VG10 steel and 67 layers

VG10 is a high-carbon stainless steel developed for cutlery. Its composition comes down to a handful of figures: roughly 1 per cent carbon, 15 per cent chromium, then molybdenum, vanadium and a little cobalt.

Each of those elements does a precise job. Carbon allows the steel to be hardened, and therefore to hold an edge. Chromium provides the stainless quality. Vanadium forms very hard carbides that slow the wear of the edge. Molybdenum refines the grain.

What hardness means

VG10 is hardened to around 60-61 HRC. A common European cutlery steel sits near 56.

Four points on that scale sound like little; they change two things. First, the edge resists deformation for longer: a knife stays sharp for months where another one wants a steel every week. Second, the metal accepts a firmer angle, 15 degrees per side instead of 20, which makes the entry into the food noticeably cleaner.

The trade-off is that hard steel forgives less. It does not forgive bone, frozen food, prying, or a glass board.

What the layers are really for

A knife described as damascus is not made of 67 different steels. It is a sandwich: a VG10 core, the part that cuts, and on either side a stack of softer steel layers, folded back on itself until the advertised count is reached.

Those layers never touch the cutting edge. Their role is mechanical: they wrap a hard, therefore brittle, core in a material that absorbs shock. A lateral stress spreads through the sandwich instead of cracking the core.

The visible pattern is a side effect. Acid polishing bites unevenly into the different layers and reveals their drawing. It looks good, and it is the honest signature of a real assembly.

Where marketing takes over

Three claims to read carefully, on any site:

A layer count presented as proof of quality. Past a dozen, the difference is aesthetic.

The word damascus used on its own. It says nothing about the core, which is the only steel that cuts. The question to ask is always: which steel in the middle, and at what hardness?

Implied origin. A Japanese-grade steel can be forged anywhere. The knives we sell are forged in China, and we write it on every product page. When the maker does not name the core grade, we do not make one up: we wait for the sample.

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