The 1095 high-carbon, non-stainless aren't bad, mainly because the Black-T coat helps with possible corrosion issues.
The ATS34 stainless is still more desireable, to me...basically, this is a very good stainless, won't hold an edge quite like 1095 but comes close. And for a neck knife carried near the skin (and sweat), it seems like a better idea.
As the production run ended, Bob Taylor of REKAT claims they ran out of 1095 blanks, took some ATS34 specimens and gave 'em a Black-T coating, blowing them out the door as 1095. They didn't want to spend money on new labeling proceedures for a product going away. There's still a way of IDing these oddballs, which are probably the most desirable of all the Fangs
. Certainly the rarest; about 50 total.
See also this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum22/HTML/000451.html - there's also nitty gritties on the steels, lots of good stuff
. Regarding the title, I don't personally consider REKAT's actions in this matter "fraud" and I'm personally a satisfied REKAT customer (Sifu).
Jim