If you have a handed-down knife that has a stained, black blade, then you probably have a carbon steel knife.
Carbon steel is old-fashioned but it sharpens very easily, and to an extremely fine edge.
It will rust and stain, but this does not in any way affect the knife s performance and can be avoided by keeping the knife clean and dry. We carry Sabatier's Au Carbone series. Most quality knives these days are made with a high-carbon stainless steel hybrid. The carbon makes the edge fine and easily sharpened, the stainless makes the knife hard and resistant to stain or rust the best of both worlds. Henckels is probably the most recognized name in cutlery - they've been in business in Solingen, Germany since 1731.