all I could get is 0-1

S

superdave

Active Member
I have ground up all my stock, and went to a new place today to buy more. All they stock is 0-1, so I bought a couple of pieces, I just had to have something to work on over the weekend :biggrin: What am I looking at as far as my grind and then heat treat? I have a propane forge and an oil quench set up. Can anyone give me some do's and dont's before I start on one of my pieces? they are precision ground, so that will save some time. I've been making throwing Bowies, but might try to do a real fixed blade...
 
01 is not a good choice of steel for a forge heat treat. It requires a fairly involved process and carefully controlled heat.
 
Wick is right, you would be better off buying some 1084 from Aldo at www.njsteelbaron.com. It is very forgiving as far as heat treating and can make a very good knife. Properly H/T'd O1 makes an excellent knife. If you wanna get the most from it you can send it to me for H/T. If you're interested send me an email at the address below. I might could even be talked into sending a piece of Aldo's 1084 to try out in the return package.
 
Thanks fellas, this is what I needed to know. I will take you up on that Darrin, and thanks for the link to aldo's.
 
Maybe I missed something somewhere??? I use O-1 a lot. I normalize it 3 times. I bring it to nonmagnetic and quench in vegetable oil. I then temper twice for 1 hour at 425. The blades come out tough, sharpen easily, and stay sharp. I make a lot of tactical and survival blades out of it. I have never had a complaint and folks brag on them. Someone got a link on what I missed? Seriously.
 
Nobody said you couldn't make a good knife with the method you described but to get the MOST out of O1 you need a 8-10 minute soak at a controlled temperature before you quench. If you are good enough to judge temp. by color and hold it at that temp. for the required soak time then you are getting all the benefits of the alloys in the steel. If not, you would probably do just as well using 1084.
 
01 should not be treated as a simple steel because it is not. It has vanadium, chrome, and tungsten added, and while carbon goes into solution quickly, these alloys do not. Non-magnetic is not enough heat to do even simple steels justice. The heat needs to be 50 to 75 degrees higher in order to get an even dispersion of the carbon and to disolve any alloys present. With 01, 1475 is a very ideal heat range, but a soak of 15 to 20 minutes is required to get a good even solution that is ready for quench. If you are concerned with grain growth, 01 can be soaked for hours at that temp without any measureable growth. If you are not using an oven or other controlled heat source, you would be better off using 1084, but even it needs more than just non-magnetic. More like close to 1500°.
 
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