I don't think we need to descend to this level of mysticism when discussing knives. If you want a knife that is a carefully crafted beautiful object, hand-made

I don't think we need to descend to this level of mysticism when discussing knives. If you want a knife that is a carefully crafted beautiful object, hand-made by a craftsman with a long legacy and great skill, then feel free to buy a Japanese or handmade American (or whatever) knife. It'll be beautiful. You'll likely love using it, and think about the story often when you do. It's a great thing. But if you want a knife that's going to be sharp, durable, safe, and efficient, don't feel like you need to believe the hype about steel, or the hype about craftsmanship. Especially don't believe that you need to accept either a knife that is going to require careful maintenance, or a knife that's "soft" or "gummy". On nearly any objective measure - edge retention, hardness, toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc - there are modern steels that significantly outperform low-alloy carbon steel. More specifically, there are modern steels that are significantly closer to any reasonable Pareto frontier of knife steel than low-allow carbon steel (Japanese or not). Many of these steels are corrosion resistant, if not outright stainless. Particle metallurgy steels like S35VN or Magnacut or S30V, while expensive, have incredible properties for kitchen knives of many styles. There are even modern steels like S90V that are so wear resistant that sharpening them without machines can lead to madness. Low-allow carbon steel (like the mythologized Japanese steels) are significantly easier to work with traditional techniques, and therefore frequently chosen by the people who practice those techniques. That workability comes to come with significant tradeoffs (including corrosion resistance, which is important for both edge retention and every day usefulness). This article also isn't super clear about sharpness. There's a lot more to edge geometry than is presented here. In fact, edge and bevel geometry is easily more important than steel. Depending what they are cutting through the thickness of the edge may matter, but often the thickness just behind the edge matters just as much. If you're interested in getting into knives and want to avoid the mythology, I highly recommend Larrin Thomas' book "Knife Engineering". It's a great read on the things that matter, and the tradeoffs in the space. A while ago I started making my own knives. Now every kitchen knife I own is one I made myself, including heat treating and other possibly mythological processes. On that journey, I've learned a huge amount of respect for the incredible craft that is knifemaking, but also a lot of skepticism for the assertions that connect knife craft techniques to knife performance. These days I sharpen on a Tormek wet grinder, and touch up with a 1000 grit "splash and go" stone. Sharpening can be an entire hobby of its own, but again you don't need to buy into the mythology to get a knife that's extremely sharp.