Why stainless steel makes lousy cutlery:
Stainless steel is often used in low quality
knives marketed for home
kitchens. Among the advatages of these knives is the fact that most are
durable,
dishwasher safe, won't rust and keep an
edge for a fairly long time.
The problem arises as the stainless steel used in most knives is very hard. While this tends to allow a knife to keep its edge for a long time it does not keep the knife from losing edge eventually (this, of course doesn't apply to those "ever sharp" serrated
blades, which are nice for slicing but rather
ineffective when it comes to heavy-duty chopping). Sharpening a stainless steel blade is an exercise in
patience (if not outright
futility). Most commercial sharpening stones and steels lack the durability to sharpen a stainless steel knife, you will wear through many a stone getting your edge back (slight exagerration, but over the lifetime of the knife you will wear through more stones than with a carbon steel blade). It is far better to buy a knife made of the softer "high
carbon stainless steel", for a higher price. These blades keep an edge for a reasonable amount of time, are quite easy to sharpen and are
rust-
reistant. Fine brands are
Henckels or
Wusthof-Trident, they are pricey but good knives are an
investment.