The Koolstop Salmon pads do not eat rims like the Shimano ones do. One time I thought I finally had a decent stopping set of Shimano pads until I notice the silver metallic dust on the front forks, out they went and now 100% of my bikes have Koolstop salmon pads. Their black pads do not have the initial "bite" like the salmon pads do. The salmon ones "grab" hard as soon as they touch the rim, no need for a lot of pressure on the brake lever.
I even have 1 bike with the world famous Turkey Levers and that one stops just fine using the turkey levers, I can get the back wheel off the ground on hard stops. Maybe turkey levers aren't that bad, maybe it was the fact that most bikes with turkey levers had chrome steel rims and terrible brake pads.