Which mid price steel offers best compromise?

At the $150 pricepoint, you'll find a boatload of knives in S30V. It works well for me, and I don't find it difficult to sharpen at all. Although it's fun to experiment with even higher-end steels--ZDP, M4, etc., I find the edge holding of S30V is actually more than I usually need given how I use my knives and how I keep them sharp by touching them up regularly. I put 154CM and VG10 in the same general category as S30V.

I also use other, less wear-resistant steels more or less daily and have no problem with them either in most circumstances. 1095, SAK stainless, 420HC, and others work just fine for the roughly 5-10 times a day I need a pocketknife to cut something.
 
^ I agree. Everyone on here seems to bash S30V, but my experience has been great with it. Obviously, manufacturer and heat treat are very important, but when done right it's a great steel. Compared to a lot of the other high end steels (ZDP, M4, S90V) S30V is a cake walk to sharpen.
 
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