VG10 steel and 67 layers

VG10 is a high-carbon stainless steel developed by Takefu Special Steel for cutlery. VG stands for V Gold, the name of the maker’s series: a trade name, not a formula.

The composition, element by element

Element	Content	What it does
Carbon	0.95 to 1.05 %	allows hardening, therefore hardness and edge retention
Chromium	14.5 to 15.5 %	makes the steel stainless, forms carbides
Cobalt	1.3 to 1.8 %	refines the structure, helps hardening at high HRC
Molybdenum	0.9 to 1.2 %	refines the grain, raises wear resistance
Vanadium	0.1 to 0.3 %	forms the hardest carbides, slows edge wear
Manganese	0.5 % max	helps forging

Those figures explain how the blade behaves. Carbon and cobalt give the hardness, chromium the stainless quality, vanadium and molybdenum the fineness of the grain and therefore the fineness of the edge you can raise on a stone.

What hardness means

Hardness is read on the Rockwell C scale, written HRC: a diamond cone is pressed into the steel under a fixed load and the indentation is measured. The smaller the indentation, the higher the figure.

Steel	Hardness	Where you find it
X50CrMoV15	54 to 56 HRC	common European cutlery
VG10, AUS-10	60 to 61 HRC	Japanese mid range
SG2 / R2	62 to 64 HRC	Japanese high end
Aogami Super	63 to 65 HRC	professional carbon steel

VG10 is therefore hardened to around 60-61 HRC, where 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.

VG10, AUS-10 and SG2

These are the three grades you meet in the same display case, and spec sheets present them as three worlds. They are two.

AUS-10 is a steel from Aichi Steel, near enough a twin of VG10: the same carbon content, the same chromium, slightly less cobalt, slightly more vanadium. It is hardened in the same band, 60 to 61 HRC. When cutting, nobody tells them apart blind; on the stone, AUS-10 raises a very slightly coarser burr. Choosing between them on the grade is a method error: the shape of the blade and the price decide.

SG2, also sold as R2, belongs to another family. It is not cast then rolled: its steel powder is sintered under pressure, which spreads far finer and far more regular carbides. Hardened between 62 and 64 HRC, it keeps a usable edge two to three times longer than VG10.

	VG10	AUS-10	SG2 / R2
Hardness	60-61 HRC	60-61 HRC	62-64 HRC
Manufacture	cast steel	cast steel	powder metallurgy
Edge retention	good	good	very high
Resharpening	easy, 1000 stone	easy, 1000 stone	slow, fine stone needed
Shock tolerance	fair	fair	low
Price of a blade	80 to 150 €	70 to 140 €	180 to 400 €

What SG2 costs, then, is not a better edge: it is the frequency of sharpening. Someone who puts a blade on the stone every couple of months without thinking about it gains nothing from it. Someone who cuts eight hours a day gains one session instead of three.

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. Their maker documents a 67 layer forged damascus without naming the core grade: we do not make one up, and that line stays empty on our pages.

Frequently asked