I've come to the conclusion that compared to decent, but regular steels - there is no point in so called 'super-steels' for me and yes, before anyone challenges me - I do have several of them and have used them.
I challenge you on all aspects
For different types of materials I'll challenge each your 'decent/regular' steels with my supersteels and they(supers) will do both,
outcut(because of thin edges) and
outlast challengees.
As a second part of the challenge, we can compare how much sharpening super / no super steel knives will need after cutting session, and I claim that super steels will be in much better shape, i.e. very little sharpening will be required for them.
Unless you insist that I use flat rocks for sharpening, which I refuse
I am not interested in developing that particular skill, I'm fine with my sharpening equipment and I prefer to improve my sharpening skills using whetstones, diaminds etc...
1095, D2 and especially A2 work just fine in a variety of applications. In stainless; AUS 8A, 440C and 8Cr13MoV also work just fine for me. As you point out (with the exception of D2) these steels tend to be easier and quicker to sharpen and that is a significant consideration.
In the kitchen, those 3 stainless steels you listed loose sharp edge about half way through of my usual cutting session(about 2 hours of veggie cutting), while other kitchen knives with Aogami 1/2, ZDP etc can go 4-5 complete sessions with ONLY stropping in between sessions as a maintenance. Also, well worth mentioning the fact that average edge on 8Cr13MoV class steel knives is about 40 inclusive, and on the super steels I mentioned above I am able to keep anything between 10 to 20 inclusive angles. Makes very considerable difference in terms of physical efforts involved and resulting fatigue.
So, even if you disregard sheer cutting performance improvement, amount of sharpening you'd have to do to keep your knives sharp is much larger compared to super steels and more frequent. And if you attempt to put 10 inclusive angle on most of what you listed, you'll be very disappointed. Yes, D2 can go about 24 deg. inclusive when hardened to 64HRC, but good luck finding that in western knife world.
Anyhow, may be you are fine with half dull kitchen knives, but I am not. In either case, it is our personal view of performance, but I suppose that has no real influence on how those steels really perform. The potential is there, and whether one is able to utilize it or not is a different question and steels are not to blame if the users can't use them.
I put it down to marketing and, at the risk of being inflammatory, armchair experts wanting the latest and 'greatest'. Look if that floats your boat - fantastic but someone cutting up food, paper, twigs, etc. and then telling me about durability doesn't really 'cut it' for me (no pun intended)
...
Agreed, marketing does play significant role and not always positive. I suppose I qualify for of those armchair experts, in that I do all my sharpening at home, because I can't haul half a dozen whetstones around in the bush(and I haven't been in that bush more than a decade I think).
I'm not sure I understand the second half of your statement, someone cutting stuff and then sharing his experience isn't good for you, then what is? Paid advertisement? Obviously you can't test every possible steel, so you gotta make some decisions based on something?
