Grivel Steel

Let us begin at the source. What is steel? An alloy composed primarily of iron and carbon.

From the very beginning, Grivel has chosen to use the best possible steel for the tools we create, from ice axes to crampons. The objective has always remained the same: to produce equipment that delivers strength, reliability, and precision in demanding alpine terrain.

For this reason, Grivel uses Nickel Chrome Molybdenum steel, originally developed for the aviation industry and also employed in weapons and protective armour. Every delivery is accompanied by certification guaranteeing its composition and quality.

This material offers an exceptional balance between mechanical strength and toughness. Nickel improves toughness, reducing brittleness while increasing hardenability. Chromium further enhances hardenability, while Molybdenum improves performance at high temperatures and increases resistance to fatigue in cold conditions.

The development of science and technology has been a constant ascent, with each step rooted in the discoveries that came before it. The importance of metals was so profound that entire eras of human history came to be defined by them: the Stone Age, followed by the ages of Copper, Bronze, and Iron. Together, they mark key stages in one of humanity’s most remarkable technological journeys: metallurgy.

If a Marvel screenwriter were to tell the story of the discovery of iron, little invention would be needed. The reality itself is already extraordinary.

Let us return to Ancient Egypt, around 2000 BC. At the time, humanity was still unable to extract iron from ore. Furnaces could not yet reach the 1500°C required to melt it, and even the stones of the pyramids were carved using the far softer tools of copper.

We had an entire planet to build and inhabit, and the metal we needed quite literally fell from the sky within meteorites.

As this cosmic material entered the Earth’s dense atmosphere, the immense friction caused it to heat to extreme temperatures, often vaporising part, or even all, of the meteorite before impact. The larger masses survived the descent, striking the ground with enormous force and carving vast craters into the earth.

In ancient Egyptian, the hieroglyph for iron literally meant “metal from heaven.”

At the centre of these craters, it was possible to find fragments of this unknown material, prized for properties that must have seemed almost magical at the time.

Once recovered from the crater, the ferrous material was shaped by hammering it into the desired form. One of the most remarkable surviving examples is the dagger of Tutankhamun, forged from meteoric iron and finished with gold.

Arriving on Earth at speeds of up to fifty kilometres per second, trailing light across the sky with a deafening roar and enough force to carve craters the size of cities, was already enough to surround the material with myth.

But iron concealed another property that bordered on the magical: hardenability. The ability to change its characteristics depending on the rate at which it cooled.

Once heated, steel can change dramatically depending on how quickly it cools. Rapid cooling increases its mechanical strength, particularly its hardness. Under the microscope, its internal structure appears like this:

If allowed to cool slowly instead, the steel develops greater toughness and improved workability. Under the microscope, its structure appears like this:

The new ferrous material was far harder than anything known at the time. It allowed stone to be carved without the constant need for re-sharpening, and made it possible to create stronger blades and more effective tools. Equipping an army with swords forged from this material would have guaranteed decisive victories, while using it to build bridges or structures would have ensured exceptional durability. Yet because it was derived from meteorites, it remained extraordinarily rare.

It was an early glimpse of what would become the defining material of the twentieth century: the material of skyscrapers, internal combustion engines that would eventually take humanity to the Moon, surgical instruments, and equipment designed for climbing on ice.

To understand in detail what the advantages of Ni Cr Mo steels are, we have to make a virtual visit to their atomic structure.

Steels are made of crystals, called grains, which, in turn, are formed by a lattice, to which each vertex is an atom.

Ductile material.
Where the grid is homogeneous and perfectly organized, the sliding of the shelves is easier.

More resistant material.
Where the reticle shows anomalies (distortions) the sliding of the surfaces finds an obstacle.

There are three primary mechanisms used to strengthen the crystal structure of steel.

1 / Strain hardening. By deforming the material while cold, the crystal lattice is artificially distorted, increasing hardness while also making the material more brittle. A simple example is metal wire: bend it repeatedly and it becomes progressively harder with each deformation, until it eventually breaks.

2 / Grain refinement. Because movement within the crystal structure occurs mainly inside the grain, reducing grain size limits the ability of these internal planes to slide. Grain refinement is the most important of the three mechanisms, as it increases both strength and toughness simultaneously. Why not use only ultra-fine grain structures? The limitation is performance at very high temperatures, above approximately 500°C. For ice tools, however, this is largely irrelevant.

3 / Addition of alloying elements. Specific elements are introduced into the steel matrix to distort the crystal lattice and restrict internal movement. In our case, Nickel, Chromium, and Molybdenum are added in carefully controlled proportions.

Molybdenum plays a particularly important role because its large atomic structure creates significant distortion within the lattice. However, Molybdenum also has a strong affinity with Carbon, present in all steels, and tends to form graphite. To counter this, Chromium is added at roughly four times the proportion of Molybdenum. Chromium forms stable carbides, binding the Carbon and leaving the Molybdenum free to perform its intended function within the structure.

Nickel is then added in quantities similar to Chromium to improve toughness, reducing brittleness while maintaining stability at low temperatures.

The resulting alloy is designated 39NiCrMo4 steel:
0.39% Carbon,
1% Nickel,
0.8% Chromium,
and 0.2% Molybdenum.

A composition developed for extreme mechanical performance, and chosen for the demands of alpine equipment.

Why do we use Nickel Chrome Molybdenum steel instead of stainless steel?

Primarily for two reasons.

1 / Nickel Chrome Molybdenum steel delivers superior edge retention due to its greater hardness. This is why high-performance knife blades are rarely made from stainless steel, and why ski edges rely on similarly hardened materials. For ice axes and crampons, this means sharper tools that maintain their precision for longer.

2 / The processing of martensitic stainless steel carries a greater risk of microcracks within the material. These microscopic fractures can be difficult to detect during production, yet over time may compromise the integrity of the component under repeated use.

In practical terms, there is almost no difference in weight between the two materials, with variations below one percent, and behaviour at low temperatures remains comparable.

For us, the decisive factors are durability, precision, and long-term reliability in demanding alpine conditions.