Chromium’s claim to fame is that it is both very hard and rust proof under normal ambient conditions. For this reason it’s the magic ingredient that turns ordinary steel into stainless steel. Mother Nature has blessed this planet with bountiful chrome so miners each year pull millions of tons of it to be used in, well, basically everything that you see around you that has shiny metal bits to it.

Like diamond, chromium’s hardness comes at the cost of brittleness. When pure it is of little use besides spraying onto cheap hubcaps because it cracks and crumbles with little effort. The making of solid bars with raised relief was a considerable headache for the engineers who have made the rest of these bars; explaining why it was the rather late 41st such bar to be added to the lineup.