Source: Pixabay

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Among my friends, I am the "knife guy". This probably means I am on some watch-list somewhere, but I know my way around blade steels and what the best ones for the job are. Frankly there are so many intricacies, but here are the 5 pillars of knife steel and what they mean:

Hardness:

Measured on the Rockwell Hardness scale. This is how resilient the edge is to folding over or deforming from hard use (like batoning a log)

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Toughness

This is similar to hardness, but is how well the edge resists damage from sudden or hard impacts. This is a combination of factors, but a knife that is of more brittle steel (like some high carbon varieties) are prone to chip on abrupt impact.

Edge Retention

This is how resistant the edge is to wearing down. The tough steels will have better wear resistance, but this can come at some costs. Resilient edges are not possible to the same degree on stainless steels, so a knife with good edge retention is more prone to corrosion when mistreated, but can go longer without sharpening.

Corrosion Resistance

Is what comes with a stainless steel (13% chromium or higher) these are less prone to rust or will not rust at all. The downside is that the edge will need more frequent sharpening.

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As you can see

each of these is specifically influenced by the chemical makeup of the steel and since certain knives are for certain purposes, learn about the steel your blade is made of and see if its benefits and negatives are suited for the constructed purpose.