Heat Treat Options: EDC Blade in O1

R

rkeliipuleole

Joined
Mar 28, 2024
Messages
4
Hey, all.

First time poster here. I’ve got a small fixed blade knife in 01 tool steel that is ready for heat treat, and I wanted to get some good options to have it heat treated. Specifically, who does a great job with this steel, and how much would I owe them for the job.

Specs are:
- 3.5” Blade
- 7” OAL
- .25” Flat stock O1 Tool Steel. The hilt is still .25” thick, the blade has had a bit shaved off except for the reinforced point.

This will be my new EDC knife, and it’s going to have some Curly Koa scales with brass pins, in a black leather sheath. I plan to finish the blade up to about 2400 grit. I’ll try to add some pics.

All help is appreciated, thanks!
 
Where are you located? O-1 is a very common tool steel, a machine shop near you may be able to do it well.
 
Welcome rkeliipuloele. Fill out your profile so we know where you live and something about you. (I'm guessing Hawaii)
Your request is a good example of why that is a good idea. Someone near you may offer to do the HT for you and if close enough, a shop visit.

O-1 has a basic HT and can be done by anyone with a HT oven. It was one of the most used steels by knifemakers in the past, before the proliferation of knife suppliers and specialty steels. It is still a great steel, with 1% carbon and just enough manganese and other alloys to harden well and produce a tough blade. It's easy hardenability in most any quench oil was the real plus for knifemakers.

It was also a popular mix for making damascus in the early days before 15N20 was readily available.
Medium carbon steel and O-1 was the mix used by many. You would see folks using everything from 1030 to 1084 along with O-1. It made a simple easily welded billet that could be done by hand. I started making damascus with four 3" by 1.5" by 1/4" bars of O-1 and three bars the same size of 1070. Six folds and you had 548-layer damascus. It would make a nice-looking billet that could make a big bowie. The final carbon content was around .85%, which made HT simple, too. I remember Jim Batson and I making a billet like that at the Moran Hammer-in back in the 2000's. By hot-cutting a hinge-fold and never letting the billet cool below red we did a 548-layer billet in about 45 minutes, using a 3# hammer and a homemade press from a log splitter. Next day we forged a Bowie from the billet. Keeping the billet hot meant it never formed hard forge scale. We brushed the billet before and after every short forging heat to keep flaky scale away.

My HT regime for O-1 is:
Austenitize at 1475°F for 10 minutes
Quench in 130°F oil. It can be Parks #50, AAA, or even canola.
Immediate temper at 375-400°F. Temper twice for an hour each.
 
Thanks to both of you! I will fill in my profile, I didn't realize that I should do that. I found a local place that could do it for me.

I do have another O1 project that will hopefully be ready soon that I will want to send out to a real expert, so I may put out another message at that time. That one is a 20" blade, and most forums say that O1 needs an expert hand to handle that large of a blade in that steel.
 
Thanks for updating your profile. I guessed Hawaii because of the username.

In would have the long blade done by someone with large quench plates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top