Answer:
8C13CrMoV--A Chinese steel--It might be OK but as far as I am concerned it's not quality stuff.Gotta love well reasoned scientific analysis.
I really wish I could afford to run this experiment.
Start by having a dozen "sets" of eight knives each made. Each set would contain eight otherwise identical fixed blade knives in:
8Cr13MoV (at the hardness used in the Tenacious)
VG-10 (at the hardness used in the Caly 3)
ZDP-189 (at the hardness used in the Stretch II)
CPM S30V (at the hardness used in the Native)
420HC (at the hardness used in the Buck 110)
AUS-8 (at the hardness used in Boker Plus Trance)
N690Co (at the hardness used in the Volpe)