[Gary Mulkey]

Steve,

It's very easy to get caught up in all of the various steels since there are so many available these days and there is no one perfect steel. (only steels with known strengths & weaknesses) You will find that the quality of any given knife is more contengient on the accuracy of the H/T then it is on the steel itself. For this reason I would recommend using a very forgiving steel, especially to start with. Do some research on the more popular knife steels. It can save you a lot of time & frustration in the shop.

Whatever steel you decide to use, I would recommend sticking with it until you know it well. Getting the most out of a particular steel is more important than what steel that you use in most cases.

Gary