I think that we, as knife nuts, tend to overthink the simple things. There are reasons that more production makers are using O1, and it's not just availability. More customers are asking for carbon steels, and everyone wants to have something different so they can all claim theirs is better.. And if O1 is good enough for Randall, it should be good enough for most any other production knife company. But all that aside, the fact that a particular steel has been around awhile and is still a standard in the business is a good indicator that it performs well enough to keep it there. 440C would be another good example.
If 'It Works' is the most important thing, you could do worse than O1 or 440C, in my opinion...
If 'It Works' is the most important thing, you could do worse than O1 or 440C, in my opinion...