Hitachi ATS-314 Knife Steel
Composition Analysis Graph, Equivalents And Overview

ATS-314(Hitachi) - Relatively new in cutlery, Hitachi proprietary stainless alloy, although it's been around for a while and it was mainly used in scissors and shears. ATS-134 was shown in tests to be an improvement over very popular Takefu VG-10 stainless steel. ATS-314 edge holding ability is better, it can be sharpened to a finer edge compared to Takefu VG-10 steel, although it's slightly more brittle at higher hardness. In some tests ATS-314 was on par with another high end contender - Takefu SG2 steel, which is considered to be a premium PM steel. Main downside to ATS-314 is its price(comparable to SG2 steel) and it's more difficult to work with compared to Takefu VG-10 steel. Overall, as Hitachi states: However, we believe this steel is a well-balanced steel for kitchen knives while having a structural stability, toughness, sharpness, wear resistance and stainless. Well, there you have it. If you are willing to give it a try, it's definitely not a slouch. Currently, Japanese Knife Imports has Ryusen Fukakuryu series knives featuring ATS-134 steel at 61HRC.
Special thanks to Jon Broida of Japanese Knife Imports for the initial info on the alloy.

Manufacturing Technology - Ingot

Country - Japan(JP)

Known Aliases:
Hitachi - ATS314