Yoshikin CROMOVA 18 Knife Steel
Composition Analysis Graph, Equivalents And Overview

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After chasing it for more than a decade, I think we finally got the composition of the Cromova 18 right at this time - 06/2019. To give you a recap, several years ago, multiple trustworthy sources from the knife industry confirmed the same: Cromova 18 is rebranded or renamed Aichi AUS-6M steel. Then, there were other theories well, Cromova 18 could be another steel from the same maker, specifically Aichi AUS-118 steel, referring to 18 as the Chromium percentage, however Global's main website has no mention of 18% Cr in their knives, neither do US dealers, last I found, mentioning 18% was only a single UK dealer. On top of that, heat treating AUS-118 to 56-58HRC is a waste of potential and money too, it is more expensive than AUS6M, so why bother with expensive steel and then make it underperform?

Fast forward to 06/2019, site visitor provided composition for the Cromova 18 steel, acquired by using an x-ray spectrometer. The gentleman providing the measurements, was kind enough to perform multiple tests at my request, to account for measurement variances. In the end, we have the median values for the following elements: Cr, Mo, V, Mn, Ni, Si, Cu. I've listed median values out of 4 measurements in the composition. Unfortunately, this type of the spectrometer won't detect Carbon, however, the rest of the alloying elements were sufficiently detected to easily determine the steel group. C, P and S were provided from Japanese JIS standard SUS440B stainless steel spec. In other words, a quick search in the database pointed out two potential matches, 440B series and Takefu CoS steel. I've discarded later immediately, as the spectrometer wouldn't miss 2%-3% Cobalt in the alloy. Also Global/Yoshikin wouldn't miss the chance to tell us about rather an expensive alloying material being used in their steel. That left the 440B group.

Well, one more mystery solved :) Cromova 18 conforms to a well known steel spec, SUS440B stainless steel being Japanese equivalent of the AISI 440B steel.

Follow the AISI 440B steel link for more info on the series.

Manufacturing Technology - Ingot

Country - Japan(JP)