All about Aogami, highly ranked material for kitchen knives (4)

Aogami Super (Blue Paper Super)

The hardness level of a blade of Aogami Super knives may go up to around 70 HRC at the moment when a blade is quenched, and then is to be set back to 65-68 HRC by tempering. Still it is harder than any other carbon steel and it simply means that a finished product requires less frequency of sharpening. Also, its hardness and stickiness can protect a blade from abrasion, keeping it from being thinner.

The amount of carbon contained in the Aogami Super accounts for 1.40%-1.50% of total ingredients. It contains the same amount of chromium and tungsten as Aogami No.1 while it does have molybdenum and vanadium with high content of carbon. Molybdenum has properties to increase stickiness more than chromium, leading a knife to keep long-lasting sharpness. Vanadium can be a factor to make a steel material that is hard with an excellent abrasion resistance and little flection.



It simply means that a finished product requires less frequency of sharpening. Also, its hardness and stickiness can protect a blade from abrasion, keeping it from being thinner.
Applying mirror finish to both front and rear surfaces can make a finished knife not only rustproof but also durable.

We must note it also has some downside. We’ve just talked about the upside features of it such as long-lasting sharpness, hardness and little abrasion, but if we take the opposite point of view…. Let’s say, if a blade chips off, it takes so much for us to re-sharpen it. If a process of Honyaki (true-forging) is skipped in handling this material, it’s inevitable to consume tremendous time and effort for repairing. Immediately after a blade chips off, its outstanding upside such as hardness and little abrasion turns into a big pain in the neck, gnawing at your energy just for repairing. It also requires a lot of work for blade edging. Even if an idea of making it Meretrix-shape occurs to you, you may know that it may take more than twice the time you expect. If you still want to buy Aogami Super with all these things considered, it’s ok and you’ll be happy with your choice.    

Summary of Aogami

Different kinds of Aogamis (Blue Paper Steels) have been covered so far.
It’s sure that the hardness level of a blade of Aogami knives that are currently in the market is over 60 HRC. The moment when a blade is quenched, the hardness level soars to over 65 HRC. Then, the level is to be set back to around 61 HRC by tempering. It would be very difficult to sharpen a blade with an artificial whetstone once the hardness level goes up to over 63HRC. 
If you are a skilled chef, you should be able to appreciate and enjoy an Aogami knife satisfactorily with “Aogami No.2-B”. It can be proved by the fact that the most selling Aogami item is “Aogami No.2”. As next step, you could upgrade your cutlery to Aogami No.1. You can bring out the best in Aogami No.1 just because you have taken all its downside features into account and thus will be able to use Aogami well as your strong tool.

Check Aogami (Blue Paper Steel) Knives >

If you have any question, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Thank you for reading and best regards! 

All the Hocho-Knife staff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hocho” represents Made-in-Japan (Sushi / Sashimi) Kitchen Knives,
that is the soul of the cook!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~