Mike Stewart said:I have to agree about 440C.
It is underrated. I have made lots of knives with a lot of different steels in the last 27 years and 440C is my second favorite in all the Stainless Steel Alloys that are avalible right now. With proper Heat Treat , Temper , and Cryo you can get all the performance out of it that you would expect from a Stainless Alloy. I think that 440C has been overshadowed by all of the Supersteels that are very popular right now. Folks touted AUS-8 when it came avalible, then the ATS/CPM stuff came out. This somehow religated all the 440's being lumped together as just production steels. This falling by the wayside of 440C was because it didn't have the exotic appeal of steels that had more prefix's and suffix's with the numbers.
The mark of a good blade is in the hands of the maker not the steel mill.
Just my two cents,
Mike.........
I'm guessing your other fav stainless steel is Sandvick 12C27 Mike? Just putting my steel guru powers to the test!