Russ, I was looking some charts for L6 the other day. It showed the crazy toughness peak that we are familiar with at 57-58 Rc, which IMO would be excellent for tomahawks, but it also should another, slightly lower toughness peak at 61Rc. That peak would appear to line up very nicely with the "good" range for the other steel that we were discussing.
A number of folks are using 80CrV2 for what you want to do. As for PG stock, I don't think that you need it unless you are making folders.Jdm- don't have much experience. I rather like tool steels, o1 and a2 being my bread and butter. Just not sure if o1 can hold up to axe use. Not looking for a cinderblock edge like crow bar more something for woods and defensive use for some buddies over seas. I could go 4140 but want better edge, and s7 I don't have any experience with. Also a big fan of precision ground stuff as I don't Forge or have a surface grinder
That is because you are buying expensive steel. If you do a head to head comparison using say Alpha Knife Supply's prices, the same size piece of 80CrV2 that costs you $30 will cost you $66 in A2. The advantage of using PG A2 or O1 is that, while it can be expensive, it is quite easy to find. If you are lucky, you can go to a local supply house and picket up and save the shipping. That is what I did for like the first six months that I was trying to make knives. I bought O1 and then had the supplier chop up a big 8 foot long bar of 5160 spring stock.
Even compared to hot rolled O1 with all the scale in place, precision ground is still less than half the price up here.
Then something is bad wrong with your source for the mill finished O1.
I pulled up a listing for PG O1 and a 1/4 x 1 1/2 x 36 bar was $40. The same size from Aldo with the mill scale still on was $33.
Unfortunately we don't have too many options up here in the frozen north, only one knifemaking supplier. Their prices are quite good on everything else, O1 is just stupid high for some reason.Then something is bad wrong with your source for the mill finished O1.
Joe......it would...can you direct me to that chart..?
Russ, unfortunately, I can't. I found it by randomly Googling something about L6 HT. You know how you get the page of pictures? This chart was a sub-picture in one of the main links. I found by dumb luck and didn't think to bookmark it.
