Knife Steel
Wrought: A2, D2, L6, O1, 416 440-C ESR 154-CM
Powder Steel: CPM-154 CPM D2, CPM CruWear, CPM 3V, CPM 4V, CD#1, CPM M4, CPM S30V CPM S35VN CPM S45VN CPM S60V CPM MagnaCut CPM S90V CPM S110V
We sell seven grades of wrought steel, fourteen CPM grades and one PM grade for the cutlery industry. All of our steel is melted and manufactured in the USA.
Wrought Steels are used for blades and components in knives. 416 is used primarily in the specialty knife industry for bolsters and pins. Our wrought tool and stainless steels are used for blades to fit the users application. 440-C ESR and 154-CM are used extensively for blade material. Our 440-C is Electroslag Remelted (ESR) to create a higher quality ingot. The ESR process removes impurities and inclusions though an additional melting step. 154-CM is a slight upgrade to 440-C with better wear and corrosion properties. D2 is a traditional tool steel known for wear resistance. A2, L6 and O1 are all used in knives where toughness is required.
CPM (Crucible Powder Metallurgy) steels offer superior performance over wrought products. Alloy segregation is minimized, and the process produces a very fine microstructure. Cutting applications where edge toughness is required is improved greatly by the CPM process because of the elimination of large carbides. You can also use a much higher alloy content in CPM steels which improves the toughness and/or wear resistance the alloy. You can also use the CPM process to upgrade existing alloys as was done when CPM-154, CPM M4 and CPM D2 were created. Our two newest CPM alloys are S45VN and MagnaCut. S45VN was designed by Frank Cox at Niagara Specialty Metals as a more corrosion and wear resistant version of S30V and S35VN. Several production knife companies have added this grade to their blade offerings. CPM MagnaCut was designed by Larrin Thomas as a unique powder metallurgy stainless tool steel with a design which eliminates chromium carbide in the heat-treated microstructure. An excellent combination of toughness and wear resistance is achieved by having only small, high hardness vanadium and niobium carbides, giving CPM MagnaCut properties similar to non-stainless steel CPM 4V.
CPM, 3V, 4V, S30-V, CPM 154, 154-CM, 15V, S90V and S110-V are registered trademarks of Crucible Industries LLC.
