High Speed Powder Stainless Steel (R2, SG2, SRS13, SRS15)

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About High Speed Powder Stainless Steel (R2, SG2, SRS13, SRS15)

This group of steels includes SRS13 and SRS15 Powdered Stainless Steels, R2 Powdered Stainless Steel, and SG2 Powdered Stainless Steel. They all have a Rockwell hardness of 62–63, and they are all very similar steels, so we've grouped them together here. 

If VG10 is the knife maker's steel of the moment, then Powder Steel is the knife maker's steel of the future. Also called High-Speed Steel, Tool Steel, or Die Steel, this is great stuff. It’s generally found in hard-wearing tools like dentist drills and tools used to cut metal. Very hard and capable of keeping an extreme edge for an extended period of time. Knives made from Powder Steel perform like few others.

These are serious precision instruments and must be treated as such. You might even say they need to be babied a bit because of the high hardness—especially when Powder Steel knives are ground very thin. With these knives, one must accept that the blade could chip from time to time, but it’s a small price to pay for the insane performance.

Another steel, that would be considered a High-Speed Powder Stainless Steel, but is significantly harder is ZDP189 Powdered Stainless Steel.

Steel Composition -  Carbon (C) 1.25–1.5%, Chromium (Cr) 13–16%, Molybdenum (Mo) 2.3–3.3%, Vanadium (V) 1.5–2.2%, Manganese (Mn) 0.3–0.4%, Silicon (Si) 0.3–0.5%