My favorite grafting knife is a Hyde high speed steel mill blade,that I inherited from my grandfather.he worked in the rubber factory and used these in there to cut rubber. This knife will hold an edge for an amazingly long time. And can be sharpened to a incredibly sharp edge.
Last spring I sharpened it at the beginning of the grafting season. After several hundred grafts, it will still shave hair off of my arm better than most other knives freshly sharpened .
It is profiled such that it is flat on both sides , thick as a nickel at the back spine. Flat on both sides all the way to the edge, very thin razor edge
This is a pic of it with the green Regis handle
I had the handle wrapped in blue flagging tape for years . Unwrapped it the other day and was pleasantly surprised to see it was made in grafton Oh.
This is no ordinary knife ,does not look like much, but it is my prized possession .
It occurred to me that I needed back up ,in case I were to lose it.
Have bought several on eBay at real good prices.
Dexter, Regis , Hyde , are names to look for,
The blades can be of various alloys , I recommend high speed steel.
I turn the blades around and reprofile the edge on the other end of the blank.
This is a real project . This is the hardest steel I have tried to work, and takes a lot more time than your normal knife to reprofile / sharpen.
But the result is so worth it.
I also bought some other knives to try.