Ha! BTW...good looking Blue 2 knives. Yeah, Workshop Heaven and Dictum are the only two places that I know of that will sell "Hitachi" steels. And how they managed that...I haven't a clue! I made a petty out of the White 2/wrought iron san mai billets they had some years ago prior to when I had a good heat treating oven. I sent it out to a pro company here in the USA, and that knife NEVER held an edge worth squat. Turns out, I later found out the hardening temp they used. 1575f, which is a full 100f hotter than it should have been!!! No wonder that knife underperformed badly! Way too much retained austenite for White steel, too much plate martensite. The edge just would sort of crumble in light use. Now I have a kiln that holds an extremely tight temperature, but only reaches 1775f, so I am limited to A2 and under if I want to keep heat treat in house.
One of our main steel suppliers here, Aldo Bruno the New Jersey Steel Baron, actually managed to acquire some Hitachi Blue 2 a few years back (mono steel, not clad). I made quite a few knives out of it, and still have a little bit left over. Good steel, seemed to be. Some guys got part of the batch that had SUPER wicked alloy/carbide banding. The blades looked like folded steel, in a way, just massive banding. I don't care for that much, preferring a better homogeneous structure, but it looks cool, and I've heard doesn't seem to affect performance.