I am not sure if this along the same lines of what you are thinking or not, but, here goes.
Henckels introduced a new kind of knife to their line-up about 3-4 years ago called Twinstar. It had a more ergonomic handle design and the big thing was what they called a MagnaDur edge. They apply a coating to the edge to make it stay sharp for, they say, about 1000 times longer than a standard edge.
A fellow cook I knew at the time went out and picked one up. After he had had it for a couple of days I asked him what he thought. He stated that it did hold it's edge without any effort. But, you couldn't do anything to the edge yourself. If you try to sharpen it, evidently you ruin the coating and the whole point of having it in the first place. And it was not as sharp as his other knives, it was alright but not like he preferred, it could not be made any sharper than it came out of the box. About a week later he went and took it back and bought something else instead.
they now offer that same handle style in a knife without the MagnaDur. They also still offer the MagnaDur in what they are now calling their Twinstar Plus line.
http://www.j-a-henckels.com/e/frame_messer.html
If you go here and scroll down it will show you what little info they have published on it. Hope this gives you something else to think about that will help.
Take care.
Andy
one of these days I will learn how to post a link right the FIRST time!
Also I didn't realize that the link would not take you directly to where I was discussing. Hit the 4th line down "the material", then hit the 4th line down again "quality starts with the material", Then scroll down. Sorry.
[This message has been edited by Andy Wilson (edited 01-23-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Andy Wilson (edited 01-23-2001).]