The reason I recommend Rc61 for 3V blades in all sizes is because of its failure mode. ALL steels can fail. It's a question of how and under what conditions. There's a reason why CPM-M4 is the favored steel in cutting competitions, even though 3V is tougher and will take a finer edge. There are two ways steel fails in toughness tests. One is brittle fracture, the other is plastic deformation. You simply can't fracture 3V if heat treated properly. Bold statement but I'll stand by it in any reasonable use to which you might apply any knife for any purpose, including what most would consider abuse. You can, however, roll or flatten a fine edge if you hit something very hard. Doing that becomes more difficult if the steel is harder (pretty much the definition of hardness actually.) Most steel edges will chip or fracture at the impacts needed to do this with 3V, but it happens and that's why you don't see 3V in cutting competitions, even at Rc61 or more. Cutting the hardwood dowel will very slightly flatten a fine 3V edge, and that disqualifies the knife. At Rc58 it would flatten more. Is this a problem in use? Ask yourself, would you prefer an edge to flatten or fracture? Those are your choices, and since CPM-M4 resists both to a very high degree it is the favorite of cutting competitors, right up to when they have to sharpen it again and then it's a curse. A fractured edge compromises the whole blade, since cracks can extend and lead to catastrophic failure. Won't happen with 3V. It simply won't happen. How big a problem is edge deformation? A dozen or so years ago I had a sword tested by a very skilled martial artist. His ultimate cutting test was a leg of beef. With a one handed sword, he cut through that leg of beef so the bottom half was hanging by just the fascia on the outside on the meat on one side. It was a diagonal, #1 cut that transected 9" of meat and over 3" of bone. The outcut on the bone was clean with no fracturing, meaning the edge was still cutting when it cleared the bone. On examining the edge after the test, there was a slight, ~3/16" long flat on the edge. Not much, and you have to hold it to the light just right to see it, but there it was. Easy to sharpen out and the blade was still cutting well despite that. Rc61 CPM-3V. Beef leg bone is VERY hard stuff, much harder than most any wood you'll encounter. The point I'm making is that the edge is stronger at Rc61 and I don't think there's a reason to compromise that with a softer temper. It isn't going to break.
And I agree with James, if you only had one steel to choose for any use whatever, I honestly don't think you could do better than 3V. Other steels have qualities I would love to see in 3V, i.e. stainless, but nothing has everything and 3V has the most, in my judgement.
I do wipe down all my tools that have been used for the day before I leave.
