Without any compromises, Traditional Craftsman, Mr. Hattori has devoted all his energies, times, experiences and techniques to create these beautiful Chef's knives, using ancient forging technique of the swordmaking. Each blade is hand forged fromCowry X core steel with Nickel Stainless Damascus steel. Cowry X is the tough powdered metal alloy specially developed by Daido Steel Company for high performance cutting tools. It contains high carbon (3%) and high Chromium (20%) with 1% Molybdenum and 0.3% Vanadium, and can be heat treated to HRC63 to 67 without brittleness.