French-based steel company Erasteel Inc. made a last minute bid on Crucible Industries on February 25 for about $17 million.
Crucible lawyers say Erasteel plans to keep the plant running with most of its job intact. So it sounds like they should be able to keep making some of the most well-loved and respected knife steels in the industry.
For those out of the loop, Crucible Industries filed for bankruptcy in mid December, 2024 (even back then Erasteel came forward as the most likely buyer). The auction was planned for Feb. 4 and many in the knife industries just had to hold their breath and hope.
Niagra Specialty Metals, which is the company that hot rolls and anneals steels into the sizes knife makers purchase for their use, has since posted an update on Blade Forums confirming that Erasteel would continue “supplying [them] with the same grades [they’ve] been buying from Crucible… The names may be different but the quality will be the same or better.” There may be an initial hiccup in steel distribution as they said they would analyze “the first heats to make sure they’re up to the standards we (and all of you) expect”.
For its part, Erasteel is well acquainted with powder steel. In fact it’s the latest iteration of French and Swedish steelmaking organizations that have been working for centuries. Dr. Larrin Thomas, metallurgist, steel historian, and the glasses behind Knife Steel Nerds wrote a good piece about Crucible going up for auction, explaining what could happen, and mentioned Erasteel as another company capable of making high quality powder steels should Crucible stop making their CPM steels.
So for now this seems to be good news: the Crucible factory will keep pumping under a new owner that has a strong history of steel innovation, and the flow of Crucible steels will continue into the knife market with little interruption.
