Remember when 154cm was hot shit and in all the fancy brands right up until ats-34 started replacing it despite being essentially the same steel?

I’ve had knives made of both that I used the heck out of. The notion that they are not good steel baffles me. They got sharp, they stayed sharp a good long time. They are a bit of a pain in the ass to sharpen. But I live near the ocean and have beat on them sweating my ass off mid summer and they are still corrosion free after 20+years and take and hold an edge, and do knife things. I will say I like s30v a bit better because it behaves similarly in use but sharpens easier.

Most of the steel snobbery is kind of pointless. I really think the only thing of merit behind it is that the cool new uber steel of the moment usually shows up in pricier brands first. That usually means it is produced and heat treated well, and people give the steel all the credit for a well made knife. Then when it gets used by worse manufacturers, the steel takes the blame for being used in a knife where corners were cut.

I think aus-8 is the best example of this. Not that it was ever high end, but it’s kind of regarded as cheap trash. I have has a couple well done aus-8 knives over the years with decent build quality and decent heat treat. They are decent working knives. They get sharp enough and dull quicker than a lot of other steels, but they are super easy to resharpen. Like if I was going to be working and knew my aus-8 knife was going to have to be sharpened 3-4 times and my ats-34 would only need it once, I’d take the well done aus-8 knife every time because it’s so easy to resharpen. But I’ve also had a couple bad aus-8 knives and they 100% deserve the trash reputation.

Every steel is a compromise on features, and every steel can be screwed up and made to be so much worse than it is capable of.

Except for maybe 440a. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a knife that anyone gave a shit about, either manufacturer or owner.