How important is the steel a knife is made of? Since even expensive

The difference will be how long the blade keeps an edge, how easy it is to sharpen, and how good of an edge the blade will take in the first place

>>34756422
Also how easily it will break or chip. Different kinds of steels can be useful for different kinds of knives... though I've heard (presumably) knowledgeable people complain that not every company and certainly not every end user knows which these are.

>>34756385
The difference in the steel itself is fairly minor, it's the least important factor on whether a knife is good.

In order of impact on whether a knife is good or shit:
>good design
>good heat treatment
>good edge geometry
>type of steel
Someone who really knows how to do tempering can make a pretty fucking durable, easy to sharpen knife out of chinesium "stainless" steel, but on the other hand random-chinese-sweatshop that fucks the temper on S90V produces a garbage knife. This is why Buck's cheapos perform fairly well despite being 420 stainless (which is low-grade), and why Ganzo and Sanrenmu knives are still only mediocre despite being made with 154cm, S30V, etc (which are "premium" steels).

A well-made, properly tempered 420HC knife might have to be sharpened 1.5x more frequently than a well-made, properly tempered S90V knife. But it will cost 1/5th as much. The various "super steels" DO make improvements over the cheaper steels when all else is equal, but the gains are relatively minor. In all honesty some of the cheapest steels, the high-carbon steels, still make the best knives as they have excellent properties for everything a knife is due to their very low "not-steel" content that separates them from the stainless steels. Their only drawback is they'll rust fairly easily in comparison.