U8A tool steel strip — the quiet, reliable backbone behind every blade, die, spring, and precision part that carries a craftsman’s name, reputation, and sometimes decades of family tradition. This isn’t generic construction steel. This is the material people trust when failure is not an option and “almost good enough” can cost a customer, a contract, or a lifetime’s goodwill.

Who We Are

Ukrpostachservis has been supplying serious Ukrainian workshops, factories, and independent makers with genuine instrument-grade steel for more than fifteen years. We are not traders who simply forward containers. We are metallurgists and engineers who still remember the smell of a properly quenched blade and the sound of a hardness tester confirming 62 HRC exactly where it should be.

Every single coil that enters our warehouse goes through the same ritual: visual inspection for surface defects, ultrasonic testing on thicker sections, spark test, and — most importantly — wet chemical analysis in our own laboratory. If the carbon is 0.74 % or 0.85 %, if manganese drifts even 0.03 % outside spec, if there is the slightest banding or excessive inclusion count — the material goes straight back to the mill. No negotiations, no “it’ll be fine after heat treatment.” We reject about 4–6 % of everything that arrives. That rejected steel pays for our peace of mind and, more importantly, for yours.

What We Actually Keep and Sell

Only U8A (У8А) according to GOST 1435-79 with carbon strictly 0.75–0.84 %. That narrow 0.09 % window is not accidental — it is the proven sweet spot where maximum hardness (up to 63–64 HRC in oil quench) meets acceptable toughness for impact loads.

Available dimensions — real stock, not catalogue fantasies:

• Thickness: from 0.50 mm to 60.00 mm (in 0.05 mm steps up to 4 mm, then 0.10–0.50 mm steps)
• Width: 20 mm to 500 mm (practically any width in that range can be slit within 24 hours)
• Length: coils 300–1200 kg, sheets up to 6000 mm, or cut to your exact drawing ±0.2 mm
• Surface: hot-rolled with scale (perfect for forging), decaled/pickled, or double-side ground to ±0.02 mm thickness tolerance
• Hardness in delivery state: 187–207 HB typical, but we can pre-anneal to spheroidized structure ~160 HB on request

Every coil and every cut bundle leaves with the original mill test certificate + our own laboratory report. You will know the exact percentages of C, Mn, Si, P, S, Cr, Ni, Cu — down to the third decimal — before the truck even starts.

When U8A Is the Only Reasonable Choice

1. Hand-forged and stock-removal knives sold under your personal brand One hidden segregation band or 0.04 % excess carbon can turn a $800 custom chef knife into a warranty nightmare. U8A gives you the same predictable response blade after blade, year after year.
2. Small and medium cold-stamping shops Dies and punches that run 50,000–500,000 hits. U8A at 58–62 HRC with cryogenic treatment routinely outlasts many “premium” imported grades that cost twice as much.
3. Flat and spiral springs, lock parts, feeler gauges Excellent elastic limit, minimal relaxation even at moderately elevated temperatures. Ukrainian lock factories and measuring-tool workshops have been ordering the same 0.8–1.2 mm strip from us for a decade.
4. Historical restoration and museum-grade replicas When a 19th-century saber or a 1930s woodworking plane needs steel that behaves exactly like the original, U8A is historically correct — its chemistry is almost identical to the old Sheffield or Solingen carbon steels.
5. Rapid prototyping and short-run production You have one week to deliver ten special shear blades or five custom chisels. You don’t have time to experiment with unknown CPM grades or wait two months for European delivery. You take U8A, apply the proven cycle (830–850 °C oil quench + 160–180 °C temper), and the parts work on the first try.
6. Repair shops and agricultural machinery service centers Replacing worn harvester fingers, mower blades, cultivator tines — thousands of small enterprises across Ukraine keep a few meters of 4–8 mm U8A on the shelf exactly for such emergencies.
7. Woodworking and leatherworking tools Chisels, plane irons, leather skiving blades, marking knives — anything that has to take and hold a scary-sharp edge while surviving occasional contact with knots or staples.
8. Traditional blacksmith demonstrations and living-history events Reenactors and blacksmiths who forge in front of the public love U8A because it sparkles beautifully on the anvil, hardens reliably in water or oil, and produces that classic “ring” everyone expects from historical steel.

Why Customers Stay With Us for 5, 10, 15 Years

• Zero surprises. The certificate you receive today will match the steel you ordered five years ago to within 0.01 % carbon.
• Real next-day cutting for orders above 500 kg; 48–72 hours maximum for anything smaller.
• Transparent, mill-direct pricing. No hidden “logistics fees” or last-minute “market adjustment.”
• Evening and weekend phone support from people who actually heat-treat steel themselves. Try calling at 21:47 on Friday with a question about sub-zero treatment — someone will answer.
• Packaging that survives Ukrainian roads: thin strips in wooden crates with foam separators, thick plates on pallets with steel banding, everything labelled in Ukrainian and English.
• We remember your usual sizes, your preferred hardness after tempering, even which driver you like — because many of our clients have become friends over the years.
• Payment flexibility for regulars: deferred payment up to 30 days, partial prepayment, barter for finished knives (yes, we really do hang a few beautiful blades on the office wall as trophies).
• Free samples up to 300 mm for serious makers who want to run their own tests first. We’d rather lose a few metres of steel than lose your trust.

We don’t need to be the biggest supplier in the country. Being the most trusted one for several hundred serious craftsmen and small factories is more than enough.

One Classic Grade That Still Outperforms Most Modern “Innovations”

Fashion changes, new powder-metallurgy grades appear every year with impressive marketing slides, but when the part has to work tomorrow, when your name is literally engraved on the blade, when the customer is waiting and there is no second chance — experienced makers still reach for U8A.

It is unforgiving if you overheat it, but incredibly generous if you treat it with respect. And that, in the end, is exactly what real craftsmen appreciate: material with character that rewards skill and punishes sloppiness — just like the trade itself.

Full current stock list, real-time prices, and online cutting calculator here: https://ukrpostachservis.com.ua/g1030026-polosa-u8a-tolschinoj

Call, message on Viber/Telegram, or just come by the warehouse in Kyiv. We always have coffee ready, a hardness tester on the table, and a few sample pieces you can test right on the spot.

Because for us, every strip of U8A that leaves the gate is personal.

Glavosenor