The Tamahagane knives are commonly known as Western-style knives in Japan. They are not single bevel, they are usually a symmetrical blade with a longer angle than most Western knives. This is accomplished with the two steel blade process they use.
I consider these to be quite similar to the lower end Shun blades, offering a very hard, fine grained steel edge, buffered with the soft stainless steel. As Bludawg mentioned, the stainless is a similar steel to what Buck uses, but, they harden it much more. I have tested out the Tamahagane Chef knife, and for $100, it is a solid buy.
For my use, and bearing in mind, my go to Chef knife right now is my old trusty Wusthof 8", I like this type of knife and seriously considered the Tamahagane and Shun knives to replace my Wusthof for every day use. I use a Dexter-Russel and have used Victorinox, and they are fine knives for the price. But, given a choice, I would never choose them for my kitchen.
I have decided my next two knife purchases will be a moderately priced 240mm carbon steel gyuto and a carbon steel Nakiri, I much prefer carbon steel over any stainless steel blade, the steel just holds an edge better. I hope that helps, if you have more questions, feel free to ask in this thread, I will check back later.
