FAQ: "What is the best blade steel?"

Question: "What is the best blade steel?"

With so many aspects of a steel's performance dependent on subjective and personal preferences, this question is going to be difficult to answer fully. Here's why:

Whether it is sacrificing toughness for a finer edge or ease of maintainability for additional stain resistance, certain aspects of a steel's performance are a trade-off. Additionally, creating a knife is much like baking a cake: heating, cooling, and working with a steel in certain ways can distinctly change the performance. A skilled knifemaker who properly understand the materials they're working with can achieve characteristics in their knives that only come with experience.

Therefore, when choosing a knife, consider the what tasks the knife will perform, which aspects of a knife are most desirable to yourself (such as ease of sharpening, edge durability, or toughness), and the relative skill of the knifemaker.