Tobias Hangler

Apex Ultra is one of the most carefully engineered non-stainless kitchen knife steels in modern circulation, and the project of an Austrian smith — Tobias Hangler — who set out, with Marco Guldimann, to design a steel for the kitchen rather than borrow one from another industry. It carries roughly 1.25 percent carbon, around four percent chromium, modest tungsten and molybdenum, and a small vanadium addition. The composition is tuned to produce a fine, evenly distributed carbide structure that supports hardness up to 67 HRC while delivering toughness comparable to 52100 at the same hardness — a combination that is the entire point of the steel.

What this means for a cook is unusual permission. You can ask a maker to grind an Apex Ultra knife thin enough that a White #1 owner would call you brave, then ask for the heat treatment to land at 65 HRC, and the resulting edge will hold for longer than Aogami Super without microchipping. It sharpens cleanly on natural and synthetic stones alike and patinas slowly because of the chromium content, though it is not stainless and should be treated as a carbon steel.

Apex Ultra has become a signature steel of the European maker community, and the Modern Cooking catalogue carries an unusually deep bench of smiths working in it. Tobias Hangler himself heads that group, alongside Marco Guldimann, Benjamin Kamon, Martin Huber, Jonas Johnsson, Karol Karyś, Birch & Bevel, and MCx. It is genuinely a step forward — one of the relatively few cases where the marketing claims and the underlying metallurgical data are saying the same thing.

1.2562 is a more heavily tungsten-alloyed German tool steel with approximately 0.80 percent carbon, 0.3 percent chromium, 1.85 percent tungsten, and a small vanadium addition. It sits at the high-W end of the conventional kitchen knife steels and produces an unusually wear-resistant edge for a non-PM, non-stainless carbon steel.

In a finished knife it runs at 63 HRC and behaves like a tougher, somewhat keener relative of 1.2442. Edge retention is meaningfully better than the simple carbons; toughness is good for the hardness; patina behaviour is conventional. The trade-off is sharpening: the W carbides are noticeable on softer stones, and the steel benefits from a vitrified or natural fine stone in finishing.

It is comparatively uncommon in finished kitchen knives but well regarded among makers who specifically want a high-tungsten European carbon. Among the makers Modern Cooking carries, Tobias Hangler and Dominik Filip work in 1.2562. Treat it as an enthusiast's choice.