TomD
"The recipe for the steel these guys use today is not coming out of some tattered little volume that's been handed down for the last 500 years."

Given the alloys in blue steel I think that is likely, though whether that is a plus a negative or neutral I don't know.

"It comes from Hitachi and other large industrial suppliers of tool steel. I'm not taking anything away from the craftsmanship that follows, but the raw material (i.e. tool steel) is an industrial commodity made in huge quantities, in huge factories, by huge multi-national corporations."

I don't know enough about industrial steels, but I don't think finished high tech steels are a commodity. More like cakes than sugar.

Not do I think that tools steels as a category really help us that much they are made for stuff other than the making of woodworking tools many of the characteristics they have are negative to our uses.

And finally, I'd love to know whether blue and white are made by the mega ton, or are made for the cutlery market. Are they formulated for this kind of use or like O1 are they being diverted, and the best of a bad lot.