1095 Carbon

The American survival-knife standard. Dead simple, very tough at these hardnesses, and it will start rusting the day you put it away wet.

Typical hardness

55-58 HRC

Edge retention

2/5

Toughness

4/5

Corrosion resistance

1/5

Ease of sharpening

5/5

1-5 is a relative ranking drawn from published composition and hardness, not a lab measurement. Higher is better on every axis, and no steel is a 5 across the board — edge retention and toughness pull against each other.