Hey Chris,
As to knife steels, there is a huge amount of information online. Use you favorite search engine. I don't know of one place that I could send you that covers it all.
Here are a few that I have read, but there are many more.

www.knifeart.com/steelfaqbyjo.html


www.cliffstamp.com/knives/reviews/blade_materials.html

www.simplytoolsteel.com/knife-steel-comparison-chart.html

Also both Bladeforums.com and Knifeforums.com have extensive discussions about blade steel.
Go to either site and search on the name of the steel you want to know about. I have not yet dones that and not found a great deal of information.


If you know a type of steel you can find its composition and compare it to other steels here:

zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php

The you probably want to know about heat treating and hardening.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_treating

www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Matter/Hardening.html

www.primitiveways.com/Steel%20heat%20treatment.html

www.asminternational.org/content/ASM/StoreFiles/ACF180B.pdf

Now these are just a few that I have bookmarked. There is a huge amount of information out there. There have been volumes written on the subject and the study of steels and their behavior and properties is a field of study and an entire science unto itself. You could also visit your local library and find a wealth of information on this field of study.

In other words, you just need to dig and spend some time, there are far more than a couple of good resouces, and no single source that I know of is complete.