Cheap Knife vs Expensive Custom

[Timelord]

I agree.

Also - Tool steel is only any good for smallish knives as it is too brittle for large knives. Stainless is also questionable for large knives. By large, I mean with a blade roughly 10 inches of longer. After that, the stresses acting on a blade are much greater and different steels should be used. More akin to the realm of swords for steel grades. Military swords are not made from "tool steel" and the name also gives an indication of the purposes this steel is intended for. Old leaf springs from vehicles which is "spring steel" or new flat bar stock of the same if available is a modern "super steel" that was not available for 95% of our history that "cold steel" was used in. It is readily available and is incredibly tough. For larger blades, then the edge does not really want to be as keen as that for a small knife, as the heavier physical tasks will easily damage the edge if it is too sharp/thin. Pioneers and general purpose military knives that were more of a very large knife/ knife handles short sword, were typically of a single edged design with a lot of meat in the blade and usually had a "chisel" type edge - as this proved more robust for a large utility knife that could also double up a s a personal defence weapon. For combat, the edge did not need to be razor sharp anyway, as the greater mass of a larger knife was adequate to get the job done.
Other similar graded steels are possibly even better but some are super tough and will not hold an edge at all. For sword length blades, including large bayonets, the military used a grade of steel called "EN19" which is an old "Enfield" grade. I can not remember what the international equivalent, but it is easy to look it up.
TL