I carried it for years on backpacking trips. We always had a Svea gas stove so I only used it to cut line, clean fish, and once in a while make a feather stick to start a fire. Never had to fight off a bear or anything serious. I think mine is SS, exactly like palonej's picture. It was a good knife for the time, but now that I'm making knives out of some far superior steel, it sits on the shelf.
420 SS is about the bottom of the stainlesses and only used for fairly cheap knives. The lowest grade of stainless used today is probably 440C. It has approx 16% chrome and no vanadium. It is typically hardened to Rc 58/59. S35VN is a much better steel with 14% chrome (Cr) and 3% Vanadium (V) for wear resistance, hardened to Rc 60. The next step up would be Elmax, with 18% Cr for corrosion resistance and 3% V., hardened to Rc 60 for a dive knife or any knife where you need high toughness. If you are making kitchen knives, where toughness is not so important, you could harden it to Rc 62. The top of the heap would be M390, with 20% Cr and 4% V. In order to keep it's toughness, you would only want to harden it to Rc 60. This is just my opinion, and among knife makers, you can find as many opinions as there are knife makers.
