O1 hardness question

S

storyville

Joined
Aug 11, 1999
Messages
1,111
This issue has recently been raised re: a particular maker’s knives... let’s hypothetically refer to him as “Angry Canine”...

Seriously, it’s been stated that O1 hardened to 62-63 RC is too hard and brittle; moreover, that leaving the edge that hard and drawing back the spine to 50-54 RC is a recipe for disaster when applying lateral stress.

Is this true? Based on your experience as a maker, what do you believe would be “appropriate” or most effective for a 7” O1 blade?

Serious responses, please! There’s been plenty of roasting of “Angry Canine” on other threads, so I’m kindly requesting that folks here stay on-topic. Thanks --

Glen
 
Angry Canine.....That's funny!!!!
Quite often I will make my experimental knives or prototypes out of 01. It is easier to work with and less expensive than my standard D2. My usuall heat treatment on these gives me about a 59Rc. I've never had a problem at this hardness and the edge holds very well. I think that the edge geometry must be considered in addition to Rc.
Neil

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i wouldn't leave the edge that hard, personally i would harden the entire blade to rc 58-59. this depends though, are you trying to put a temper line on the blade? 0-1 is actually pretty flexible, but can hold a decent edge. although this has nothing to do with the topic i perfer d-2, ats-34 and 440c over o-1, this is becuase i hand rub my knives and o-1 is a pain to hand rub.
 
Although I don't use O1 much anymore unless requested by client, I always had it heat treated to RC 58. I agree that over RC60 is probably too brittle.
Steve
 
I harden my blades in 150dg oil, then temper 3 times for 2hrs at 425dg. What would the rockwell be? It was edge quenched.
 
Dr Lathe, Brian and Steve are right on track IMO. O-1 hardened and tempered to 58-59 Rc then draw the spine back to around 50 Rc and you'll have one tough edge holding knife that can take quite a bit of abuse. The 62-63 Rc edge is as you say a recipe for disaster with O-1.

Take Care...GaryB
 
No Offence to anyone here in any forum. (DONT WANT A SHOP TALK FLAME WAR STARTED)

58-59 is the hardest I would recomend most all edges unless there is a special purpose or the manufacuturer recommend a harder hardness for another purpose other than knife edged.

There are newer super steels (cpm440v cpm 420v) out now days that only require 56-58 rc to maintain edge holding and toughness..
I the carbons 57-59 is general practice.

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