David,
A few comments:
1 - It is a fact that most custom knives are not going to be used (except maybe smaller hunters). If you live in a city (most Americans do), or even outside of some states and counties, it's not even legal for you to carry a double edge knife, or a bowie, etc.
So why do people collect knives? Well, I seek visual appeal. From a purely practical standpoint, I don't care whether the knife cuts or not - I'm not going to cut with it anyway. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but most of my knives are not going to be used. I *do* care about the quality of the knife, but it's the same interest I would have for a Ferrari or a mecanical watch that measures 100's of seconds. I admire the effectiveness even if I'm not going to ever use it.
So the way I think of knives, there's a minimum performance bar, and above that I mostly care about the esthetic aspects. There are a few exceptions to that (for example, I would like one of Howard Clark L6 katana, even though they're not as pretty as some others), but this is clearly the guiding principle. Most makers easily beat my minimal standards of effectiveness, so I don't really worry about it unless I have good reasons to suspect a problem (e.g., the maker makes outrageous comments as to the quality of their blades such as Shiva Ki).
2 - Even if I were a user of knife, it's very unlikely that I would ever need that last % of performance. So a rational thinker would not put too much value on that last % of performance, unless they enjoy performance for its own sake, knowing full well they'll never need it. That's a perfectly legitimate collection orientation.
3 - Performance depends on the metalurgy of the steel, the edge geometry, and the balance / useability of the full piece. Those concepts are vastly different for different intended uses. At 2 extremes, a santoku knife has a very keen & very hard edge, but a sword or an axe needs a blunter and softer edge. A santoku will chip if you use it to chop something as remotely hard as nuts, and an axe or a sword is likely to make a mess of cutting a tomato. Again, there are nuances in that, since it's possible to make a blade which is very good for a given task and still useable for another, but the key principle stands, i.e., performance definition depends on use.
Makers I'm most impressed with in terms of performance are capable of making a flexible filleting knife (flexible, long thin blade), a camp knife (or an axe), a santoku (very thin and hard blade), a sword, etc, etc. They are capable of selecting different steels for those, grind them properly, and heat treat them appropriately for the task. They are also capable of explaining in details, at a scientific level, what happens to the steel and why they use this HT method.
Using those standards, the makers I would put at the top of the list are in no particular order Don Fogg, Howard Clark, Kevin Cashen, and Nick Wheeler. There are others, I have no doubt of that, but if they don't talk about their knowledge and methods, I have no way to gauging them. Personally, I am un-impressed by Ed Fowler in that all I have seen or read suggests that he specializes on one type of knife and only understands the "what works", but not the "why it works". His method is empirical research, which is a pre-scientific concept. I am sure his knives are awesome performers, but his research method is fundamentally limited. I like the man, and I like his knives (well, the large ones), but IMHO his position at the top of the "perceived performance knife pyramid" by the collector community is unwarranted.
4 - A few interesting links for you:
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http://mvforge.com/salt pot info.html
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http://mvforge.com/metallurgy definitions.html
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http://www.cashenblades.com/Info/Info.html
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http://www.cashenblades.com/hype.html
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http://dfoggknives.com/techniques.htm
5 - The ABS testing has nothing to do (directly) with making a performance blade. A blade that you can bend 90 degrees without breaking is not per se high performance (in fact, for most uses, it's probably a pretty bad knives - unless your goal is to pass the ABS test). The test is meant to verify the testee's understanding of metallurgy, that's all.
