Snake-eyes, I agree with you as far as factory made knives goes. A proper stainless however, in my opinion, has a different look and feel to it. Steels like D2 and 12C27.
Chris showed me something that opened my eyes to factory/mass produced knives. we took a carbon steel blade and a blade made with the exact same steel as mine (12C27) and the same hardness and compared them in a durability test. The test was to see which one of them can be hammered through a brass coin like a guilotine, by hitting on the spine of the blade, with the cutting edge resting on the coin. The carbon steel lost its edge after the first stroke, where the 12C27 cut it in half after three stokes with the hammer and it was still surprisingly sharp. Then we did a memory test and hit the side of the blade with a hammer whilst about and inch of blade tip was resting on an anvil. The carbon steel bent, and stayed bent where the other flexed and returned to its original perfect straightness. Sounds like total unnessesary punishment, but it comes down to edge retention and the durability of the blade under abnormal conditions. Heinrich can vouch for that, breaking a factory knife in half inside a gemsbuck's neck. :shake: :rotf: