Bokhari Shears uses 440C Japanese Stainless Steel or better. The pricing of our shears in many cases reflects the different types of metal. Most of our shears in this line say Cobalt Japan. These shears are manufactured in China using Japanese VG1 – VG10 Stainless Steel. Cobalt is an element added to the steel to create a unique hardness on the cutting edge. The Cobalt line is a full-convex blade, for slicing and slide cuts.