David Weaver
you're thinking of slicing things and doing "normal" tasks with a knife.

A nice carbon steel knife made of 1095 with a thin blade is cheap and not something a "bladesmith" could compete with.

Making a 9 inch fixed blade knife that can hatchet 2x4s is what seems to be the draw, and they're necessarily tempered softer than what we'd use.

I'm a bit suspicious of the reputation of 1095 being brittle if it's kept at low hardness, but 5160 wouldn't last well if it was hardened to 61 and used for edge holding purposes.

There's a whole lot of scuttle about 1095 and W1 cracking, too, but I've never had any issue with it in an oil that flows well (vs. trying to get away with hardening it in water). Soy oil is probably one of the worst oils for human consumption (high smoke point, flows well, probably very little natural about it), but it makes a great quench for 1095.

1095 is harder to hammer and shape, too, especially warm shaping (vs. hot work).