Made in the USA, CPM S35VN and its predecessor CPM S30VN, was the first CPM steel developed specifically for knife making. It has superior edge holding to any other steel used in kitchen cutlery manufactured today but that is only the beginning of the story. Edge holding is only one characteristic that is important in superior kitchen knife construction. Equally as vital is toughness and stain resistance. The CPM process allows for incredible wear resistance (edge holding) combined with bombproof toughness, vital in a thin fine bladed knife. Finally, S35VN provides superior stain resistance which in the corrosive, alternately wet and dry kitchen environment is crucial to a knife that lasts a lifetime.

The CPM process begins with the production of fine particles of steel by gas atomization of a prealloyed melt. In the atomizer, the molten metal is poured through a small nozzle where high pressure gas turns the liquid stream into a fine spray of tiny spherical droplets. These liquid droplets rapidly solidify into tiny powder particles which are spherical in shape and uniform in chemical composition. The atomized powder is collected and loaded into steel cans which are then hermetically sealed (i.e. evacuated and welded shut). The filled cans are exposed to sufficient temperature and pressure to consolidate the powder inside to 100% dense steel. The fully dense compacts then undergo normal mill processing to finished bar. The CPM process results in very fine-grained steel which has a homogeneous composition and an extremely uniform microstructure. In the higher carbon CPM grades, the carbides which precipitate during solidification are extremely fine and remain so throughout mill processing and in the finished bar.