3/32" Tool Steel - My Mistake

opaul

opaul

Well-Known Member
Picture just off the bench of this 3/32" thick blade. It's amazing how different grinding is going from 1/8" to 3/32". Should be a slicer :)!!
 
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`Thanks Ted. I had a few pieces of the NOS Sheffield tool steel lying around, so I thought I'd use it to make a couple of blades. The other one, that I'll grind this week is similar but the edge is not as curved.
 
Rick Otts said:
I know a few guys who use 3/16 I guess it's wat you prefer! Nice blade OP!
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Thanks Rick.
It's a little thin for me to use regularly but since I had a few bars of it lying around, I decided to use it. One thing about 01 is that it takes a wicked, wicked edge.
 
3/16 will make up into a heavier knife and many like the heft of a knife like that. I use a near 3/16 1070 (11/64 or .170) for my pig stickers.
My O1 for the bushcraft hunter is .156 so more like 5/32 but that is plenty of stout for what they are intended for. The same for the 1095 fighter but everything else is 1/8 or down to the 3/32 for the 15N20
 
A few years back I was doing only O-1 and new to heat treating...I learned a couple things from scott.livesey practically/philosophically that I still try to apply with O-1 and With A2(which I now predominately use)....the first is...most knives that are slicers are WAY TOO THICK. I've made a skinning knife from 1/16 O-1 that guys rave about.

I know that Scott makes some out of 1/32 for kitchen work...I'm betting that his will cut sushi with the best of 'em. Because my little cowboy knife needs to stand up to SOME abuse I made it 1/8 thick. That's thick enough as it is a small blade...as I make longer blades I will scale up accordingly. Fighters and pig stickers obviously need to be a bit thicker.

Until you make and use a thin knife you will not know what a delight they are...and how well they hold up.

The second is....O-1 does not get tougher as you lower the hardness. Don't fall prey to the notion that 58-57 gonna work well...it won't. Best to keep it at RC 60-61. My 1/16 skinner (...i loan it out for feedback and the professional coyote hunter that has it now keeps forgetting to return it...) flexes like a boning knife (almost...a bit stiffer) and stays sharp through an entire deer. O-1 has it's best toughness up near it's best edge holding hardness...sweet!...search scott.livesey in the HT forum for a great O-1 recipe...It's what I use and I just love how easy O-1 is to sharpen at the correct hardness.(scott really know O-1 well...worth seeing what he says about it).

I switched to A2 for it's ability to resist rust a bit better..and that is noticible....but I'm not sure toughness and edge holding is THAT much better than O-1. I do have a bit harder time sharpening A2 than O-1...In short though...I LOVE tool steel for blades.
 
I can't answer for Ted but for this blade, as soon as I quenched I put it between to aluminum plates and the blade is flat and true. Also, I grind my blades after heat treating.
 
Chris Railey said:
Ted, I use O-1 a lot for blades but I have never gone below 1/8 thick. How are the thinner O-1 blades about warping during HT?
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I've only done as thin as 1/16...they came out flat...they cool very quick...lol.

i did not plate quench...and i grind after heat treat...lot less metal to remove...grinds quick.
 
Von Gruff said:
I just re-read the title and realised that I had read it as 3/16 rather than 3/32 which explains why my previous post may not have been as relevant as I had intended when I typed it out.
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I did a chef's knife in 3/32" O1 what I did was profile blade, heat treat then grind bevels. No problems with it. Here's a not good pic but a pic just the same.
 

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Smallshop said:
Chris have you noticed how nice they perform at 60rc and above?
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I do not have a way to accurately check the hardness but I am very happy with the performance I get with O-1 that is why I asked about thinner stock I think it should take an excellent edge. Grinding after heat treat for thinner stock makes sense I think that should minimize warps. I am going to order some thinner or maybe just thin some of the 1/8th I have. It will give me a chance to try out my new digital calipers.
 
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