I am in the market for a good hunting knife under $100. I am primarily looking for a knife that will keep it's edge. What type of steel should I be looking for?
Take a close look at the Cold Steel Master Hunter. I can't wait for my hunting knife to die so I can go get one.
Get a Kershaw hunting knife. Kershaw uses only good quality knife steel and they have plenty of hunting knives under $100.
Don't know much about steels, but apparently SV30 is the toughest son of ore you can look for, and it's so tough I've heard of knife makers rejecting it for softer steel. Look for Gerber and Buck for low end SV30 knives under $100.
Regardless of who makes the knife, you might look at stainless steel instead of the better tool steels like O2,M2 or D2...stainless takes more abuse and neglect than the others do.
