Chrome steel is a type of stainless steel that consists of a chromium alloy. Chrome steel is stainless and used in knife manufacture to make high-quality knife blades.
The term stainless steel describes types of steel with particular properties that make them resistant to chemical substances that would otherwise accelerate the corrosion process in steel – e.g. acids, alkaline or saline solutions. Corrosion happens when one of the substances mentioned above touches metal and causes a measurable change, which means a change in its form or physical properties. The most common type of metal corrosion is rust. Therefore, corrosion-resistant steel is also called rustproof. Stainless steel becomes corrosion-resistant when alloyed with certain other substances such as chromium. An alloy is the result of the combination of at least two different elements. Alloys were developed in order to combine certain properties of the alloyed materials. Metals, for instance, are combined for their hardness and corrosion resistance.
The alloyed material possesses properties unique to its combination.Chrome steel is an alloy of steel and chromium. When chromium is added, steel becomes corrosion-resistant. The addition of chromium creates a layer on the surface of the stainless steel that brings the steel from its soluble (active) state to a chemically stable (passive) state, which makes it resistant to the effects of chemical substances. The surface of chrome steel often has a faint blue shimmer. As in all other alloys with different components, chrome steel contains a precisely specified amount of chromium.
Thanks to its desirable combination of hardness and corrosion resistance, chrome steel has been used in knife production for a long time and is still a commonly used material today.