8Cr13MoV is a Chinese-Made Stainless Steel similar to the Japanese AUS 8, It belongs to the CR13 series, highly in Carbon, Chromium, it’s used for knives, many knife makers use it and some of it made the best of it (ie, Spyderco).

8Cr13MoV chemical composition:

• 0.8% of Carbon: It improves hardness and wear/corrosion resistance, but a high amount of it decreases strength.

• 14.5% of Chromium: For tensile strength and Edge retention, and enhances corrosion resistance and wear resistance.

• 0.3% of Molybdenum: Increase Machinability and strength.

• 0.2% Nickel: Improves toughness.

• 1% of Manganese: Increases hardness and brittleness.

• 1% Silicon: Improves Strength.

• 0.04% of Phosphorus: Increases strength.

• 0.04% of Sulfur: Increases machinability.

• 0.25% of Vanadium: Improves wear resistance and hardenability.

The 8Cr13MoV has more than 12% of Chromium in it, which makes it stainless steel, plus of that, it has a mixture of Carbon, Manganese, and Silicon, which offers hardness and strength to the steel.

The Rockwell hardness of 8Cr13MoV is a maximum of 62HRC.

The 8Cr13MoV Steel has the following features:

Edge Retention: being budget steel it offers great hardness for it price, and offers a great Edge Retention that may be comparable with mid-range Steel.
Corrosion Resistance: Being stainless steel with more than 14% of Chromium in it, 8Cr13Mov steel offers a great Corrosion Resistance.
Wear Resistance: 8Cr13Mov offers a great Wear resistance, due to the mixture of Chromium and Vanadium in it.
Sharpness: If used as a knife, while being hard steel, it’s easy to sharpen.
Welding: Due to the high Carbon and Chromium in this Steel, it has a poor Weldability.
Toughness: It has a decent toughness, but for its price, it’s good.

It’s a steel, that offers decent edge retention, corrosion resistance, hardness and wear resistance, for a low price, you can use it as an EDC(Every Day Carry) knife, kitchen knife or hunting knife, just take care of it.  “Cheap doesn’t mean bad", so if you’re looking for an affordable knife that can hold an edge, resist corrosion, hard and tough, the 8Cr13MoV would be a great choice.