# ekco "ancienne maison" ham slicer and boning knife , what crappy steel was used?



## gic (Dec 22, 2015)

So I agreed to sharpen a friends stainless ekco "ancienne maison" ham slicer and boning knife that were apparently made in France by one of the Sabatier companies. They were roughly as sharp as a butter knife when I started. (Also, the taper from heel to point was absurd for the intended use, but I couldn't do much about that.) 

Went through a full progression starting with a 400 grit stone up to Jon's 3k splash and go - with lots of time at Jon's diamond 1k and the 3k. 

I got them sharp enough I suppose but considering how much time I spent on them and the progression I used, they should have been a whole lot sharper - if the steel had any reasonable structure at all.

So, of course it got me thinking and wondering: just what kind of crappy, barely sharpenable steel was used in these kinds of stainless french knives? It certainly isn't even X50CrMoV15 which can be sharpened relatively easily.

(French carbon of course is really easy to sharpen even if it doesn't hold an edge all that well, this crappy stainless steel, not so much...)

TIA


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## psfred (Dec 22, 2015)

Stainless? Not X50CrNoV15, probably something harder. Or hardened more.

Check the edge with some magnification and see what you have, it's possible the edge simply will not stay up from soft material, but my recollection of Ekco was that it was not bargain basement stuff, it was fairly decent, might even be 440C hardened to RC 59 or so. If so, it will be quite abrasion resistant.

Also check the thickness behind the edge, you can easily have a razor sharp edge with a very fat knife behind it, so it cuts like it's dull in nearly everything -- the edge won't touch things like carrots, you are splitting them instead of cutting them. BTDT.

Peter


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## gic (Dec 22, 2015)

Thanks psfred!


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