What is the most important blade steel attribute?

[Alberta Ed]

I am looking for the steel that will shear through an anvil and still be sharp enough to shave electrons off atoms.

 

[ADBrown]

Well, since I collect Damascus knives, in addition to edge retention I want a good looking blade. So shoot me.

Hell yes! Flash those Mnandis dude!

 

[ADBrown]

There are a lot of attributes that go into why we carry our knives. My TRM Atom in my opinion looks like trash and is really super ugly. Although, in terms of actual usage and cutting ability it is almost unmatched. It's basically the knife equivalent of that super ugly fat girl that gives really good head.

So…deployability AND geometry?