I have a mix of carbon, stainless and semi-stainless/tool-steel blades. For use in the kitchen I have quite a few blades in Aogami Super (ie Hitachi Blue) as well as White #2. These are Japanese high carbon knives hardened to between 62-64 RC. I find that those knives take about as keen an edge as anything I've seen yet. But I also have many kitchen knives in tool steels and powders (ie PM steel). SRS-15 seems to get within a whisker of the sharpness of Blue or White. AEB-L, a stainless made for razors, seems to be on a pretty even footing with the best high carbons. It does seem to me that high tech stainless loses that "fresh-off-the-stone" sharpness faster than carbon but remains usefully sharp much longer. For instance, my Akifusa in SRS-15 can go several months in a pro kitchen between re-sharpenings where my Tojiros in White #2 are lucky to go a couple weeks.

For outdoors-type blades I also have a mix. I really like O1 and D2, but VG-10 also works well (although I don't like VG-10 very well for kitchen knives). Carbon certainly works but I do sometimes wind up with some rusting.