Sandvik 13C26 Stainless Steel for Knife Blades

Sandvik 13C26 Stainless Steel

Manufacturer: Sandvik Materials Technology

Sandvik 13C26 is a cutlery steel manufactured by Sanvik Materials Technology in Sweden. It's said to be designed as a Razor Blade steel, but it is used on plenty of entry levels knives particularly from Kershaw.

The steel has a very high Carbon to Chromium ratio, which allows it to have a very fine grain structure but also reduces its ability to resist corrosion. Since there hasn't been too many widespread cases of Kershaw knives getting rusty, I wouldn't worry too much about it, as it does have better corrosion resistant that say D2 steel. However, it is recommended to be coated if used for an EDC blade.

Generally a step up from the 440A's of the world, but not quite in the VG-10 steel territory. Sandvik 13C26 holds an edge good enough, but it truly excels at taking a fine edge.

Sandvik 13C26 Stainless Steel PDF

Composition

C Cr Mn Mo P Si S Ni V
0.68 12.9 0.6 - - 0.4 - -
Values are shown in percentages.