o1 tool steel question

H

hayshaker

Joined
Nov 17, 2016
Messages
23
i'm going to order some o1 tool steel blanks, 1/8in
question is this does it HAVE to be annealed or not?
in order to make knives. this will be my 1st time at using this material.
 
Higher carbon steels like O-1 usually came as sheroidize annealed .Anything else would be hard to cut or drill . A precision sized would also be available which should be spheroidized and decarb free and to a precise dimension .
 
the blanks in question are 1/8th thickx1/1/2 wide 18in long.
the d-2 blanks are 3times the money i believe so i'm going to
start with the o1 blanks. saw the in the jantz catalog.
 
They will both grind & machine readily, O1 or D2 will work for you. I'm just beginning as well & have been sending out my heat treat, since I'm not planning on going to a "full blown shop" for stuff at this point.

There are a lot of layers to go through when peeling this onion, so I just do stock removal for now & send my blades out for HT. There's enough work in just shaping, grips, fastening & design to keep us busy & lots to learn along the way. If you plan on doing your own HT, 1080 might be a good starting point also, since it's a bit more forgiving. If not, the O1 is a good place to begin & has plenty of potential for making durable blades. Just figure the "learning curve" is a bit steep at first on this stuff.
 
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