How does the hardness of a knife’s blade matter?

Knives made with hard steels hold their edge for longer, although they are harder to sharpen and you’ll need a set of sharpening stones for them. In exchange, the cuts made by these knives are extremely fine and impossible to achieve with softer steels.

Softer blades are very easy to sharpen and a simple honing steel gets them ready. They’re also more affordable than hard steel knives. The problem is that they need to be sharpened constantly and you’ll never achieve the fineness of cut of the best steels. Another issue is that, if the blade is quite large, it tends to warp slightly, which can make cutting a bit more uncomfortable.