Are there American equivalents for high end exotic Japanese steel?

DeadboxHero

DeadboxHero

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Mar 22, 2014
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I am enchanted by High end Japanese cultery steel. It pains me to know its not available in here in the states. Even though I don't have the resources to properly work and treat it (heck I'd send the steel and design to someone that can.) Based on production knives I've bought I've been exhilarated by the performance and the keeness of the edges.


Are there any US equivalents for the following? And is there any sign of these ever become available in bar stock here in the States?

Vg10
Aogami super blue
SG-2
Zdp-189
 
Aldo at NJSB carries Hitachi Blue now. I have used a lot of it, and it makes great knives. Brad at Peters does a good HT on it.

52100, 1095, and W2 are the usual steels used to match the Hitachi steels. Dictum has the best inventory, and is where I get my various Hitachi steels. Their suminagashi makes nice blades, and they are the only source of white steel I have found. The dollar is strong against the Euro, and shipping is surprisingly low from Germany. Order a couple hundred bucks in steel, and make a couple thousand dollars in knives.

That said, there is no magic or advantage in Hitachi steel beyond unexcelled reliability on consistent quality. The white paper steel ( shirogami) is the best for a water quenched hamon and has no equivalent. But, the others steel grades and products have American steels equivalents that produce the same results. It is the name that sells. You can thank the Japanese kitchen knife industry for making it possible to add 30% to 100% in the price of a knife made with it. On blades like yanagi-ba, some people will turn down a wonderful 52100 knife at $200 by a known western named smith, and buy one made in Hitachi blue steel ( aogami) for $500 from someone they never heard of with a Japanese name. Make it in shirogami and it fetches $700.

https://www.dictum.com/en/materials/steel
 
Luckily, I still have a bar Hitachi Blue#2 from Aldo. Look like, Aldo sold-out that stock.
 
It looks like if you want yanagi-ba thickness stock, you will still have to buy from Dictum even if Aldo has any Blue. If you are gong to buy from them, play around with their shopping car and see where the bump ups in shipping come, IIRC, you can get 2 or maybe even three pieces for the low shipping price and that is always a factor unless you are ordering stuff from Japan which seems to have very low shipping costs for small items to the US if I go by what it took to get 2 large kitchen knives in boxes shipped to me a couple of years back. . My limited experience with German is that it is better than say the UK or Belgium when it comes to shipping cost.
 
with a steel like Aogami Super that has carbon of 1.4 to 1.5 % Im not sure what the equivalent would be?
 
DeadboxHero said:
I am enchanted by High end Japanese cultery steel. It pains me to know its not available in here in the states. Even though I don't have the resources to properly work and treat it (heck I'd send the steel and design to someone that can.) Based on production knives I've bought I've been exhilarated by the performance and the keeness of the edges.


Are there any US equivalents for the following? And is there any sign of these ever become available in bar stock here in the States?

Vg10
Aogami super blue
SG-2
Zdp-189
Click to expand...

I have a small supply of vg10 available right now and 3000 lbs of assorted steel In transit from japan should be in Seattle the end of Sept. alloys will include vg10, sg2 and v-toku 2 in both suminagashi and solid material. check at www.bladegallery.com for availability. 425-889-5980
 
Bill Burke said:
I have a small supply of vg10 available right now and 3000 lbs of assorted steel In transit from japan should be in Seattle the end of Sept. alloys will include vg10, sg2 and v-toku 2 in both suminagashi and solid material. check at www.bladegallery.com for availability. 425-889-5980
Click to expand...


I knew I should have moved back to Boise and bought a house by my cousins up at Robie Creek...
 
DeadboxHero said:
I am enchanted by High end Japanese cultery steel. It pains me to know its not available in here in the states. Even though I don't have the resources to properly work and treat it (heck I'd send the steel and design to someone that can.) Based on production knives I've bought I've been exhilarated by the performance and the keeness of the edges.


Are there any US equivalents for the following? And is there any sign of these ever become available in bar stock here in the States?

Vg10
Aogami super blue
SG-2
Zdp-189
Click to expand...

A smith with a worked out heat treat for W2 or 52100 will be able to exceed performance of most production blades with Japanese steels. The difference in performance between the W2/52100 and the Japanese steels is really quite small. If you can optimize your heat treat of the Japanese steels, you might squeeze a little bit extra performance out of them, but a "traditional" smith with a coal forge using blade color to measure temp will be leaving performance on the table.
 
I bought some Hitachi ATS-34 Stainless steel from Admiral Steel I think and I later found out that the American 154CM stainless steel is about the same alloy for a slightly cheaper price. I ground 16 feet of each and could not tell the difference in grinding , finishing, and hardening. I believe they have the same composition. Larry
 
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