12C27 is very common in Europe. Especially in France and Italy apart from Scandinavia of course where it is the most common high-end knife steel.
It's Sandviks allround knife steel. Good corrosion resistance, HRC 57-59 with microstructure similar to 13C26. Sandvik recommends this steel for hunting knifes and tactical knifes because of the good toughness.
It's comparable to 13C26 and AEB-L. It has higher corrosion resistance because of more Cr and higher toughness because of less carbon. It has slightly lower edge retention though.
Buy a 8$ Frost Mora (if there is anything blue on the knife it's the right one, like the blue clipper for instance) at Ragweed and abuse the hell of it for a reference.
I'm swedish and about half of my knifes are 12C27. Moras, customs, Opinel, EKAs. Imho, a great knife steel. I'd pick it over 154Cm, D2 and 440C any day of the week.
//Jay
Edit.
Longlostthinker:
It may look like a 440A on a steel composition chart, but it's VERY different in terms of performance. A 12C27 heat treated in a good way outperforms 440A any day. Steel seems to be more than just composition. In my opinion this AG Russel is not fair by comparing them. It's like saying a crappy chinese "copy-knife" is similar to a high end one just because they look similar at first glance.
