Cold Steel stainless blades

[schoolmaster]

I recently bought a Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter folder and today noticed that the knife is marked "made in Japan" also the blade is marked VG-1 stainless. When I went back to the dealer he told me that the Japanese steel is better than USA steel and this blade is better than 440 or 154 steel. How about it? Is he correct? My older Cold Steel master hunter is marked made in the USA. Is it really inferior to the new one.

[Joel]

The Japanese make some of the best knives in the world. I've yet to see a bad one; something I can't say for American made knives. Vg-1 stainless has a composition similar to ATS-34/154CM.  Cold Steel claims that VG-1 has better edge retention the VG-10, 440C or ATS-34, but then companies are always claiming that....the old steel du jour trick.  I'm pretty sure it's better than 440C, most modern stainless steels are as far as edge retention goes.  It's at least as good as ATS-34 or VG-10, but that's about all I can gather from the info available.

[pneuby]

Very often, the Japanese blends are virtual duplicates of their American formula 'blends'. However, they have to give them a proprietary name.

[Joel]

That happens world wide.  In the case of the Japanese about the only example of same "blends" are 154CM and ATS-34.  They tend to improve on steels.  AUS-6/8/10 for example are basically the same as 440A/B/C, but have some Vanadium added which gives them better edge holding characteristics.