Steel Snobbery?

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I’d like to talk about the term ‘Steel Snob’.

My experience so far, with knives that I really have used suggests that I might be a snob.

I’ve tried 8cr13mov. Once. That knife was sharp like a razor and the edge was gone halfway through a simple task. Easy to restore, too – but I’d like to manage cutting up a single cardboard box in one go.

Moving up from there, I’ve owned knifes made from CTS-BD1 and D2, which were better, but still lacking in terms of edge retention.

I moved on to N690 which felt a bit better – it took a while until I needed to top it up again and it took the edge quite well – but I broke off the tip of that knife.

The knives I use now are made from two steels: S35V and S90V.
The S90V knife is a Manly Wasp. It’s the cheapest pocket knife I own and it’s the one I have in my pocket when I know I’ll do some work where a knife comes in handy. This blade has been chipped when I used it as a screwdriver. It has been sratched when I cut pewter. I’ve cut carpets and thick, high density rubber pads.
This blade took everything I threw at it and sliced it, clean and without complaint. I’ve topped it up with a steel on occasion, and I think I used a wet stone once. It is the most used, most abused blade I own and it easily is the sharpest.

Is there a difference in steels, even though they are labeled the same?
The S35V blade I use a lot is a Kizer Zipslip – might it have a lesser quality than a Sebenza, even though both have the same steel?

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