Konstantinos Noulis

Aogami Super — Blue Super, in plain English — is the most heavily alloyed of Hitachi's blue-paper steels, and the one most associated with the long-edge-life end of the traditional Japanese kitchen knife world. Roughly 1.45 percent carbon, half a percent each of chromium and tungsten, plus molybdenum and vanadium additions, give it noticeably more carbide content than Aogami #2 or #1.

In a competent gyuto it typically lands at 63–65 HRC and holds an edge for an unusually long time for a non-powder steel. The trade-off, predictable from the chemistry, is that the larger carbides mean slightly more work at the stone and a slightly less smooth edge than Shirogami #1 at its peak. Most users do not notice; the ones who do tend to come from a finishing-stone tradition. Toughness is moderate — similar to or slightly below the white papers at the same hardness — and the steel will patina with normal use.

Aogami Super is the steel you reach for when you want a long-running edge from a maker who refuses to use powder metallurgy. It is widely used across the Sakai and Sanjō traditions and remains one of the most-asked-for Hitachi steels on the secondary market. Among the makers Modern Cooking carries, Neil Ayling, Konstantinos Noulis, and Jonas Johnsson work in Aogami Super. It is, in many ways, the canonical "blue paper" experience.

SheffCut is one of the recent entries in the modern carbon-steel revival: in essence, 26C3 with a small (~0.10 percent) niobium addition for further grain refinement and a touch more wear resistance. The steel is produced and marketed by Sheffield specialty supplier GFS and has been adopted enthusiastically by the British and American forging communities.

For the cook, SheffCut behaves almost identically to 26C3: a clean apex, easy sharpening, edge retention competitive with the best non-powder carbons, and toughness good enough to allow thinner geometries than the simple carbons can support. The niobium addition is genuine but subtle — a small but measurable improvement on what was already a very strong steel. Patina behaviour is conventional.

SheffCut is often presented as a "Sheffield carbon revival" — a deliberate reframing of UK steelmaking in the post-Sheffield-decline era — and it is, narratively as well as metallurgically, a worthwhile project. Among the makers Modern Cooking carries, Konstantinos Noulis works in SheffCut. It is the kind of steel a customer ends up with after asking for "the best non-stainless edge a UK maker can give me."