I don't know much about steel from a technical view, but from a practical one, edge geometry is key. My EDC is a Swamp Rat folder in S30V. It has a hand honed convex edge. It also has a small chip in the edge from some dumb thing I did with it. It holds an edge well. My convexed Swamp Rats in SR101 will cut like crazy and seem to hold an edge forever. I'm sure they would hold up to many deer skinnings. But the edge geometry is very important. I remember an old hunting buddy and I skinning a bunch of squirrels one day. He borrowed my Bucklite folder and was amazed at how sharp it stayed thru the whole time. That was just 420HC or maybe 425 steel, but it had a nice thin edge I had put on it. His Buck dulled faster.