Okay, hot button pressed. Enter catharsis....
It is not, repeat not, repeat NOT--dammit--modified A8. How many hundred thousand times has this got to be talked about?
ASTM A8 Mod. Latrobe*******************INFI
Carbon, C 0.50 %***********************Carbon, C 0.50 %
Chromium, Cr 8.0 %*********************Chromium, Cr 8.25 %
Manganese, Mn 0.45 %*******************Nitrogen, N 0.11 %
Molybdenum, Mo 1.30 %******************Molybdenum, Mo 1.30 %
Silicon, Si 0.95 %************************Cobalt, Co 0.95 %
Vanadium, V 0.45 %*********************Vanadium, V 0.36 %
**************************************Nickel, Ni 0.74 %
Yes, the amounts of carbon, Molybdenum, and Chromium are very similar. That said, Mod A8 contains both Manganese and Silicon---INFI doesn't. INFI contains significant quantities of Cobalt and Nickel, and a little bit of Nitrogen---Mod. A8 doesn't. You would expend three times the effort (and money) for the total amount of steel you'd have to create "modifying" a batch of modified A8 to get the new composition to contain not only the correct percentages of the new elements but also to turn the volume of Manganese and Silicon into trace elements, as you would just creating a separate steel. Which is what INFI is. It's not mystery steel, it's just not an alloy typically used in knives, and so not available from the steel distributors that we, as knife enthusiasts, are familiar with. As such, it also is probably not available in the small quantities that a typical knife maker buys in. And before anybody jumps in with the "Well, he can't be dealing in the quantities of steel that'd be necessary for a special order like this" line that always pops up about this point in the conversation, let me remind of the sale thread Jerry had going in the maker's section a few years ago (tried to find it, but I guess it died in one of the archive whittling runthroughs) where he was selling 80,000 pounds of D2 that was left over from his earlier years.
Catharsis complete, blood pressure returning to normal. Forgive me, it's just that having read the 'INFI is A8' discussion about fifty times I know it by heart.