Which steels are most suitable for knife making?
Looks like there was already an answer here, but there are a lot of variables not considered:

If you are going to send out your blades for heat-treatment, then any steel with medium carbide volume is going to be fine. These include the simple carbon steels, from 1070-1095, O1, A2 as well as stainless steels like AEB-L (Sandvik 13c26), CPM-154, S35VN. Note that CPM-154 and S35VN are both higher carbide volume, but made with a powdered metallurgy process, which reduces the disadvantages of high carbide volume. I would avoid the super wear-resistant or ultra-tough steels, as they are more specialized and you've asked about general use knives.

For most people who don't want to maintain carbon steel, I'd recommend CPM-154 or S35VN. If you're going to the trouble to MAKE a knife, don't start with performance and market-limiting blade steels like the 420 series or 440C. Yes, you can make a very good knife with them, but you're starting with an unnecessary disadvantage only to save a few dollars in material. Most of the cost of a custom knife is labor.

For carbon steels, I'd recommend 1084 if heat-treating at home for stock-removal blades, and 80CrV2 if forging at home.

The poster below makes some good points - I answered with steels available in North America. Steels available in Europe and elsewhere will be different. I believe RWL34 is very similar to CPM-154 (or is it 154CM? powered or not is the difference).

I've spent months on ocean-going ships with my 154CM blades (that I made), and no corrosion problems. Of course I wasn't processing fish in the Bering sea...  A small amount of maintenance will go a long way.  Just keep it clean and put it away dry. If corrosion-resistance is a priority, be sure to use (or specify) the lower tempering range, not the secondary higher range, which reduces corrosion-resistance in many high-alloy steels. Nitrogen-heavy steels win in this category, but some (like H1) are not hardened in the traditional manner, and may be harder to manage for the home craftsperson.