On April 1 and 2,we had a Spring Knife Show in Seki City.There were about 40 custom knifemakers attended from all over Japan. Among the custom knifemakers,we found an interesting knifemaker,who is hand making Gyuto type Chef knives out of the special powdered steel called R2. His name is Hiroo Itou from FukuiCity, northern part of Japan. He has explained me that this powdered steel is made by Kobe Steel Company (Kobelco), one of the biggest steel maker in Japan. He said they never show him the chemical analysis of the steel (it seems they want to keep it confidencial to prevent being copied by other steel makers), but he found this steel the best for the kitchen knives in terms of the sharpness, edge retention, durability and rust resistance. I have asked him how good it is compared with other powdered steel such as Cowry (Daido steel) and ZDP (Hitachi steel), and he said, oh, uncomparable.…. it is much far better than those powdered steels.
He uses this R2 powdered steel for the core edge heat treated to Rockwell Rc 62,hand forged with 16 layered hard and soft stainless steel materials (total 33 layered Damascus blade).
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