[samuraistuart]

PG01 is indeed VERY nice to have. Beginners making their first knives, it's not so important. Once you've gotten a few under the belt and a feel for knife making, having PG stock is awesome. Especially if you're making folding pocket knives, then it's well worth the extra money. I don't know that being precision ground says anything at ALL about how well the mill rolled the steel out, tho (carbide distribution and grain refinement). It's just been ground to tight tolerances. There are a few O1 variants out there. Sheffield is what I look for. It has the vanadium. Some stock houses that sell O1 do not have the vanadium in the chemical composition. I will only buy O1 with vanadium. With that said, there is a lot of talk about normalizing and thermal cycling steels that isn't founded. Unless the mill totally screwed up the steel (never really heard of that) the only time you would need to normalize and thermal cycle a steel is if it has been forged, or if it has been heavily spheroidized (annealed) from the mill. O1 most always comes fine spheroidized, and is ready to harden as received. I've never heard of O1 needing normalizing unless it was forged. Normalizing breaks up carbide networks that have clumped together and distributes those carbides evenly. This "possibly" can be at the expense of aus grain growth, thus thermal cycling to "shrink" aus grain is done after normalizing. The 2 operations do 2 different things.

I'm pretty sure Aldo (New Jersey Steel) does have the 1/8" 1084 (yes...that's .125" and will be received probably slightly oversized as in .135" unless it is PG) and is THE "beginner's" steel of choice. Not because it is a "beginner" steel, but is very forgiving in heat treat and will steel give an excellent blade.***

O1 was given as another option if 1080/1084 can't be found. Ray mentioned that if you don't have tight control over hardening temperature (1475F), and ability to soak (10 minutes), the performance that O1 offers will be lost. If I couldn't get 1084, my next option would be 80CrV2 (1080+). It is available from both Aldo and Alpha Knife Supply. It is basically 1080 Cro Van. VERY forgiving in hardening temperature, doesn't need a fast oil quench like 1095 or W2. You can use a high hardening temperature with little to no soak and not worry about grain growth because of the vanadium present (1525F-1550F), but my opinion is the best HT for that steel is in the 1475F-1500F range with a 10 minute soak.

So to sum up:
1. 1084
2. 1080
3. 1080+
4. O1

***I haven't used the 1084 from Aldo in quite some time. Generally his carbon steels come heavily spheroidized from the mill, and MIGHT require normalizing/cycling to free up that carbon. Steels from Alpha Knife are fine spheroidized from the mill, and do not need these extra steps.

I apologize to the OP for getting technical and putting out a lot of information. Get you some 1084, and if not, 1080 or 1080+. Heat that dude up to ~1500F and quench it in 130F canola oil. Temper 2 times, 1 hour each, and you should have a good heat treat.