Thread: Importance of a honemeister

You should be aware that most grades of stainless used for cutlery (e.g. 440 stainless) are actually less hard than carbon steel. INOX is just a European term for stainless steel (it's short for INOXdable. There are seveal types of stainless, but the most common used for edged tools are the martesitic grades (type 400). These contain some carbon, are magnetic and can be heat hardened (though not as hard as high carbon steel or high carbon steel alloys.