Aperam Nitrox Knife Steel
Composition Analysis Graph, Equivalents And Overview

Nitrox(Aperam) - Popular name used in knife community for the Aperam ma5 steel. Martensitic Stainless Nitrogen Steel, according to the manufacturer - an ideal for knife blades and cutting tools. Not sure about it being an ideal, but I guess it'll do a decent job for the blades designed for food cutting and in general requiring high corrosion resistance. High corrosion resistance is desired for all sorts of tools in food processing industry, cutting included. I couldn't find the exact numbers of charts for heat treatment, official page just states that Nitrox has high capacity for hardening, but it's unlikely it'll be workable in a knife past 60HRC. The same page also states that Nitrox benefits from cold treatment after quenching. I suppose that meant cryo treatment would benefit the final product. Nitrox isn't a dedicated knife steel like MagnaCut or CPM S30V. It can also be used for mechanical parts, industrial blades and cutting tools and more. Just stating its recommended use, not to say it takes away from Nitrox qualities in a knife blade. I've seen it used on occasion in small custom blades, should perform similar to Krupp Cronidur30 stainless steel. Quite close in composition actually, I'd put them in the same group, if not the absence of the 0.85%-1.10% Molybdenum in Nitrox, which is present in Cronidur30 stainless steel, and Nitrogen content in Nitrox is a bit lower as well, 0.15% vs. 0.30%-0.50%, that would be 2-3 times less.

Manufacturing Technology - Ingot

Country - Luxemburg(LU)

Known Aliases:
Aperam - ma5