best knife metall for a full flat/scandi grind

[Parbajtor]

harsh, considering people are naming different steel grades, carbon steel I think of as akin to HSS (high speed steel) due to its inflexibility and permanentness. have always wondered about tape measure steel or alike as its flexible yet incredibly hard. Last knife I snapped I could see the metal grain !

If you can see the grain, it sounds like poor heat treat/ lack of tempering which would explain your comment about carbon steel "brittleness". Remember, the type of steel is less important than a good HT.