I agree. Stainless has it's place. That said, there's good stainless and bad stainless. I find that many, if not most sgian dubhs are made from pretty poor quality stainless. With low quality stainless, I find it can sometimes be quite difficult to sharpen and edge holding can sometimes be a problem, too.

I'm the same way, come to knives. I always carry a good one. I also think it's lame to carry a sgian dubh, but still have to carry another knife, due to having a bad blade on the sgian. That's why I haven't really worn a sgian dubh in years.

As luck would have it though, the Atlanta Blade Show is coming up in less than two weeks, and I'm hoping to find a nice hand forged carbon steel one, there. For me, carbon steel is the way to go.