Study these and other steel charts carefully, but take them with a grain of salt. There's another good one at www.crucible.com.
The thing is, heat-treat (and in some cases, cryo-treat (as in bathing steel in liquid nitrogen)) can make a difference as big or bigger than the steel type, within certain limits. SOG and Myerchin seem to be able to take 440A *way* beyond it's normal performance envelope, as one example. That doesn't mean I'm a big fan of the steel, but I like my Myerchin. *Any* steel can turn to a total turd in the oven if done wrong.
Some steels are also well suited for heat'n'beat forging methods while others are better for the "grinder jockey" stock removal crowd. 440B stainless can be worked with heat'n'beat which is highly unusual for stainless, hence Randall uses it for their few stainless items.
Then there's differencial heat-treats whereby the spine is at one hardness level optimized for toughness and the edge is harder and optimized for edgeholding. 01 tool steel is in theory not as good as A2 but can take a differencial temper more reliably therefore a Mad Dog 01 blade is generally believed to be a bit better than a Chris Reeve A2. BUT the difference isn't extreme, so if you like the ergos and other features of one over the other they're both cool.
And when you're past all that, join in on the raging debates over how best to heat-treat ATS-34, complete with the odd flamewar now and again
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Jim March
