Everyones Opinion on O-1

Esav Benyamin said:
I doubt ANY Randall is a show queen, unless that's how you want to treat them. A hollow grind is not necessarily a fragile edge, either, although there are limits to what each blade of any make or materials can take.

Camp knife, hunter, general woodsrambling? Take the Randall out there and have fun. You won't wreck the knife, but you will find yourself sharpening it from time to time, and that will cure any little chips you find, too.
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I buy what you say. Now, let me ask you, would you sell a Randall #12 Bowie and buy the best manufactured knife around for heavy duty, or, as a practical matter, would you use the Randall and never look back? Just curious.
 
I'm in love with the stuff!

There are some very good advantages of it:
-It's cheap
-It's easy to work with for a maker (meaning it's not too expensive to buy an 0-1 knife)
-It's very strong, hard, and tempers well
-It's a classic steel. As cool as some newer steels are, there's something about having a traditional steel, especially in a custom knife.
-It takes on some very nice looking patinas (mostly blue/black looking, sometimes rainbow though!)

Just for those who don't know what 0-1 is, it's an oil-hardened carbon steel with relatively low chromium content. Its only disadvantage is its susceptibility to corrosion, but any one of us (who care about knives and can perform simple maintenance) wouldn't likely have a problem with it. To protect against corrosion, you need to try to seal moisture and oxygen out. The best way in my opinion (inexpensive, edible) is using mineral oil.

To see some really great 0-1 work from Brian Goode, go to his webiste:
http://www.bgoodeknives.com

He acid etches his 0-1 (etching is done with ferric chloride, bleach etc. and then neutralized with ammonia) that serves to give it an aged look, protect from corrosion, and bring out the hamon (tempering line).
 
i have 5-6 o-1 customs and love them all. keepem cleaned and oiled and keepem sharp will last longer than any of us.
 
Drocko said:
... would you sell a Randall #12 Bowie and buy the best manufactured knife around for heavy duty, or, as a practical matter, would you use the Randall and never look back?
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I would use the Randall. I have Chris Reeve, Bob Dozier, and Darrel Ralph knives that I've used to the point of scratching them up, tarnishing the finish, and dulling the cutting edge, which I simply resharpen as needed.

Incidentally, I am also of the school that believes there is no "best". There are knives more appropriate for certain tasks than others, some steels that deal better with certain conditions than others. But each of these works within a broad range of tasks and conditions, although some are clearly better at it than others.

Busse, Dozier, Randall, Reeve, Strider, all fine companies selling reliable products. Expensive, though, and a classic, simple, inexpensive knife like the military's Ka-Bar will take a reasonably experienced user through hell and back. By actual test. :)
 
O1 is a great steel, and is available just about anywhere. It has a bit more wear resistance than 52100 for a little less toughness. It has a very fine carbide size. It can be easily forged. It is very deep hardening, which means hardening it is easy, but normalizing and annealing can be more difficult, and that means a heat treating furnace should be given a little more of a consideration than if you were to use, say, 1095. It also can be taken pretty hard and still have good toughness if you like very hard, thin blades. According to Crucible, it's one of the toughest steels at 62-64 Rc, or it can be taken a little softer (58-60 Rc) for very high toughness, which is enough toughness to be used in even the most demanding chopping contests.
 
I've had a parkerized Randall #14 as a user since 1985. I like O-1 steel a lot. It has a good balance of ease of sharpening, edge-holding and toughness. With the phosphate coat I don't worry about corrosion. Clean and dry when in use, lightly oiled in storage.
 
O-1 is an excellent steel. I have a couple of users that have O-1 blades and I find it to be a steel that holds an edge well, and is easy to sharpen
 
I picked up a Puffin Magnum this year, and I didn't get a chance to get out and really play with it. Massive 6.5" droppoint recurved blade of O-1. Not only is the short primary bevel hollow-ground, so is the secondary bevel.

Somehow I think it will hold up. :)
 
I use o1 in my Nessmuck knives...

My "Messy" as I call it has skinned around 10 deer this season with only a stropping to bring it's convex edge back up to snuff

As it has been said already, keep it clean and dry and a little bit of oil on it and all will be well :p
 
Leatherface said:
I use o1 in my Nessmuck knives...

My "Messy" as I call it has skinned around 10 deer this season with only a stropping to bring it's convex edge back up to snuff

As it has been said already, keep it clean and dry and a little bit of oil on it and all will be well :p
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Thanks everybody. Glad to hear O-1 makes a good chopper even with hollow-ground edge.

Drocko
 
O-1 is a very nice steel and pretty hard to mess up. I forged some PG O-1 early on.(pricey way to go, but i could get it from a guy close by) I forged one UGLY big camp knife that easily passed the ABs 2 x 4 test and was still VERY sharp. I am now using W2 because i can get it and it seems to work a bit easier under the hammer, especially in thicker sizes. Plus, I don'thave to worry about the red hot problem. Kevin Cashen uses it for straight blades and with L6 in damascus, with great success.:thumbup:
 
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