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It's worthwhile to discuss the vapor jacket problem. It might cause a large piece of steel, say bowie knife sized, to have just enough of a delay that the heat treatment could be uneven (non...

The 440 series has typified the problem with either a blade is too hard and not tough enough, or too tough and not hard enough. I've seen vastly more broken 440 series steel blades in my life than...

AEB-L is the Uddeholm equivalent of 12C27 from Sandvik. Forgeable stainless steels and very good for knives/razors I would suspect.

The 5xxx series, which includes 5160 and 52100 have chromium in them. Chrome is notorious as a carbide former. But, the excess carbon/carbides will dissolve if you're at the right temperature and...

52100 requires a higher austenitizing temperature to get all the carbon into solution.

See here: http://www.ovako.com/Data/r2283/v1/Product_specification_803Q.pdf

While they use their "brand...

Joe's summary can stand by itself without comment.

Start with the "Old and unfashionable" steels. They are less expensive but still make great blades. That way you won't be out a bunch of money...