I tried to look into the various steels for kitchen knives a while back. Seems to me that the Henckels knives are constructed of German Solingen steel. It is peculiar to German cutlery but it is similar to 440c. They are forged, and while they are very nice knives, I have always had difficulty sharpening them, because they do not have a choil, and the guard near the handle is very thick. I have had to grind this thick section down in the past to get access to that part of the blade. I think the same holds true for most forged kitchen knives including Wusthoff.
At work I use inexpensive stamped Forschner knives, easy to sharpen and keep sharp, cheap to replace…if not especially exciting.
At home I prefer to use something a little nicer. 20 years ago a friend sold me a three piece set of Al Mar kitchen knives. 7” Chef, 7” serrated Chef, 5” Utility (Chef shaped). It was $150 for the set in 1990, which was a lot. I had never even heard of Al Mar, but he assured me that I would be thrilled with the knives. I was.
Someone stole the 5” knife, but I have kept the other two for 20 years. I realized recently how well this 7” Santuko had held up over the years (I rarely sharpen it and it is still razor sharp), and I began to get a hankering to see what Al Mar was doing with knives these days.
I ordered a 5” blade to replace the one that had been stolen years ago. It was essentially the same shape but an entirely different blade. It now appears laminated, like a san mai. This little bugger is razor sharp just like my last one, so I went ahead and purchased the 8”er, and a 3" paring knife. Same thing, thin laminated blades, beautiful handles, extremely well balanced, and extremely sharp. Awesome kitchen knives, I’m thrilled with them. As a matter of fact, my wife just purchased for me the 9.5" Santuko for Christmas, it has a beautiful Damascus blade and cocobolo handle and is even nicer than the others. I picked these four knives up from Picnic World through amazon.com. Now I have a 6 piece set. The blades are all full tang.
I don’t keep up with all the trendy Japanese knives that are in fashion with home cooks these days. I am a full time cook, that appreciates a fine piece of cutlery when I am using it at home, and Al Mar does that for me at a reasonable price point.
I think the suggestion for a custom kitchen knife is fine, but some of the customs I have seen don’t appear to have the amount of thought and experience with kitchen knives put into them that a company that is dedicated to kitchen cutlery has. Heavy blades are generally not an asset when you are fine dicing tomatoes, some don’t have enough clearance to keep knuckles from hitting the cutting board, some do not have well enough sealed handles to keep out food juices. Even the subtleties of the shape of the blade can make a big difference in how enjoyable a knife is to use. I prefer to stick to a particular knife maker's specialty when making a purchase. Al Mar has a couple of different specialties, but from what I've seen pretty much everything they make is top notch, and perhaps somewhat overlooked.
I do have a few Global knives that I bought when they were first being hyped, they are fine knives, but I still prefer knives with wooden handles or the likes. The handles on the basic Al Mars are advertised as being some composite, but to my eye they sure look like wood, the same as my 20 year old specimens. My Forschners that I use at work all have rosewood handles. It just has a nice feel to me when I am working.
Anyway hope it helps,
pete
Edit: Almost forgot to mention. While I was looking closely at the 20 year old blade a few days ago, I realized that it is asymetrical convex ground! I have never been able to get it as sharp as new by conventional sharpening, and now that I have tried to learn a little about how to care for the knives I use, I think I am going to get a strop and try to return this edge to its original keen sharpness.
