I'm unable to replicate this (tried with both ATOM and just VBZ + K2 + SE + BT.)
K2 defines the recipe as 1 steel -> 1 gear, but later multiplies all recipes fitting certain criteria by 4 (One of the conditions is weird and arbitrary and I can't remember it off the top of my head). Currently, I am just removing 1 steel plate and adding 3 brass plates, under the assumption that this multiplication has already taken place. You probably have something else in your mod list that is making the recipe fail the criteria for K2 to multiply the recipe. Is there anything odd in the prototype history for steel gears (either item or recipe)?
