i started with some O1 carbon steel. i only got to finnish one knife all the way through so far (got really busy and then left for school) but it seemed to work well, not to hard to grind and shape down to what i wanted.
either way i would think about getting it professionally HT'ed for your first blade if you plan on keeping it, you might be able to pull of an ok HT, i did but it was more luck than anything else.
and now that i started this response at about 10 and its 10 till 12 due to a long phone call i apologize if this lost any sense
~edit~o i forgot to mention that i echo the do not bend it, i broke my first knife because of that "o its a little bent ill just flex it back to shape" ya bad choice, there is a way to do it that involves hitting it with "lower" heat like 300-400 but i never really looked into it and it also seemed to be riding that fine edge between ok and messing up hours of work.~
-matt
either way i would think about getting it professionally HT'ed for your first blade if you plan on keeping it, you might be able to pull of an ok HT, i did but it was more luck than anything else.
and now that i started this response at about 10 and its 10 till 12 due to a long phone call i apologize if this lost any sense
~edit~o i forgot to mention that i echo the do not bend it, i broke my first knife because of that "o its a little bent ill just flex it back to shape" ya bad choice, there is a way to do it that involves hitting it with "lower" heat like 300-400 but i never really looked into it and it also seemed to be riding that fine edge between ok and messing up hours of work.~
-matt
