AUS-6 Stainless Steel for Knife Blades
AUS-6 Stainless Steel
Manufacturer: Aichi Steel
AUS-6 is a entry level Japanese cutlery steel in the same class as 440A. AUS-6 was used a lot in entry level knives from CRKT, Kershaw and Sog, but has been seen less and less in current knives. CRKT in particular has dropped AUS-6 completely in favour of a various slew of other steels including AUS-4, 8Cr13MoV and 8Cr14MoV. AUS-6 is one grade higher than AUS-4 and one grade lower then AUS-8.
AUS-6 is typically hardened to RC 55-58 or so, and take a very fine edge, though edge retention is not as good as steel such as 440C. Spyderco still uses a lot of AUS-6 in many of it's small blades such as the Ladybug and their Delica II and Endura II models with the stainless steel handles.
AUS-6 is part of the family of steels that consists of AUS-4, AUS-6, AUS-8 and AUS-10.
Composition
| C | Co | Cr | Mn | Mo | Ni | P | Si | S | W | V |
| 0.55-0.65 | - | 13-14.5 | 1 | - | 0.49 | 0.04 | 1 | 0.3 | - | 0.1-0.25 |