Seraphim you beat me too it! I think its got to do with the elasticity of the steel and what not. So rather than microscopically chipping/bending, the stainless is more able to absorb the force of shavign and bounce back. I could be wrong though, but I do know that hardness and tenacity are different properties, just like tensile and compressive strength are different too. Steel has tons of properties, so within one type of steel, hardness corresponds to sharpness, but between different types it varies non-linearly depending on the steel composition.