What’s the Best Budget Japanese Stainless Steel? (AUS-10 vs. VG-10)

VG-10 and AUS-10 are some of the most popular stainless steels for those entering the world of Japanese knives. These being harder and higher carbide than their German counterparts offer significant increases in cutting ability and edge retention.

VG-10 made by Takefu in Japan, is used in knives across the price spectrum but can is most popularly encountered in Tojiros affordable DP line of knives hardened to about 60HRc. Shun also used this steel in their classic and premier lines until they switched to their proprietary VG-MAX.

AUS-10 made by Aichi in Japan, had typically been used in the mid-range of Japanese blades by companies like MAC, Masahiro and Kikuichi. Now many companies are using it in their budget offerings like Shun with their Kanso line, at 60HRc, and startups like Misen who use it exclusively in their direct-to-consumer knives.

At the end of the day the difference between these steel will come down more to how the knife is made in terms of heat treatment, geometry and how the user sharpens it, or lack thereof. If toughness is a major concern, AUS-10 may be a better choice. If absolute stainlessness is key then VG-10 may be a better option.

Hope you enjoyed!
-EP

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[EngineersPerspective]

Two corrections!

1) I mixed up the labels for the edge retention chart. BESS scores are the y-axis and Feet of Cardboard are the x-axis.

2) VG-10 does have vanadium as can be clearly seen in the bar chart I put in but evidently didn't look at close enough. I would still expect AUS-10 to be slightly tougher than VG-10 due to its lower Cr amount but I can't guarantee that will actually reduce the Cr carbide volume to see that benefit.

[EDCandLace]

Over multiple brands of knives I can say without a shadow of a doubt in my testing VG10 and AUS10 edge retention is neck in neck across the board (speaking of all quality knives with quality heat treats and even some that felt not so well done on the stones in each steel) I found aus10 to be tougher and more chip resistant then vg10 at shallower bevel angles. On the stones on the high quality well HTed knives I couldn't feel a difference between them on the stones now where I could clearly feel a difference between the steels is in the EDC type knives I tested, between Kubey aus10 and Coldsteel AUS10 and Spyderco VG10 but there is no doubt that spyderco is simply running the VG10 harder then Kubey and CS are aus10.. in the High quality cooking knives the AUS10 absolutely came up stickier and have higher perceived sharpness then VG10 on every single one of the high quality kitchen knives I sharpened and tested this held true with the CS aus10 over the spyderco VG10 as well with the Kubey aus10 feeling just like that VG10 but that CS took an absolutely sharper edge to me just like the kitchen knives.

Other then that performance wise and I ran all card board cutting tests 3 times on each knife. The extreme spread between the kitchen knives was 9% and the standard deviation was 4% so as far as I'm concerned edge retention is the same.

Spyderco VG10 out cut CS aus10 by 17% average over 3 tests and out cut kubey aus10 by 31% averaged over the 3 tests.

If heat treat quality and hardness are nearly equal the steels performance is so close that there is no difference. The perceived sharpness of the aus10 being higher consistently then the VG10 that I just assume is due to a finer grain structure because it was absolutely noticeable and it didn't matter if I finished them on my BBB 3k super vitrified diamond, on F1500 venev dragon, 15k Metallic bonded cbn or 16k Shapton glass.. the aus10s perceived sharpness to my fingers was noticeably sharper however that perceived sharpness difference was gone after just a 1 feet cut of card board.

I still have all the numbers, I have been looking for2 or 3 quality made (and hopefully optimal heat treated) 10cr kitchen knives to test to add along with my results and see where it falls and if there is a notable difference in it vs vg10 and aus10. I just have yet to find a two brands making what should be high quality 10cr knives that I would trust enough to spend money on for this test.

[frankcorrect]

I liked this video. I appreciate Japanese knives, but I am confused by the many styles, brands, and steels used. Your videos have been helpful in trying to sort all this out. I appreciate that you bring an engineer's objective approach to knife reviews; so many others are subjective only.

[chopsddy]

I like the ease of sharpening that comes with vg-10 . It’s almost like sharpening plain, non stainless carbon steel. The AUS steels feel more “slippery” on the stone while the vg-10 seems to cut evenly. They both work great for their intended purposes providing the heat treatment is adequate and someone didn’t buff the edge to death. If the blade geometry is good, I can live with either one.

[PizzaGuy]

Bro, you the man. You're teaching me about knife sharpness. I'm very impressed and I subscribed to your Channel. Keep up the good work man

[peterplantec]

Nice job. I was feeling the same about the two…you verified my feeling.

[mazepa-slavaukrayini]

Exceptionally well executed, very informative video!

[yoshishige]

If you need Aus 10 budget Japanese chef knife, I'll recommend Shimomura Murato Fine.
cheap and simple handle, but made in Japan Sanjo Niigata.

[AIDorinte]

wow, this is a very good review, thank you!

[peterxyz]

For your edge retention test, you can buy a standard Office Max ream of paper. Use a bottle jack and force that blade into the ream of paper.

[danmichell]

good one i wondered about this comparison ty

[nafis]

i have both steels among my knives. I just found that my AUS10 tend to rust easier if I didn't wash it promptly after cutting acidic food. Both are easy and super fast to sharpen using diamond. Both can easily get razor sharp with free hand sharpening . For culinary task i prefer both steel compared to S35VN.

[dasmoove]

I noticed that with say Zelite or Dalstrong on their premium lines of knives their advertising both VG10 and AUS10 as the Core Cutting-edge on the Damascus layered blades which have nearly identical price points. So I thinking on mass production aspect its about what is available at a certain price.... Given the general quality & price of knives made with these steels they not Item's that get abused like a Chicago Cutlery Block set from Target... Great video to show the Small Differences because i had wondered how close they were in performance & edge retention

[HollywoodTacticool]

great data! so then i'd say aus 10 is the better choice for pocket knives, hard use, etc (so long as you keep them dry)

[turing]

Kind of curious how you got that extrapolation to the values below about the 150 g bess mark that was at the low end of your measured bess scores. Feel like I missed something. But anyway was interesting to hear the comparison as I have wondered about aus10. At least to me that magnification of the tojiro edge looked really consistent 👌

[mikeobrien]

I was half-seriously looking at santokus under $150CAN last year, and the Tojiro DP seemed like the best choice, the only thing holding me back was the German-style handle. How has your experience with it been?

[sonataq]

What is a really good sharpening stone you'd recommend for VG10 knives?

[jamesbarisitz]

10 different knives in the same steel from the same manufacturer can test differently. The main reason I started out with Shun knives was the consistency in the blades. From there It was a dive into Hitachi steels from one company, Honmamon from Japan. It's a long trip! Daily use favorites are actually 2 Global chef's blades. There's lots of money you can spend in the kitchen knife category. Stay with long lived companies and you will be able to get a great kitchen tool. Could you test a couple of Hitachi steels? 👍 😃

[tqcti]

I am looking to buy a Keemake aliexpress knife and the price differs nearly 60 percent between aus10 and vg10 steel knives, aus10 being the pricy one. It is worth extra nearly 20 bucks to get a aus10 over a vg10 with the same heat treatment?

[Reza-nzre]

For daily press i prefer Global knife (G-2 chef's knife)