Experiences and Opinions on A2 Steel?

Marko's making me a knife and suggested I try A2 over 52100. I totally trust Marko and am excited to try out the knife but I don't know very much about A2.

I did some looking around and didn't find very much. Any of you had experience with this steel in a kitchen knife?

I have a Gyuto in A2 from Marko and I love it.
Edge retention is its strong suit, and it takes a really nice toothy edge.
It's also very stain resistant in my expierience, after the first few days of use in a pro Kitchen I had to email Marko to make sure he didn't send me AEBL by mistake. I had to rub some mustard on the blade and leave it a while to confirm it was in fact A2.
I've owned 52100 as well and definately prefer A2. 52100 takes a slighlt keener edge, and responds a bit better to stropping, but edge retention & stain resistence put A2 over the top for me.

A2 = SKD12

Yoshikane make/made knives in this steel, and they do it well. It's not a new or unproven steel, far from it in fact.

Huw's experiences above reflect mine with my Yoshi. I will add that as well as taking an aggressive edge and having excellent retention, the steel is also remarkably tough.

Heiji also work with this steel in some of their "(semi)-stainless" lines, iirc.

I would take A2 over 52100, particularly for a gyuto.

Its not the steel, its the maker. Given Markos reputation (never had the privilege to use one of his knives in person), i would totally go for it!

Heres some facts:

http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php?nm=a2

Thanks for all the responses.

Surprising how stain resistant A2 is with only 5% chromium.

I have used the Yoshikane in SKD and liked them a lot.

The knife I'll be receiving is a suji and I can't wait to use it. I'll post pics when I get it.

I am the most fearless with my Marko A2.