Years ago I was in the sport of Fencing, Epee in particular and was looking a manufacturing Competition blades here in Canada (this is part in parcel that got me hooked up with one of my mentors in metal working).
The Steel of choice is Maraging 250, because of strength, hardness, flexibility, durability, corrosion resistant and most importantly when it fails it breaks clean (no ice pick failures, important to prevent injuries or death). What is it Russian Aircraft landing gear steel (MIG). Expensive to say the least. Additionally it uses a Mar-aging process (cold treatment to achieve martinized metal lattice in the structure).
I also found and considered Aeromet which comes in flavours Aeromet 100 and Aeromet tool steel (this version is a lot cheaper because it does have the addition boxes of paperwork for military certification. What was it designed for you ask, landing gear, particularly for the new fighters at the time in development the F35 and F22.
I'm in agreement with
@Chris Cramer metallurgy, design and treatment achieve the best result for toughness and durability, look and finish that is skill and artistry (of which the latter is hit and miss for me).