I have recently had the unpleasant experience of losing my everyday pocket knife in the woods. It was my daily carry and it was pulled out of my pocket sometime during a recent excursion in the Appalacians and lost. So I am now in the market for a new knife. There are hundreds of thousands different knives out there so this is a harder task than I thought it was going to be.

My question to you, is what are the differences between the blade metals? I see a lot of 420HC and S30V. That means nothing to me. I am looking for a blade that will get sharp and stay that way for a while.

I have a diamond edged sharpening set, so I am assuming that will sharpen and kind of blade I get. Is that a correct assumption?

I'm not trying to discuss different blade shapes, opening methods, lock designs, in fear that will end up in a .45 vs 9mm type discusstion. So I'm mostly interested in the common metals used for blades and the advantages and disadvantages of them.

Any thoughts on ceramic blades?

Thanks in advance.

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Cheers -Jeff