James_Terrio wrote "Ever notice you don't see them in custom/handmade knives?" (I am assuming you mean the 440A to B series of stainless)
It's not how big it is it's how you use it.
Randall one of the kings of knife making uses 440B in his stainless blades, and charges more money for it than his O1 versions (his O1 has ~10% more edge retention according to his web site.) In fact a recent test was performed by a Bladeforums member and the results posted on blade forums. A Randall knife in 440B outperformed a Busse Sarsquatch, WHICH IS NO EASY TASK, BUSSES ARE TOUGH. See
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645414&highlight=busse+competition+sarsquatch
I always say the right tools (in this case steel) for the right job, in addition a properly made (heat treated etc...) low end/low price steel will outperform an improperly made/heated treated super duper hype of the year steel any day.
(translated to usually mean mass produced using cheap labor or any other form of manufacturing/Knifemaker neglect)
On top of that I will also add that you can probably heat treat and make different steels do what you want (I seem to remember a Strider S30V blade at knife tests taking a tremendous amount of abuse before failure, it amazed me) but why go through all the expense and trouble when the exact same thing or close enough to the same can be accomplished using a more economical easier to work with steel. Stainless steels are harder to get right from what I have read (hence Randalls higher price for stainless if you want rust resistance) and the powdered metal steels (CPM etc..) are even harder.
There is also the trade off that occurs when a steel is treated to optimize it for tasks which are to be expected of it, such as edge retention at the sacrifice of toughness, and vice versa. Although this is not always the case, there is still no super do it all steel. There are always tradeoffs in some form or another.
Knifeoutlet wrote
"I'll add one comment. Without defining the applications or properties one wants, I could generalize by saying that I would probably choose 154CM over AUS-8 for a folder and I would go for AUS-8 or 440C for a fixed blade knife. Hardness is usually a more important attribute in short folder blades and toughness is more important in long fixed blades in my opinion"
That is a perfect example of what I mean.
So the question is what do you intend to use your knife for? then we will talk about the steel to use.
