Sakai Takayuki Silver-3 Gin-San

Silver-3 is a unique and rarely used steel. It is made by the Hitachi Yasugi-works (the same source as the famous "blue" and "white" carbon steels), but this Silver-3 ("GIN 3") steel has 12% chrome so it is very stain-resistant (almost "stainless") but it is harder than most "stainless" steels and has properties similar to blue-2 or white-2 carbon steels. Because it's hard to work with the knives aren't cheap, but these examples are superbly made and individually hand-crafted and so real collector's pieces in addition to being great tools.