. Cast iron is not steel. Cast iron is not steel. CAST IRON IS NOT STEEL! This is why I don't post on forums. The mass ignorance is overwhelming; people post comments that prove they don't have a clue what they are posting about, yet the world needs their opinion. And then, others posting do nothing to correct these lies, often cheering each other on. The lie continues since cyber-bullying is the most effective method of winning a debate.

Claim: "Jay Fisher claims D2 is stainless steel. LOL!"

Truth: Claimant is referring to the material list above. Stainless steels are classified as having at least 11.5% chromium, giving them aqueous corrosion resistance. This is the actual ANSI metallurgical classification for "stainless steel." D2 has 12% chromium. D2 is a stainless steel. Sigh.

Along the same lines, I'm certain that this guy would insist that 410 stainless steel is most certainly stainless, since it's the darling of the hobbyist knifemaking crowd. 410 is the most frequently recommended stainless steel for fittings, bolsters, and guards by forum posters. When a new knifemaker asks on a forum what stainless steel to use for his knife fittings, he is immediately told to use 410, that 410 is the "standard" stainless for fittings. Unknowledgeable posters will insist that this is a true stainless steel, even though it is actually a "borderline" stainless, weighing in at exactly 11.5% chromium, the very point of stainless classification. The guy who scoffs at 12% chromium making D2 a stainless steel would insist that 410, having less chromium, is certainly a stainless steel...

The problem here is that 410—like all other stainless steels—absolutely must be heat treated to have its intended resistance to corrosion. This is actually a food safety requirement! And 410 is never, ever heat treated on any knife fitting, anywhere. This means that 410 is NOT FOOD CONTACT SAFE in this condition, and that it will start corroding. Even if it isn't corroding on the exposed surface due to handling and washing, it can be freely corroding where its in contact with the blade or handle material, out of sight.

Claim: "Other equipment in the kitchen is not stainless steel, so knives don't have to be."

Truth: Other equipment in the kitchen is not all Food Contact regulated. All Food Contact items (read "food contact," if you're confused about the concept) used in professional kitchens that serve the public are required to be non-corrosive; either stainless steel, plastic, or ceramic. This is a requirement by every safety and health public authority in the United States of America. I can't say what goes on in other countries, so there's that. Why is this so difficult to understand?

Claim: "No kitchen could afford stainless steel appliances, counters, bowls, utensils, etc. So it's not done."

Truth: What the...?  Whoever wrote this has never been in a professional restaurant kitchen, no matter what they claim. All governing authorities require stainless steel; have you ever seen a restaurant kitchen? Have you ever shopped for restaurant equipment or noticed a NSF rating? Of course kitchens can afford it; stainless steel is not some mystical, overpriced rarity like neptunium (hint: please don't use neptunium in your kitchen!).

I guess all the restaurants have gone out of business—and they forgot to tell us—because 304 stainless steel is so pricy... sigh. This is just plain foolishness in action via a keyboard. The reality is all modern restaurants are filled with 304 stainless steel; it's everywhere!

Maybe the guy who wrote this (anonymously) means in a home kitchen. Well, then, Wal-Mart® sells lots and lots of stainless steel; it's very affordable for the home.

Okay, that's not it, so what did he mean? Maybe his kitchen uses carbon steel dishes, pans, utensils, and carbon steel countertops... gosh, I've never seen one of those! How do you maintain a carbon steel kitchen? Lots of WD-40®, Scotch-Brite®, and loads of wax or grease, I suppose.

Claim: "The regulations can be interpreted in a lot of ways; Jay Fisher doesn't know what he's talking about."

Truth: How dense does someone have to be to be unable to read plain, clear regulations written in plain English?

Okay, that's a little rough, but here's the thing: I've posted these guides and regulations and clearly cited their source. The reader can look them up themself, read them from their source, and if they are confused, they can actually contact representatives from the entities that wrote them for clarification. They don't have to take my word for it; they can do the research on their own. I did, and it was incredibly easy! But will they?

Then, when they find out that none of it is true, and Jay was just making it up, they can build their own case (a website is nice) making their point and telling the rest of the world that rusting, corroding, bacteria-hiding materials and finishes in knives (and everything else in food contact) are actually preferred!

I can't wait to see the case for filth!

The attacks continue, but do you see now how taking comments out of context distort the comment and the truth overall? I hope your recognize the process; a lot of guys writing about knives do this, and they hope the person reading it won't notice.

For angry forum and public anonymous posters on the internet: You don't have to use stainless steel! You can use anything you like in your home: rusty, 200 year-old corroded anchor chain, a stick your dog brought in from the yard. You can use a piece of old toast, lightly wetted; you can eat with your dirty fingers from a bowl.

The guidelines are simply that: guidelines. Don't blame me for posting them; don't blame Jay Fisher for bringing the truth to light. Blame these agencies listed above. Go to them, force them to adhere to your suggestion that the only good kitchen knife is one that is made of rusting steel. I dare you.

Nope, it's easier to go on a hobbyist's forum anonymously, take some sentences out of context from my website, and claim I'm just making this up, cyber-bullying your way to the top. I'm sure they think I'm a cyber-bully for simply repeating the actual regulations, sections, and code. That would make the CDC, USDA, ANSI, and the rest of them all cyber-bullies also. Oh, the humanity-

Just remember this: your future client is educated, familiar with the internet and modern science, and can and does read and research. Let me know how that works for you.

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Important Statements from Authorities and Organizations
Dedicated to Health and Safety

I want to end this with a heavy hammer, because of the importance of the topic. Here are some quotations, statements, and excerpts from official sources that detail some of the topics discussed on this page. If you've read this far, you can certainly interpret them in the framework of pathways, vectors, and contamination and exposure concerns related to Food Contact Surfaces (FCS) and knives.

Page Topics

Summary
It's Your Choice

You might be asking yourself why so many knives are made and sold for kitchen or chef's use that are not actually food-safe. I do, too. The answer isn't that difficult, but it does put things in perspective.

Not all knives are food safe. This doesn't mean they can't be used in the kitchen or for meal preparation. This means that they are a risk. The level of that risk is depends on a large number of factors. How corrosion-resistant are they? Are they smooth and easy to clean? Do they have roughness that would stubbornly cling to grease, fat, and waxes on a microscopic scale? Are the handles solid, stiff, immovable, and sealed? How often are they cleaned? How many foodstuffs in the kitchen are contaminated or could be contaminated? Is my knife actually making me or my family sick?

I tried to think of an analogy. Mankind tries to make things as safe as possible, depending on how much they cost, and how much we are willing to put into the object. Think about a vehicle. We make them the best we can, and some are much more unsafe than others. A smaller, thinner box of steel around you will protect you much less than a larger, heavier, more robust vehicle. A set of side curtain air bags will protect you more than just the seat belt. A forward collision warning system may add another layer of protection. Or we could just drive a motorcycle, and experience a 35 times greater risk of death than a car. It's up to us.

It's also up to us in how we maintain and service the vehicle and how we drive it. If we don't maintain it, the tires may blow out, the engine may die on a busy freeway, the steering system may fail. If we drive like an idiot and speed everywhere, we increase our risk of death tremendously. Speeding was a factor in the deaths occurring in over a quarter of all motor vehicle accidents.

Yet, some people still buy small, dangerous vehicles, and people still fail to maintain them, and people still speed, endangering their lives and the lives of others, even others they love.

Likewise, people make and sell knives that do not meet safety standards, consumers use them carelessly, and potentially sicken those they love as well.

These are choices. We all have them, every day. This is the result of freedom, and I highly approve of freedom. My own freedom, like yours, allows you access to this very information you are reading, so that you can make your very own informed choices.

The rate of speeding, the deaths on our highways, and the overall fatalities have been continually dropping for decades. This is because we have information, and we build safer vehicles, and we drive them more carefully than we did in the decades past.

My hope is that as food safety and knife knowledge grows, too, and that we will be able to refine our choices based on safety and care in choosing and using the knives we need every day around our family's table.

Thanks for being here.

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References:

• "Corrosion Behavior of Cast Iron in Different Aqueous Salt Solutions," Dr. Ali Hubi Haleem, Assist. Lect. Firas Jabar, Assist. Lect Newal Mohammed, Babylon University-College of Materials Engineering
• "Steel Corrosion," Corrosion Consultant Pierre R. Roberge, PhD, P.Eng. FNACE
• Mention: "Campylobacter infection transmissible with knives and cutting boards" (MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report), Centers for Disease Control, (2001)
• Food Safety Magazine, August/September 2005, Forensic sanitarian Robert W. Powitz, Ph.D., MPH, RS, CFSP.
• Food Safe Contact Surfaces, Food Safety and Sanitation, Penn State Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences (2018)
• Food Safety and Sanitation, Penn State Department of Food Science, College of Agricultural Sciences (2018)
• Food Safety in Home Kitchens, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (2013)
• Nickel Release from 304 and 316 Stainless Steels in Synthetic Sweat. Comparison with Nickel and Nickel-plated Metals. Consequences on Allergic Contact Dermatitis, P.Haudrechy, J.Foussereau, B.Mantout, B.Baroux, Corrosion Science (1993)
• The World Encyclopedia of Knives, Daggers, and Bayonets, Dr. Tobias Capwell (2009)
• Knives and Swords, A Visual History, Chris McNab (2010)
• Food-borne illnesses can be spread by kitchen knives, say scientists -AFP New York Daily News (Dec 2012)
• Most Common Foodborne Pathogens, Taylor Wolfram, MS, RDN, LDN, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, (2017)
• Cross-contamination in the kitchen: estimation of transfer rates for cutting boards, hands and knives, E.D. Van Asselt A.E.I. De Jong, M.J. Nauta, Journal of Applied Microbiology, (2008)
• Contamination of knives and graters by bacterial foodborne pathogens during slicing and grating of produce, Marilyn C.Erickson, JeanLiao, Jennifer L.CannonYnes R.Ortega, Food Microbiology, Volume 52 (December 2015)
• The adhesion of bacteria to austenitic stainless steel (AISI 316L) with different surface finishes, Matej Hočevar, Et al., Institute of Metals and Technology, Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Consumer Food-Handling Behaviors Associated with Prevention of 13 Foodborne Illnesses, Hillers, Medeiros, Kendall, Chen, Mascola, Journal of Food Protection, (2003)
• Sanitation Performance Standards Compliance Guide, United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, (2018)
• Motorcycle Safety, US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (2018)
• General Statistics, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute (2018)

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