I am a hobby maker who sells once in a while, been doing it for a few years now. It takes me at least 8 hours to complete a knife, some makers I'm sure do it much faster but I don't. There is zero chance I'm going to work 8 hours to settle an internet disagreement and send you a knife at cost. If you like your knife so much that is fine by me, and maybe you did get through the moose, I really might be wrong and I'm fine with that. But I know it would have been an S.O.B at the end because that knife had to be pretty dull. Listen to a few other people on here who have tried those knives( like myself) and then used other knives with better cutlery steel and have seen there is a significant difference in edge retention. That is the beauty of internet forums, you can learn from a lot of people who have more experience in fields that you may not in a very short amount of time. Alot of what I learned on becoming a maker I pulled off this forum from guys who have been doing it along time. Not ONE of them would spend time making a custom out of 440A, and there is a reason for that. You should ask yourself why guys who make a living based upon a knife's performance won't use that steel. Its not because Cutco knows something they don't.
MM
