There are some things that make it easier for a factory edge to be sharp out-of-the-box. A THINLY-ground blade is the likely the easiest, because a minimum of steel needs to come off to leave a clean, fresh & sharp edge. This is where Victorinox has a built-in advantage, as their blades are very thin as compared to similarly-sized blades in similar profiles (spear & pen blades, primarily) from other makers. The flipside to Vic's blades is, they're probably 'softer' than most of the others (Case, Buck, GEC, Queen at least). So, though Vic's blades are very easy to make sharp in the first place, the thin grind and softish steel will mean touch-ups will have to come more frequently. Again, good news is, it's easy to do with just a few feather-light passes on most any Fine or finer hone, because the grind and softish steel make it very easy.
Case's blades are typically thicker (somewhat) than Victorinox, but thinner than Buck and Queen (maybe GEC, but I don't have any of these to directly compare similar blade profiles side-by-side). Case's steel is a tad 'softer' than Buck and others, but still a tad harder than Victorinox's blades. Again, both of Case's steels are easy to deal with and make sharp, even if they aren't, so much, out-of-the-box.
Knowing what I know now, my focus would be to select a brand that's easiest to make sharp and maintain on the simplest and most widely-available of tools, and otherwise essentially worry-free. This doesn't always mean 'harder steel is better than softer steel', as sometimes the 'softer' ones make life easier in the first place. Start by looking for blade profiles with thinner grinds in steels that are easy to deal with for sharpening (which, in this context, usually includes most everything mentioned except possibly D2 and some renditions of 440C). The other attributes of RC hardness and high wear resistance (440C, D2) become less important for typical traditional-knife EDC uses, if the steel is fundamentally easy to sharpen and maintain in the first place. On this scale, I'd put Victorinox (stainless) and Schrade USA (1095) first, Case 2nd (either CV or Tru-Sharp/420HC), Buck 3rd ('harder' 420HC and usually thicker grinds than Vic or Case), with others likely coming after those, and Queen's D2 likely last, in terms of making a bad factory edge truly sharp in the first place; maintenance is easier when that's out of the way.
And to re-emphasize, THINNER blade grinds will always, always cut better than THICKER grinds, assuming each is given a clean & crisp apex to start with. That'll make the bigger difference than most anything else, in the long run.
Also keep in mind, what's described as 'soft' steel these days is likely right smack in the wheelhouse of virtually all of the 'great' traditional knives of yesterday, with the notable exception of Schrade USA, who ran their steels harder than most, to near-60 at times. Otherwise, RC hardness in the mid-to-high 50s (think Case's blades today) is what was considered 'normal' in traditional blades about 20 or more years ago. Many older knives in simple carbon steels were sometimes down in the '40s in HRC hardness, and yet they still can cut like demons because their makeup was pure and fine-grained, and effortlessly simple to maintain.
David
