Since the dawn of time, the knife has served as one of the mostuseful tools ever conceived by man. Even in our modern age, a wellmade pocket knife can assist in hundreds of daily tasks. However,attempting to perform these same tasks with a cheaply-made or lowerquality knife can lead to frustration. Fortunately, determining thequality of a knife largely comes down to a single factor: the typeof steel used in its construction.Almost all knives are made of stainless steel, although this isan extremely generic term. Depending on the forging methods andmaterials used, steel is assigned a different grade; the mostcommon grades found in knifes are 420, 440A, 440B, and 440C. Knivesmade of higher quality steel are more impact resistant, and alsoretain an edge longer than their lower quality counter