Replies

1. 
   roc | Jan 21, 2012 10:21pm | #1

   Hi,

   Define for us better behaving.

   Doesn't chip ?

   Easier to sharpen ?

   Other _____________

   I may be able to find a discussion here that was pretty darn enlightening about the O 1.  If I can I will post it.

   Personally I have NEVER ran across a blade of any kind that was too hard to the point it chips or was too hard to sharpen.  I have reshaped hand files by heating them,  curving / bending them then quenching them with no annealing at all. Full hard.  What happened to one was it was so hard it broke.  This was a very thin file and as it worked out it made a rather handy sharp chisel end.  I was using it to file brass fillets on some steel brazing work that I did.  The edge did not chip it just got a little dull over time.  The file is water hardening steel so not exactly the same but since I was on a roll . . .

   I won't pretend to have much experience with the O 1.  Not that it isn't great stuff it is just that I wound up with more commonly available plane irons.

   Funny you should mention this though because I pulled out an old plane blade that I started to make from a file that I got at a scrap / junk yard.  I got pissed off that I couldn't find any water hardening steel in the size I want ( practically nothing available in fact ) so I ground all the teeth off a file and started to make it into a plane blade.  See pic.  I have the main bevel ground and am working on refining it.

   I was all excited about that 80 grit smaller stone but I think it needs to be used on ceramic tile to be at it's best  ( that is what it was made for ). It cuts but is not killer great.  I ordered and just receive this evening a little bit ago the Shapton 120 shown.  I am hoping that it will cut better because it is engineered more toward cutting steel and should be more aggressive and better cutting in the long run.  I have not tried  it yet.

   My Japanese chisel shown and plane blade shown is up around or at 64 and are totally great.  I believe both of these are what the Japanese call " blue steel " which is more like the A 2 steel for harder woods etc.

   I just looked it up and the chisel is billed as RC 66 so I am being conservative.

   http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=05%2E306%2E51&dept_id=12795ac

   I would say make the blades as hard as you can.  You can always anneal a little more if needed later.  Right.

   
1. 
   Metod | Jan 22, 2012 06:56pm | #2

   Thanks Roc

   When I wrote 'well behaved' I meant less chipping than when higher RC value. 

   Today I looked around some more. Ron Hock, on his web site, mentions tempering at 325F, which points to the 62 -63 RC range. I missed that before - but am taking his word. I have his A2 replacement irons on my Stanley block planes and on #4 Record (which I gifted to a friend). Quite happy with the irons, though. 

   I want the irons for the planes I made me. A heat treatment facility is only afew miles away, so I have no incentive and only a negligible desire to experiment with heat treatment myself. They can do A2  with (additional cost) cryo treatment., and I will probably experiment at some later time.

   Thanks again, and best wishes,

   Metod

1. 
   ThomD | Feb 15, 2012 05:46pm | #3

   I have a variety of O1 tools.  I pretty much go for the max hardness, and then go for about "350" in the oven.  I get a good blade with that, but since getting dupped on an RC machine I can't tell you what I am getting.  Since you are sending out I would use either Paul Boss or Hock if he still does that.  I have had him do custom blades, and back then he would also do HT, I think.

   I once made a Jack plane blade that was giving good service till I ran into a knot.  The tip of the tool bent, and therefore it was clear the end was not actually hard.  This was not a huge suprise, I had done that batch outdoors in the winter, and two of the blades had cracked, and obviously one was not hard enough.  Several others turned out fine.  Even controlling the quench tank, and going straight from the forge to the tank, the cold air had it's effect..  But the point is this softer blade still surprised me.

   I got good service from that blade.  I have chisels that cost 350 each.  This experience really sent me for a loop.  Similar thing happened when I made some plane  floats.  I decided that it would be better to just make them in anealed steel, and not harden them since it requires a higher tempering oven heat than I have to reduce the steel to file sharpenable.  These tools also work.  There is more to tools than Rockwell