MBS-26??

[jefroman]

I had never heard of this steel until I yesterday when I was looking at the Spyderco kitchen knives at the oso grande web site. Could somneone please give me some general info on this steel? Such as: rust(stain) resistance, edge holding, toughness, etc. Why isn't this steel used on many other knives? Is it a new steel?

Thanks!

Jeff

 

[wire edge]

MBS-26 is the unevolved brother of VG-10. Take away a bit of vanadium and cobalt and there you have it, MBS-26.

This is an excellent alloy for kitchen knives. It posseses very good corrosion resistance with about 15% chromium, and good edge retention with about .9% carbon. It can be hardened to 60 Rc, but I'm not sure how hard the Spyderco blades are. Probably a bit softer, due to their use in the kitchen.

This is a very good steel, and with the proper application and heat treat it can be made even better. This would be one good kitchen knife that you wouldn't have to worry about throwing in the dishwasher!

 

[Jeff Clark]

It is a rather simple stainless steel, but there is something done really right in it. It takes an extremely sharp edge and is harder than most kitchen alloys. It feels a lot like AUS-8 to me. Usually you don't find AUS-8 in kitchen knives, AUS-6 would be fairly high-end in kitchen cutlery. Sal has done tests and thinks that MBS-26 performs better than AUS-8.

 

[Sal Glesser]

MBS-26 has been around for at least 20 years. It is little known because it is a priopriatary steel produced exclusively for one knife mfr in Japan. It is a steel that we have used and tested for 20 years and it always comes aout way ahead of all of the others for a kitchen knife.

This is a steel that the numbers do not tell the whole story. I once asked the maker how he was able to achieve such exceptional performance from this steel? That the steel performs far beyond the numbers. He said that the "secret" was a spohisticated heat treat spec that they adhere to meticulously. I have seen their heat treating and I must say that is is different than others I've seen. I really don't think it proper to divulge too much info.

I will say that we have found no other steel that will perform as well very thin. Edge retention is up there with the exotics, and corrosion resistance second only to 440C and X15TN, neither of which will get as sharp as, or stay sharp as long as MBS-26. That's why I went through the hoops necessary to make the folding filet knife with MBS-26. Which was a difficult project that took years to make happen.

sal