???
But toughness and strength describe how the steel reacts...
and toughness and strength will depend on the grain structure and hardness...
They will define how tough or strong the knife is.

and we are really just talking of the definitions of each, really... and trying to use examples.

EDIT that was in response to mag.

so wait... mag you're saying bruce is wrong?

and i was talking about before when bruce was talking about knives having more "give" and I thought if a knife had more "give" it would be tougher. (more malleable)

knotslip, yeah I understand what you're saying.