I have a set of 6 virtorinox steak knives from the 90s, that turned into general purpose kitchen knifes. They are now finally starting to become blunt. The black platic handles are smooth from use. 30 years on, ithink the time is approaching for them to be replaced. And that is only because I cannot sharpen the serated blades.
If you bring them to a professional sharpener, they can do it for you.
I think more important than which knife to get is how to properly sharpen them. It doesn’t matter which knife you purchase, it will need to be sharpened at some point.
Harder steels don’t have to be sharpened as much. The downside is they’re a bit more brittle so cannot be used for hard chopping or wedging motions.
Yeah, basically every knife is BIFL if you learn to sharpen them.