It very much is going to depend on the steel and how well it can handle a low angle, or not.
1095 and 440A takes 10 DPS (20 degrees inclusive) without chipping or rolling the edge. In the very rare cases the edge does roll, a few swipes on a dry strop fixes it.
From what I've read on here on BF, it's the high alloy over 60 Rockwell "latest & greatest" steels that can't take an acute edge, and need an obtuse 15 to 25 DPS (30 to 50 degrees inclusive) edge.
When I was taught how to sharpen 60 years ago, an obtuse edge of 24 ~ 26 degrees inclusive (12 ~13 DPS) or greater, was used on, and proper for an axe, or hatchet. Knives (to include meat and veggie cleavers) were 18 to 22 degrees (10 DPS + / -2 degrees) inclusive.
Blade steels on US made pocket and hunting knives then were either 440A or 440C if stainless (please recall that 440C was the original wear resistant/holds an edge for a long time (and didn't really response well to the then common Arkansas and other oil stones most folk had. SiC and diamond stones/plates hadn't been invented yet.) with small spattering of 420HC from the 1920's to the 1980's.
Carbon steel blades were one of the 10xx series. Usually 1095, military and civilian.
I'm not sure when 5160 and 52100 were first used on a commercial basis for knife blades. 1990's? ... Later? Same for D2 and other semi stainless tool steels. I'm sure it was post WW2 before knives were mass produced with D2.
I don't know what the European import's blade steels were back then.
I don't know (or care) what they are now either, for that matter. Aside from SAK, MAM, and Opinel, I can't afford one anyway. Whatever steel(s) it is those three use, it works good enough for me ... and a lot of other folks, as well.
While they are known for producing good blades/knives
now, Post war Japanese blades/knives were looked down on worse, and had a worse reputation than the cheap Pakistani and Indian blades/knife shaped objects have today, up until the late 1970's/early1980's.
Honestly,
pretty much everything marked or stamped "Made In Japan" was considered junk until then, including Shimano. (Sun Tour, on the other hand was "The poor man's Campaglano", and sought after.)
That didn't change until Toyota started importing the Corrola, and Datsun (now known as "Nissan") imported the 510, which had won quite a few of the big ralleys back then. Of course the Datsun 240Z/260Z, Nissan 280Z/300Z and Honda Civic, didn't hurt their manufacturing reputation, either.