I keep a narwhal in my pond.
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I’m more of an oarfish knife connoisseur.
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No joke, an uncle in law keeps a sturgeon in his pond. And it can’t be legal the way he diverted that river.
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I should not have used the word often. Sometimes is more accurate. But yes, some stainless ‘steel’ contains no carbon thus no steel. They are nickle, iron, chromium alloys most often used in crap utensils. No, they have none of steels desirable qualities other than being shiny and metal. Those alloys shouldn’t be called steel but then again most of the bubbly wine sold shouldn’t be called champagne either.
Common does not mean quality or even good. It means it is often done. It’s common to see clan members in Alabama flying the battle flag on their jacked up trucks but that doesn’t mean it’s something you want to be involved with.
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Euphemism? “Is that a narwhal in your pond or…?”
“Do you have a narwhal in your pond? No? Do you want one?”
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Well the brands doing it are pretty wildly considered to be very high quality brands. I might not think it’s wise, the one shun I have is problematic, but it’s a value judgement. Plenty of people prefer their knives that hard, usage dependant. It’s even necessary sometimes. IIRC straight razors need to be very hard to function properly.
You certainly would be expelled and banned from returning to school if you brought a “pencil sharpening knife” to school in the USA.
Crazy Uncle Japhroaig has an even crazier uncle? Good Lord.
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No doubt they are. Ignorance and marketing often combine to create a sense of quality where none exist resulting in false economy. Preferring a hard blade is usually the result of being amazed at how long it holds and edge. But when it does dull, getting that edge back is very difficult or nearly impossible if you don’t have the right tools and skill set. A softer (not soft) steel will give an edge exactly as sharp which cuts exactly as well as the hard blade. The difference is that with softer steel you can easily resharpen it (though it will dull a bit faster) and dropping or flexing it will not harm the knife.
Actually they are fairly soft - softer than most pocket knives. That’s why they are so easy to sharpen. Besides being brittle and prone to breakage hard blades are notoriously difficult to re-sharpen. Straight razors on the other hand rely on a very thin blade that is easily sharped so hardness would be a real problem. The softness of the blade is also precisely why razor strops work. After sharpening or minor use, the very thin metal at the very edge of the blade will roll over (if you have one and a microscope, check it out for yourself). A strop removes that rolled edge and smooths any nicks in the metal. If the steel was fully hardened, it would do squat.
Listen I’m not sure how much experience you have with these knives. But we’re talking brands like Shun, MAC, and Tojiro all of which harden past sixty and many more. Like I said I have a Shun. While its very hard and that’s responsible for some of its issues (it chips easily) it is not really any more difficult to get an edge on there than my softer European knives. And the edge isn’t particularly long lived as goes the comparison either. It can take slightly more effort to grind out chips but putting an edge on there is no different really than anything else. I believe the knife was sold (discontinued model) as being 62 or 63 Rockwell. Straight razors are commonly cited to have a rockwell range of 55-65+. And I’ve seen old straight razors from very well regarded makes shatter like glass, even though they were able to take a crazy good edge relatively easily.
Some of the knives I’ve worked with that are the hardest to remove metal from are cheap no brand stainless knives with a pretty low Rockwell. More contributes to how tough it is to sharpen a knife, how hard it is to remove metal from it, and how long lived the edge, than just rockwell score. Its sounds like your applying the common complaints about older (and current low quality stainless steel) to any steel with a high hardness rating, perhaps all stainless steel knives.
My experience with blades began 25 years ago with a 4 year blade smithing apprenticeship at Iron Wolf Fine Blades under Steven “Bogg” Story which began my lifelong passion for the subject.
The difficulty you have with no brand stainless knives is most likely due to the use a nickle in the alloy. Nickle is gummy, tough, and hard to work with. Drive a nail through a nickle (which is only 25% nickle) and then a quarter to see the difference.
I generally work in tool and bearing steel with the odd exotic so my views on the subject are not clouded by complaints of older alloys but rather direct experience in understanding how the different alloys behave as you change the ratios and amounts of tungsten, vanadium, chromium, et all in the alloy in all states of steel from annealed, to fully hardened, to sub zero quenches and differential tempering techniques.
Yes, you are correct in that the hardness is not the only factor in how easy/difficult it is to sharpen a knife or how quickly it dulls. However, all else being equal (in this case normal standard carbon steel quenched in water to bring to full hardness) the hardness is the most significant factor.
I get that you and many other really like very hard steel blades. But to someone like me, those hard Japanese knives are simply junk when compared to something a good bladesmith will produce.
As for the advertised harness of straight razors, don’t believe the marketing hype. Though I have seen fine example of the straight razor made with fully hardened steel and no temper, most do not fit that description. I’ve probably sharpened hundreds of straight razors for customers and have only held maybe 3 that were fully hard. Most were likely in the mid to upper 50s on the Rw C scale and those 3 that were fully hard were a nightmare to maintain.
edit to add and speaking of marketing hype
Then it is most likely not as hard as advertised otherwise it would be…
Pfft. Amateur. 
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I’ll add (as an amateur knife smith), that there are TONS of knifemaker/artists in the US who could custom make something like this really easily (these look stock removed rather than forged). Want a hedgehog version? A wily roadrunner? Get a custom maker to make one for you…
As much as a fan I am of Japanese stuff, you don’t have to get this from Japan… Something something supporting local artisans…
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