EST YTL8 Knife Steel
Composition Analysis Graph, Equivalents And Overview

YTL8(EST) - Relatively new tool steel. YTL8 is produced by EST. According to EST, it was based on well known AISI D2 Tool Steel. Both, YTL8 and AISI D2 Tool Steel belog to the ledeburitic tool steel group. However, YTL8 should have finer grain and incresed toughness(twice as tough) and wear resistance compared to D2 Steel. EST also claims higher hardness, 62-63HRC for YTL8 after heat treatment, although that apparently refers to a specific, or recommended heat treatment protocol. I've seem Japanese kitchen knives made out of the same AISI D2 Tool Steel, or it's Japanese equivalent SKD11 Tool Steel heat treated to 64HRC. E.g. Yoshikane Hammer Finished Utility Knife. So far I have seen ony inquiries regarding the YTL8 steel, and no actual knives made out of it. Composition and properties sound promising, compared to AISI D2 Tool Steel at least, and that one is quite popular with knife makers, both factory and custom. AISI D2 Tool Steel is quite coarse grained steel, and being finer grained than D2 Steel doesn't mean much, but based on its composition, 1% C vs. 1.5% C, less Chromium, YTL8 would be finer grained, how much finer grained is a good question. Composition wise, YTL8 is closer to Dorrenberg CP72 Tool Steel, except the later has a 5x more Tungsten(W), although, given the molar weight of the Tungsten, I'm not sure what's the difference in terms of the effects.

Manufacturing Technology - Ingot

Country - China(CN)