Info about O2 steel

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

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Dec 27, 2013
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Hey Guys, im getting a big order of some O2 steel and wanted to see what else you guys knew about it.

The steel im getting is from Starrett, and I cant seem to find a punlished chemical make up from them. I have found a few European companies selling O2 and they seem to pretty consistent, hovering around

Carbon 0.90%
Manganese 1.90%
Chromium 0.50%
Silicon 0.35%
Vanadium 0.15%

so I expect the Starrett to be in that neighborhood as well. Ive also heard it sohuld be heat treated just the same as O1, with tempering at 480 for 60HRc and 380 for 62 HRC

Also heard a big use of it is in damascus with L6 since the high manganese makes it have just about the darkest etch of any steel

I know its mostly used in Europe now, so anyone have advice on it? thanks a ton

Ben Greenberg
 
Ben where did you find that stuff? You are right about the manganese. Most of the guys that I have met from Europe used to combined with the cousin of 15N20, 75Ni8 because it is available in a wider range of thicknesses. It has he 2% plus Ni content like 15N20, but small does of Cr and Mo. There are a couple of European makers who also swear by the O2 for custom straight razors.
 
Its a bunch of plates of 1/4 by 5 by 36, and a WHOLE bunch of of 1/8 by by 3.5 by 14.5. Its all old Starrett stock, from back when they were selling O2 in the states
 
Maybe they only make it over seas.
Our best for damascus is 1084 + 15N20 . 1084 by itself makes a great blade .But both have similar HT characteristics. Lots of overlap for proper HT. No need to sacrifice one or the other in HT.

From my old "Tool Steel " C,.90-1.10, Mn, 1.50-1.80, Si, .10-.40, Cr, .15-.30, ---V,.10-.25, Mo, .30-.40 ...The last two listed as optional

I was going to add thatI can't find O-2 listed but as it'soldstock , do you know the condition ? Speroidized anneal ?
 
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If it's available in North America, I would be interested too.
 
It can air harden so be carefull. The quench temperature is lower than O1. It's a good steel.

Hoss
 
I was told it was "fully annealed" so I'm not sure if it's spheriod or not.

And Devin, do you mean the steel should be at a cooler temperature, or it needs to cool more quickly?

And I'll probably be selling a good portion of it. I got more than I needed.
 
If it's not spheroid you'd find out quickly .Any pearlite in the steel would make it difficult to drill etc . You should do it now as you might be able to get the whole batch corrected at once for a better price and make customers happy .Just drill a couple of pieces to test. A 1200 F sub-critical anneal would do the job !
 
The O2 here in Europe is excellent stuff. I've been using it in damascus and recently also made a monosteel test piece out of it that holds a superb edge. I will definitely be using more.

As may have already been mentioned the high manganese content makes it a very deep-hardening steel.

The European O2 is also called 90MnCrV8 or 1.2842 (in Germany). I could be wrong but it *may* actually have even more Mn than the American O2. Either way you should be able to find some good info on line using those designations as search parameters.
 
My charts show tempering at 380°F will get Rc60, and 480°F will get Rc55. For Rc62 you would use 300-320“°F
 
With my oven I use 805-810C (1481-1490F) and quench in preheated oil, if the blade is long, like in a yanagiba or long fillet knife, when it still hot and fuming I put it inside my stainless setup (2 alu 1" thick long sheets) with a heavy piece on top. It comes out straight as an arrow and hardened as expected.


Pablo
 
.25" stock is good for straight razors. Thickness to height ratio should be between 1:3.5 and 1:4. Total edge angle (inclusive) should be around 16° or so. O2 is excellent steel for straight razors. Very fine grained steel.
 
Any suggestions where to get it heat treated? I'd like to get it done by a forum member if someone has a HT oven, fast quench oil and cryo. I had one offer but I like to keep options open
 
Hey, just wanted to update this. Just ground a 2.5 inch tall Nakiri out of this, and it works like a dream. The stuff is PG and soft as butter.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Hey, just wanted to update this. Just ground a 2.5 inch tall Nakiri out of this, and it works like a dream. The stuff is PG and soft as butter.
Click to expand...

what did you end up with? did they send any paperwork that lists composition? should be no reason to cryo this steel.
O2 has very wide composition limits. 0.9 to 1.0%C, 1.25-2.0%Mn, 0.3% of some or all Cr, Mo, Ni, and V. spec is almost as broad as L2.
scott
 
I was going off of what Jay Fisher wrote. IDK if it really needs cryo, but I am looking for someone to do the heat treating and hopefully put it in plates to keep it straight. COuld pay with wood, paypal or some of this great steel.

http://www.jayfisher.com/Heat_Treating_Cryogenic_Processing_of_Knife_Blade_Steels.htm#O1 cryogenic treatment

O1: This high alloy oil-hardening tool steel is a standard in the industry for a reason. It's a great hyper-eutectoid tool steel with about .9% carbon and the version I use has high tungsten and vanadium with a bit of chromium, though not enough to be stainless steel. I use it when clients want a great performing black colored blade, because the finish and bluing is excellent on this steel. On one website about steels used in woodworker's tools, the writer claims that because O1 has a higher martensitic conversion than other steels, cryogenic treatment is not effective. This is flat-out wrong. While O1 does perform well with conventional heat treating, cryogenic treatment vastly improves this performance. How does it benefit from cryogenic treatment? O-1 can have up to 8.5% retained austenite when quenched to room temperature (20°C). While this does not seem to be a lot, it is significant, and proves that at the very least, O1 should be quenched to sub-zero temps and held there to reduce the amount of retained austenite. So much for the woodworker's assessment of O1. Now here's the really important result and proven by highly specific and controlled technical scientific studies: in treating O1 to shallow cryogenic treatment (SCryo), the wear resistance was improved 221%. In treating O1 to deep cryogenic treatments (DCryo), the wear resistance was improved 418%. Simply put, either of these treatments dramatically and substantially improves the wear resistance while making the blade tougher, and the finish better overall! Why not do this?
 
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