To cover the history of 8Cr13MoV we have to go back to Japan, or even further back to Europe. Hitachi in Japan came out with their own stainless tool steels called “Gingami” meaning “silver paper” with three different designations. All three of these steels were copies, or nearly so, of stainless steels available in Europe. They were released somewhere in the 1933-1951 time period. In 1960 Fukami Steel Company was founded in Japan and they introduced AUS-4 and AUS-6 in 1968. AUS-4 was a 420/420HC type steel and AUS-6 was similar but with higher carbon and a small molybdenum and vanadium addition. AUS-6 was very similar to Gingami 2, and also other European steels such as Sandvik’s 12C27. AUS-8 was introduced in the 1970s which was AUS-6 with increased carbon up to ~0.8%. AUS-6 and AUS-8 became very common in Japanese factory knives, such as Kershaw’s imported knives introduced in the late 1970s. You can read more about all of this history (including citations) in my book The Story of Knife Steel.
I never new that 8Cr is a derivative of Aus8. Interesting tidbit and one of many things I learned in here.
Read the whole thing at KnifeSteelNerds.com