Yeah you make a great point because I'm willing to bet that only one out of every 200 knife users and knife collectors are even aware of the different blade steels that are available. Heck it's only been in the past 20 years or so that Benchmade, Spyderco and maybe 2 to 3 other knife companies I could name that actually put the type of steel the blade is made of stamped on the heel of the blade. Back in the 70s when I first started using knives for outdoor purposes or even when I was school aged I had no idea what Buck, KaBar or Case made their knife blades from.Ookami wrote:I think with Victorinox it is mostly due to price considerations. Most non-knife people aren't even aware of the supersteels, they just want the functionality of a Swiss pocket knife. If Victorinox offered super steels the price would go up. As it is now, one can buy a two or three layer Victorinox for around 20€ and get a decent pocket knife plus great customer service.
1.4110 is a decent steel if heat treated right and at Victorinox they know how to do that, like Buck does with their 420HC or W.R.Case&Sons does with their Tru-Sharp™ steel. Or other companies do with their preferred steels, like Böker (1.4034) or Opinel and Mora (12C27). All of these steels are not considered anything to write home about and are held in even lower regard by some steel junkies than Aus-8, but they do a decent job.
Most people I know buy their knives solely based on the reputations of the company making them>> now that's the quality minded public I'm speaking of. Because 80% or better of the general public base their knife purchases on what they can buy cheaply or what they perceive at bargain prices>> that's why rip-mart and stores like them have the public eating out of their hand with extremely low quality, 3rd World Made crap.
The true quality seekers and the true afficionados in any area of consumerism are few and far between. That's why Timex sells millions more watches than Rolex and so on and so forth. GOD Bless the Great Spyder FActory and even their AUS-8 blades are tops compared to rip-mart's landfill bound crap.