Carbides are a double edge sword. On the one hand they impart "wear resistance" but only if the heat treatment is done right (read: very precisely). Frequently,

Carbides are a double edge sword. On the one hand they impart "wear resistance" but only if the heat treatment is done right (read: very precisely). Frequently, that is not how commercial stainless is done, though. On the other hand, they can make it harder to sharpen. Usually, good heat treatment can lead to fine grain carbides, while bad heat treatment does not get the carbides into solution very well prior to quenching and they get too large. (This is not the same thing as grain growth). When they are big, they impart roughness to the edge and difficulty of sharpening with no benefits in wear resistance as the steel matrix around them wears away. If you are interested in this, I can't recommend John Verhoeven's "metallurgy for bladesmiths" enough. It is a free PDF if you search for it. (If you like open source things, I recommend reading the foreword especially).