I've two old KaBars that go back 55 years. On my 10th birthday my dad took me to our local sport goods and told me to pick out a hunting knife. Mine(of course) was a 5 inch skinner. Caused a chuckle amongst the old boys. My dad picked out an slim bladed "hunter" which was called the Woodsman. Back then all them backward good ol boys ran around the woods with thin, sharp knives that cut. Wouldn't last a minute these days:) The Woodsman had a blade less than 1/16" inch thick, and the skinner is around 3/32". I rarely use the skinner, but still carry my Dad's on occasion. Both blades were heavily chromed carbon steel of some sort and the woodsman is fully flat ground. I used his the other day while skinning and butchering out my 6-point and 4 other bucks my party shot. I also used one of my hunters in 154CM, and an old Western Cutlery W88 hunter that a friend had given me to refurbish and sharpen. In order of edge holding were (1) Mine (2) the Woodsman (3) the Western(which took a so-so edge to begin with and lost it right quickly. The advantage of mine over the old KaBar didn't make itself apparent until the fourth deer; but it was obvious. Not that it turned into a dull board, it just took more effort to use. All my friends gave up on factory knives and carry one of mine; two of them in 154CM,one in D-2 and one in S-30V. Theirs and mine are all the same model I make(My #1), and the blades are 3/32" and are fully flat ground.
The interesting thing about knives is that quite often the blade/edge geometry often make more difference than the steel; assuming decent heat treats on all the blades. In this case my Model #1 and the Kabar, which are thin, flat ground, convex edged blades, lasted quite a while. The Western was greater than 1/8" thick, and was ground thick all the way to the edge. When I was researching the knife, out of curiosity, the article I read praised the "super sharp, tough edge". Hmmmm.
The bottom line here is the super thin Kabar lasted a reasonably long time because it was ground like a scalpel which meant a lot less force was applied to the blade, which goes a long way to affecting edge holding. It dulled before the Stainless/semi-stainless one did because those steels posses elements in them that contribute to edge holding. A simple(not all carbon steels are simple) steel composed of carbon and ferrite such as many of the old tool steels such as 1056, 1075, 1095 etc(the last two digits indicate the amount of carbon in each steel, more or less), while often tough, simply don't contain the advantages of vanadium or tungsten or moly or chrome, all in reasonable large amounts, etc to give them the hardness/edge holding advantages of those steels. Carbon steels such as A-2 or the new CPM carbons do contain those elements...they simply have no need for large amounts of chrome for their designed purpose. They hold excellent edges......they also cost an arm and a leg. If I'm going to spend a fair amount on steel for a knife blade, then by all means throw in enough chrome to keep them from rusting.
As far as what stainless to try; if you're talking about factory knives I can't recommend any. Their might be some company out their that properly heat treats their stainless blades, and perhaps some one reading this might know of someone, but I don't. But then again as a custom maker/user I wouldn't. The only factory knives I buy are pocket knives, and none of the stainless ones by Queen, Spyderco, Case, Benchmade etc can hold an edge to my knives using the same steel. However steels such as 154CM/Ats-34, BG-42, S-30v and D-2 semi-stainless are commonly used by factories and custom makers.
There's been a huge explosion in new "super steels" on the market in the last year and I do intend to try some of them, but I (and my customers) have never had complaints with the ones mentioned. I do get long winded on my favorite subject.
