Stainless Steel Standards

Stainless Steel Standards​

There are 3 main factors to decide the quality of beauty shears.

1. Material
2. Heat Treatment
3. Craftsmanship.

Today, I will talk about the standards of stainless steel since stainless steel is the most commonly used material for beauty shears.

Steel standard might be different by country or have different criteria, but in most of the cases it was defined by the chemical composition.

There are international and national standard by each country, and company standard for each company.

Strictly speaking, the international standard for steel is not commonly used in the USA, Japan, Korea and Pakistan. 

Instead, many mixed specifications are used complicatedly.

 

1. China

Steel technology was transferred from East Germany to China a long time ago, so the Chinese Steel Standard is fundamentally based on DIN from Germany.

Recently, China has made their own standards according to the International Standard, such as the GB/T 20878 which was made in 2007.

According to GB/T 20878-2007, the standard numbers listed below are interchangeable.

• 30CR13 - 420J2
• 68CR17 - 440A
• 108CR17 – 440C

I heard some of Chinese factories claim with fake certificates that they are using Japanese Hitachi or Aichi 440C. 

However, as we checked with a Hitachi agent in Japan, both Hitachi and Aichi Company have not exported 440C to China so far.  

We suspect that they used 108CR17 which has the same chemical composition with 440C.

 

2. Pakistan

Pakistan’s steel technology was transferred from the Soviet Union, but their standard management system is similar with Great Britain.  

Strangely, there is a clear standard for mild steel, but there is no clear standard for stainless steel used for scissors. 

Overall, the manufacturing and management system for stainless steel is very ambiguous. 

We could imagine that it might be difficult to find the high quality stainless steel for making scissors in Pakistan.

 

3. Korea / Japan

Korean steel companies do not manufacture the proper shape of 440C for making scissors. 

Therefore, many Korean (except those who import from China) and Japanese factories mostly use steel from Hitachi and Aichi company. 

Koreans use a lot of imported steel from China, but not stainless steel since the quality is remarkably low.

• AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute)
• ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)
• DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung, German Institute for Standardization)
• EN (Euro Norm, European Standard)
• GB 国家标准(China, Guo Jia Biao Zhun, meaning the “National Standards”)
• GB/T 国家标准/推荐(China, Guo Jia Biao Zhun／Tuijian, meaning "Recommended Standards", “tuījiàn” means "recommended"
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
• JIS (Japan Industrial Standards)
• KS (Korean standards)
• PSQCA(Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority)

<Comparison Table of Stainless Steel Standard by Each Country>

 

GB/T 20878-2007 (CHINA)			ASTM (USA)	AISI (USA)	JIS (JAPAN)	KS (KOREA)	DIN (GERMANY)	ISO (INT’NAL)	EN (EUROPEAN)
Unified Numerical Code	NEW Grade	Pervious Grade
S42020	20Cr13	2Cr13	S42000	420	SUS420J1	STS420J1	X20Cr13	X20Cr13	X20Cr13, 1.4021
S42030	30Cr13	3Cr13	S42000	420	SUS420J2	STS420J2	X30Cr13	X30Cr13	X30Cr13, 1.4028
S44070	68Cr17	7Cr17	S44002	440A	SUS440A	STS440A	X70CrMo15	X70CrMo15	X70CrMo15, 1.4109
S44096	108Cr17	11Cr17	S44004	440C	SUS440C	STS440C	X105CrMo17	X105CrMo17	X105CrMo17,1.412

Editor’s Note : I have designed and developed numerous scissors. As I operated my factory for a long time, I experienced manufacturing and sales of many different kinds of beauty scissors. I have used many different kinds of steel as well. For almost 20 years, I have monitored the hair stylists in Korea who use my products along with others’ as well. Coming from my many years of experience in the beauty scissor business, the differences in stainless steel between Hitachi 440/ATS314 and steel from any other companies are enormous.

*The above states the ideas of Maborosi Shears, others with different opinions may think otherwise.*

Maborosi Shears 
Maborosi shears has been serving the best quality hair styling professional premium shears over 20 years. Over the years we focus on improving our craftsmanship to produce the highest quality scissors in the market. Maborosi Shears are one of the most popular hair styling scissors among the top professional hair stylists throughout the world for its high quality and superb usability. All Maborosi Shears are 100% handcrafted by highly skilled craftsmen at the factory in Tokyo Japan. As authentic Japanese scissors, we use the highest level of steel, ATS314 and 440C and produce with special treatment, sub-zero, heat treatment to create the best quality scissors. Maborosi Shears will continue to develop the best design and material to meet customer’s high expectation.