Prommet-Stal 70X16MFS Knife Steel
Composition Analysis Graph, Equivalents And Overview

70X16MFS(Prommet-Stal) - Relatively new, Russian stainless alloy. Appeared around 2011. Patented steel. Exact composition is not published, other than 0.70% Carbon and 16% Chromium. According to specs, working hardness range is 57-62HRC. I don't know how much Molybdenum is in it, I doubt there's a lot of it, that's not something manufacturer hides. Same for the Vanadium. Without alloying elements, I am not sure at 62HRC edge will have good stability, not with 16% Chromium in it, and not with 0.70% Carbon. There's a document scan floating on the net, which is an official assessment of the alloy suitability for the knives, done by the institute of the Russian "Quality Alloys Institute" as far as I understand. According to them 70X16MFS is better than 110X18 steel and 95X18 steel. Quite a claim, to be honest, and consider that 110X18 contains 0.80% Mo and a lot more Carbon. I did search for the knives made out of that steel, and all of the knives are in 52-56HRC range. So, in the end, despite of bold claims, production knives are well below even lower end of the official 57-62HRC. 52-56HRC is a pretty good indicator of low quality knives, RC spread is too large, ergo nobody really cares about quality heat treat, and softer steel is cheaper to manufacture, and machine. May be high end knives made out of this alloy will be better.

Manufacturing Technology - Ingot

Country - Russia(RU)

Known Aliases:
Prommet-Stal - 70X16MFS-SH, Prommet-Stal - 70KH16MFS-SH, Prommet-Stal - 70KH16MFS