I can get all my other knives as sharp as I want them... including my Kershaws, SAK, and Case knife
Kershaws are mostly milder steels, such 8Cr13Mov, these days. 8Cr13MoV contains around 0.8% carbon, 13% chromium, and only small bits of molybdenum, nickel, and vanadium. When you have more than roughly 0.6-7% carbon and 12% chromium in a steel, the rest mostly forms carbides. 8Cr13MoV contains small amounts of carbides. SAK and Case knives, mostly having carbon content in the 0.45-0.7% range, have even less.
VG10 has around 1.0% carbon and 15% chromium. Plus a good couple percent cobalt. It should have upwards of 4x as much carbide content than your other knives. The higher the carbide content, the larger those carbides will grow during the quenching phase.
Carbides can grow very large. A high carbide steel is like chunky peanut butter. Carbides limit how sharp you can get a blade. (This is referred to as edge stability. Plain carbon and mild stainless steels have the highest edge stability. High carbide steels have lower edge stability. And no, this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with edge strength or wear resistance. It just means how fine you can get the edge). Now, if you sharpen with more obtuse angles and/or lower grits, you may never really notice. The more acute and polished you take the edge, the more you will notice the difference between such steels.
I have a 440C knife on which I put an acute, polished edge of maybe 25 degrees, inclusive. (Actually it is 9Cr18Mov, which is very similar to 440C, and which should have high carbide content similar to VG10). Right off the hone, it will not cut a cotton patch without a backboard. It just slides right over the fabric. You ever hear of an edge being so polished it can't cut a tomato, etc? Well, there's some truth to that. But that's partly dependent on the steel. An acute, polished edge on a plain carbon or a "mild" stainless steel will easy cut tomatoes and/or shave hairs. That's because the blade comes to a very fine edge. It's super sharp. Of course it will cut a tomato. But if I take this 440C knife right off a super fine (translucent Ark, in this case) hone, it will not. Despite sharpening to the same angle, that angle doesn't reach all the way to the very edge, like it does with a carbon steel blade. Taking a not-so-sharp edge to a high polish on a hard hone will, quite understandably, make it not cut very well.
But lo and behold, if I cut a bunch of cardboard, this knife "gets sharper." And it will, indeed, easily cut tomatoes and cotton patches and paper towels. A more practical way to get this knife to top sharpness is to strop the heck out of it after honing. Yes, this polishes the edge even more, but the carbides sink into the strop and don't get physically dislodged as readily as when honing. Thus, the strop is better at leaving those carbides alone, better exposing the sharp edges on them, and further thinning and refining the steel matrix between chunks. Since those carbides aren't all lined up in a perfectly straight line, the cutting edge of this knife becomes a bit of a zig-zagging line that meanders up/down/left/right as defined by the larger chunks of carbides. You can't get the edge this fine (albeit crooked, on a microscopic level) on a hard hone.
After this treatment, this knife will easily cut fibrous materials. And it will easily
slice through hairs. But it will never shave as well as a "milder" steel such as 420HC, 440A, 8Cr13Mov, 13C26/AEB-L, or any plain carbon steel. Since I starting finishing with translucent ark, I rarely strop my other knives, unless it's to remove cosmetic, visible scratches on the sides of the blade. At most, I may do a few passes on a strop to remove any microscopic wire edge (that's probably just in my head), but I have noticed no practical difference in sharpness whether stropping or not. But on a knife with big carbides, it can make a huge difference.
Steels such as S30V are made from finely powdered and mixed compounds fused together. This ensures that the ingredients are distributed more evenly. This allows for higher carbide contents while keeping those carbides from growing as large as in a traditional alloy. So you can get the benefits of wear resistance and higher hardenability without as much limitation on edge stability.
. Of those that strop, some favor hardwood or balsa (which is technically hardwood, haha) or leather over wood or a free strip of leather strung up like a hammock. Some maintain their knife by swiping it on the bottom of a mug. Others strop on denim jeans. Or the edge of cardboard. Or newsprint. What works best for one guy isn't going to work so hot for someone else with a different knife and different performance goals. These are all specific tools for specific jobs. If you are obsessed with edges, you may use several of them. The best tool(s) to finish/maintain any specific edge will depend on edge profile, desired performance, steel type, and the nature of edge damage that is being repaired.
