It would probably depend on the size of the knife for me. A fixed blade 3" and under or any folding knife I would probably prefer a stainless steel. Anything 4" and above I would want a steel that could be abused a little more if needed. If given the choice I would probably go with 3V or A2 steel for the majority of my fixed blade knives.
My experience with a number of the current stainless steels is that they prefer a toothier edge, especially for outdoors work. Going for the laser sharp polished edge is great for push cutting paper, but for cutting wood, cordage, hide, etc. a medium grit edge lightly stropped really brings out the best in some of these SS's. The highly polished edges will frequently just skate when cutting something rougher. Sam
This. I have always preferred a toothier edge than a high polish. One of the reasons I like VG10 so well.
One of my all time favorite knives in the woods is the Al Mar SERE 2000, one of which has seen hundreds of miles of trail with me. And it has, you guessed it, a VG10 blade. I sharpen it on a Red DMT diamond stone and then a quick stop and she's a beast.
Toothy edges will actually result in higher edge retention when used in slicing tasks, while polished edges are better for push-cutting, but will lose slicing aggression very quickly. I rarely go over ANSI 400 grit (~700 JIS) for any of my non-woodworking cutting tools, and often use edges around ANSI 120. The important thing with coarse grit edges is to make sure that you have a crisp apex rather than a ragged burr or wire edge.
Sorry bud, that guy didn't come around until the 2nd half of the 20th century. But I always wanted one of those. The last two or three times I have seen them at shows, guys wanted just too much money for a production knife I will actually use. Still a personal favorite, though. Sam
Been rocking a ZT 0801 with S35VN for a couple of years now, and I'm liking it. I like carbon steel for big knives, but I think the idea that stainless steels must be hard to sharpen, are brittle, and don't hold an edge as well as carbon steels is outdated. I sharpen mine on a basic whetstone, as I did with my previous folder (Niolox) and the folder before that (Elmax). I'm not chopping bricks with it, but to be honest, I think that the standard of durability that some people expect from a knife is a bit excessive (is .25" spine still a thing?) I've dropped it on concrete a few times with no issues. Edge holding is also on par with my 1095 knives (Izula, Junglas, ESEE 3, BK-16), if not better.