I found this page
The Traditional Tools Group (Inc.) -- Document View to be really crucial in helping me identify all the brands and what makes up each flavor. I know it's listed in book form, but when rooting through estate sales this is a great quick reference. Personally I'd have to agree with above, if I could only have one it would be Rex 95 or Halcomb 999, both T8 and hold up better than everything else to my shaper. I did buy 100lbs of HSS for pennies from someone in the aerospace industry here, and it was full of huge M42 and M43 blanks, Fagerstae WKE 4, Super Mo Max Cobalt, Bofors Super Cobalt etc, all for what seemed like turning stainless. Not very useful to the shaper's interrupted cut. Still, was interesting to see a what someone would have used for stainless work. I also have some Tantung, Stellite, and Vasco Supreme, which are tough to grind but hold up even better than the Rex 95, but I rarely need to use them. I find it to be pretty rewarding to not only learn about cutter geometry as I grind my own tools, and I learn a lot by looking at the shapes of the ground bits I find in estate sales, always inspiring to see what kinds of custom tools people make.