>>593972>>594000>>595932>>596154weather or not a steel fits into the category of carbon or stainless these days means nothing in regards to which holds an edge better.
the confusion comes from what steel used to be and that was simply either carbon or stainless. during this time carbon was harder and better at holding an edge, and stainless was more resistant to corrosion.
these days with modern refined crucible steels you have to look more carefully than it's simple carbon or stainless classification. this is because a lot of stainless steels have more carbon than the carbon steels which creates are harder and better knife. The carbon content is what creates the hardness and edge retention.
for example a stainless steel like CPM 20cv has nearly 2% carbon and can be heat treated up to 62 rockwell hardness.
basically steel has gotten to the point where you can actually get the best of both worlds. corrosion resistance and edge retention.
hope that clears things up. if you are wondering about weather or not a knife steel has a high carbon content or not just google the name and you should be able to find it's composition.
