Thread: The best/preferred steels

Bruno,

You said

Does this O-1 have a brand name / identification number?
I have inquired with the local steel mill about the steel types they carry, but to help me they needed to have an id like 'NAME - 1.SOMENUMBER'
Which I couldn't give them of course.

The brand name is O-1. If your from outside the united states then they will have a different name. A good online source is www.toolanddie.com I have used them before to order some O-1 and got great service from them.


Mike Blue,

All steels are forged these days. You can't buy any steel that hasn't been through a serious forging process at the steel mill to reduce it down to sizes you can manage to make a knife from

I'm not talking about the manufacturing process. I'm talking about bladesmithing. Forging O-1 into a blade from barstock or roundstock form is quite different from many other high carbon steels. And this leaves as much room for an argument as forged vs stock removal with enough valid points on both sides for no one to win.

52100 is a great steel and gets most of it's performance characteristics due to it's quality control in the manufacturing process. The micro grain structure of this steel gives its great performance in my opion.

O-1 is fairly fool-proof as a beginning steel.

I absolutly agree with you on this point. O-1 can also be reheat treated if you don't get it right the first time. Not many other steels are that forgiving.

Thank you so much for all the info so far.

Originally Posted by jimmyseymour

Bruno,

You said

The brand name is O-1. If your from outside the united states then they will have a different name. A good online source is www.toolanddie.com I have used them before to order some O-1 and got great service from them.

Thanks.

I will check with the local mill if they carry it (or something with the same composition). If not, toolanddie seem to have very good prices. I just have to find out what it costs to ship a bar of steel to Belgium. Probably more than the steel itself

Originally Posted by jimmyseymour

A good online source is www.toolanddie.com I have used them before to order some O-1 and got great service from them.

I just called them to inquire about shipping prices.
40ish $ for a single metric bar of 6x30x1000 O-1.
.
.
.
180ish $ for shipping it to Belgium. And that was the cheapest option.
So I'll have to find a local source.