Carbon Steel
Carbon Steel
Carbon steel is reactive — it will rust quickly if not properly cared for. Always wash immediately after use, dry thoroughly, and apply a thin coat of food-safe oil (camellia, mineral) before storage. Over time it develops a patina that offers some natural protection and, for many users, becomes part of the knife's character. Rewarding to use, but not recommended if you want a "wash and forget" knife. Unknown
Carbon steel is reactive — it will rust quickly if not properly cared for. Always wash immediately after use, dry thoroughly, and apply a thin coat of food-safe oil (camellia, mineral) before storage. Over time it develops a patina that offers some natural protection and, for many users, becomes part of the knife's character. Rewarding to use, but not recommended if you want a "wash and forget" knife. Unknown
ApexUltra
Hardness
Rockwell C Hardness (HRC) measures how resistant a steel is to permanent deformation. For kitchen knives:
55–58 HRC — Soft. Easy to sharpen and forgiving of rough use, but dulls faster. Typical of most German knives.
59–61 HRC — Balanced. Good edge retention with manageable sharpening. Common in mid-range Japanese knives.
62–64 HRC — Hard. Excellent edge retention, holds a very fine edge. Requires more care and a fine stone to sharpen.
65+ HRC — Very hard. Exceptional edge longevity but more brittle — more prone to chipping if used roughly.
Higher is not always better — it depends on how you use and maintain your knife.
55–58 HRC — Soft. Easy to sharpen and forgiving of rough use, but dulls faster. Typical of most German knives.
59–61 HRC — Balanced. Good edge retention with manageable sharpening. Common in mid-range Japanese knives.
62–64 HRC — Hard. Excellent edge retention, holds a very fine edge. Requires more care and a fine stone to sharpen.
65+ HRC — Very hard. Exceptional edge longevity but more brittle — more prone to chipping if used roughly.
Higher is not always better — it depends on how you use and maintain your knife.
66–69
HRC
555759616365+
ApexUltra is one of the newest creations in the world of blade steels, and its performance and characteristics are specifically designed to suit the needs of culinary tool makers. Inspired by the legendary Blue Super steel and 52100 steel, ApexUltra targets extreme high hardness while maintaining a decent toughness, which allows super thin edges for fine slicing jobs.
The development of ApexUltra is quite different from the traditional approach used in the industry. At the core there are three members: Larrin Thomas, Tobias Hangler and Marco Guldimann, they are highly trained and experienced metallurgists, blacksmith and chef with thorough understanding in knife steel and their applications. With the theoretical knowledge to back them up, they utilised the resources across Europe to create the ApexUltra with high purity and homogeneity as well as fine grain and carbide size. This leads to really good and balanced performance that surpasses its predecessors Blue Super and 52100, allowing the steel to be hardened to almost 69HRC while maintaining better toughness than Blue super at 65HRC. Makers can create incredibly fine and thin edges that last an extensive amount of time in the kitchen.
The secret lies in the technology and composition. With finely selected source material and advanced electroslag remelt technology, the inclusion and impurity is minimised to reduce particles that can damage the toughness of the knife. When looking at the elements, you’ll find this is a very low alloy carbon steel. The small amount of chromium can form chromium enriched iron carbide and increase the hardness significantly, the tungsten and the vanadium will form very fine carbide that significantly increase the wear resistance without sacrificing a lot of the toughness. This leads to a good balance in hardness and toughness at a very high working hardness, as well as a stellar performance in wear resistance.
One thing the maker wanted to achieve was the workability for forging knifemakers, and they intentionally kept the alloy level low so all carbides can dissolve at forging temperature. This means we can expect all the great blacksmith with top forge techniques can work with this steel just like the other older carbon steel that they are used to, but not you can expect higher performance from the better material. An added benefit is the ease of sharpening, despite the very high hardness(66HRC+ in kitchen knife application), the low volume and small size of carbide will allow ApexUltra to be sharpened on regular stones without much difficulty, so this really is a steel that is friendly to makers and users.
Although the ApexUltra is relatively new to the market, most of the European custom knife makers have adopted it as their primary choice for carbon steel, hopefully we can see this steel get used by Japanese makers in their knives eventually.
The development of ApexUltra is quite different from the traditional approach used in the industry. At the core there are three members: Larrin Thomas, Tobias Hangler and Marco Guldimann, they are highly trained and experienced metallurgists, blacksmith and chef with thorough understanding in knife steel and their applications. With the theoretical knowledge to back them up, they utilised the resources across Europe to create the ApexUltra with high purity and homogeneity as well as fine grain and carbide size. This leads to really good and balanced performance that surpasses its predecessors Blue Super and 52100, allowing the steel to be hardened to almost 69HRC while maintaining better toughness than Blue super at 65HRC. Makers can create incredibly fine and thin edges that last an extensive amount of time in the kitchen.
The secret lies in the technology and composition. With finely selected source material and advanced electroslag remelt technology, the inclusion and impurity is minimised to reduce particles that can damage the toughness of the knife. When looking at the elements, you’ll find this is a very low alloy carbon steel. The small amount of chromium can form chromium enriched iron carbide and increase the hardness significantly, the tungsten and the vanadium will form very fine carbide that significantly increase the wear resistance without sacrificing a lot of the toughness. This leads to a good balance in hardness and toughness at a very high working hardness, as well as a stellar performance in wear resistance.
One thing the maker wanted to achieve was the workability for forging knifemakers, and they intentionally kept the alloy level low so all carbides can dissolve at forging temperature. This means we can expect all the great blacksmith with top forge techniques can work with this steel just like the other older carbon steel that they are used to, but not you can expect higher performance from the better material. An added benefit is the ease of sharpening, despite the very high hardness(66HRC+ in kitchen knife application), the low volume and small size of carbide will allow ApexUltra to be sharpened on regular stones without much difficulty, so this really is a steel that is friendly to makers and users.
Although the ApexUltra is relatively new to the market, most of the European custom knife makers have adopted it as their primary choice for carbon steel, hopefully we can see this steel get used by Japanese makers in their knives eventually.
Composition
ApexUltra Element Composition
Compare with
ApexUltra
—
2.6%
2.0%
1.3%
0.7%
0
C
1.25%
Cr
1.5%
V
0.4%
W
2.6%
Mn
0.3%
Si
0.35%
P
0.01%
S
0.01%
C — Carbon
Cr — Chromium
V — Vanadium
W — Tungsten
Mn — Manganese
Si — Silicon
P — Phosphorus
S — Sulfur
Hardness
66–69 HRC
555759616365+
