[Trip_Wire (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Bill Harsey

ATS-34 is a very good knife steel. Here is how it came into existence:

First, it was Bob Loveless who revolutionized modern knife making with both his designs and dedication to testing alloys of tool steels for knife use.

Loveless found a very high grade of tool steel produced by Crucible Specialty Tool Steels in Syracuse New York called 154CM. This was a big jump forward in knifemaking as it was both a high performance steel and has good stain resistance.

Crucible at that time was owned by Colt Industries. Loveless was having some problems sourcing the steel from them, forget if it was pricing or something else but the result was Loveless going to Japan, founding the Japanese Knifemakers Guild on the way, meeting the president of Hitachi Steel and asking him to make a steel with "about the same" chemical composition as 154CM and the result is ATS34 which I have used a lot of in the past.
It's good steel.

Thanks Bill!