Thread: The best heat treatment for Böhler K720 (~O2)

I will have to check with Aldo Bruno soon then...his shipping is so dang high any more that I have been ordering elsewhere.

From New Jersey Steel Baron:

We are gauging interest to see if it is worth bringing in. We have no set date or time for bringing it in as of now though.

I've seen these responses before, so I am not going to hold my breath on it.

Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

From New Jersey Steel Baron:

We are gauging interest to see if it is worth bringing in. We have no set date or time for bringing it in as of now though.

I've seen these responses before, so I am not going to hold my breath on it.

Outside knife making circles, which is a really teeny tiny volume of steel customers, O1 is a better steel. For heavy duty use, the tungsten makes ir superior to O1. Only for knifemakers would O2 be better imo.

Even TI can only get their steel by piggybacking their orders onto a buyer who buys 'real' quantities. Unless you're buying it by the tens of tons on a regular basis, it doesn't make sense to buy it. Especially since everyone who would like O2 is now using O1 or similar. So it's not like they're going to sell more steel by adding O2.

It would be nice, but probably not going to happen soon

Originally Posted by Bruno

Especially since everyone who would like O2 is now using O1 or similar. So it's not like they're going to sell more steel by adding O2.
)

All very logical Bruno, but I would point out that the one supplier who offered 02 would be taking a portion of sales away from all of the 01 suppliers, not just his/her own 01 sales.

Good point. It'll depend on volume then. Is the knife making community going to buy several metric tons on a regular basis or not?

It is my understanding that 02 is available in Europe, no? If so, isn't it just a matter of a U.S. vendor buying enough from a
European supplier to make the shipping reasonable? I've never looked into 02, so I may be completely out in left field.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Good point. It'll depend on volume then. Is the knife making community going to buy several metric tons on a regular basis or not?

I don't see it. I just received an order of 34# of L6 & 1095 from Admiral steel, enough to last me a LONG time...I would bet I don't order any of either for a year unless I need something thicker than what I have. I doubt there are many makers who go through more than 50# of steel in a year. I know there are more and more makers popping up, but most of those are scroungers...making stuff out of scrap like springs and such. I don't scrap hardly any, not worth my time as my time at the forge is precious to me and I'm not taking a chance on mystery steel. I have a few springs from railroad box cars and a new set of springs off one of our firetrucks that we replaced with aftermarket before we put the tanks on it, had them for a couple years and still in a pile...untouched.

Scott is right I think. If you see just how many people try to scrounge.... too cheap to even but a low cost known good steel, hammering pipe wrenches, railroad spikes or screwdrivers into a knife shape.

Shipping O2 is going to be horribly expensive. And you'd need to do it in large quantities. By the time it would arrive it would be twice as expensive as O1 just to break even. And then you'd need to find knifemakers to sell it to at pretty high prices compared to O1 which is already considered expensive.
I suppose you could do a group buy but the logistics would be very time consuming.

The guy that I was talking-to said that you can get the German steels from the manufacturers offices in the in the US, but you have to buy a good sized sheet of the stuff. The O2 and the "Hitachi blue substitute" steels are apparently sold primarily to the timber industry much like 15N20 is. That is probably why Bestar set up their office in Atlanta. The guys who clued me in to Bestar said that the shipping is not horrbile, but you might have to wait a few weeks because they will throw it in with one other big regular orders. He has bought some 1.2519 from them.

We just got a heads up on another forum that Voestalpine/B-U tool steel division office in the US has expressed a willingness to sell small quantities of some of their steel to us poor pitiful smiths. Not sure if the O2 is on that list, but I will try to find out. The Voestalpine /B-U strip steel guys have already done us a solid with the thicker AEB-L stock, so this may have possibilities. The Bestar guy in Atlanta said that the minimum order for O2 would be 1800 lbs and require a 6 month head start, so no joy there for us little guys.