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High-Performance Blades Sharing ideas for getting the most out of our steel. |
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#1
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Testing 0-1 From my shop
Well, I thought I would post about a test blade I just recently destroyed.
The steel is 1/8", 4.5" drop/spear point 0-1 that was flat ground and heat treated by myself. This knife was diferentially heat treated to have a hard edge and a soft spine to aid in flex. I put a hairpopping edge on it and headed for the bush :biggthump Finding 2" to 3" hard wood is pretty easy around my house. I took my baton and went through 3 of these pretty fast. A nicer handle would have made this alot more cumfy but its the steel I am testing in this situation. What I was looking for was wood I would have usen in a shelter building situation. Wood that is tough, not rotten, and wood that is hard to see if the blade will chip out. Chip out she did not. Shave still...yes With out sharpening I went into the kitchen. In my kitchen a potato will let you know a dull blade fast. A dull knife will not slice a potato but will make it break off in pieces. Glad to see that the edge cut this potato with ease. Next - make this blade fail. I have read where a car hood is a good test on the durability of the blade so I went a step further. A folding chair. NExt time your sitting in one just feel how hard the seat is. I took my baton and went at the chair using the tip to pierce the seat to get started. The tip did not break. I used the baton to cut a nice size hole in the chair. I was surprised at just how far I got before the blade showed substantial edge damage. I was very pleased at how the blade held up. I would not have one second thought about using this knife hard in the field and knowing it would not fail. :biggthump :biggthump I will etch the blade to read the grain structure and keep this knife as a guide. It will tell me more about the knives comming out of the shop in the future. I also snapped the blade in half to see the inside grain. Nice and satin. Blade bent to about a 45 degree before breaking. Would have made an awsome knife but what I learn from doing this is what I am after Thanks for looking....... |
#2
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Hey Bubba:
After seeing one of your knives at TrackRock, there is no doubt in my feeble mind that they will hold up. After talking with you, I have decided to get myself some O1 and play with it. Gonna give the old 440C a rest and try something else for a while. Thanks for posting the test pics. I love the handle material, but not crazy about the color Robert |
#3
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Robert,
Your too kind You my friend make quite the knife!! 0-1 seems to be some tough stuff. I'd like to see everyone take a test blade out on a folding chair and see what happens to the blade. I was surprised |
#4
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Gotta watch where you sit around Brian's place! Little smoothing work with a right angle grinder and you have a fold-up porta potty for deer camp.
O-1's pretty good stuff for making blades and it looks like you're getting good on the HT. I've gotten a few of my O-1 test blades to bend 90 degs. without breaking but most won't go quite that far due to air hardening characteristics. Good pics and efforts in testing. Now try it with a "factory" blade for comparison or grins. How much of the edge are you quenching and in what medium at what temp? __________________ Carl Rechsteiner, Bladesmith Georgia Custom Knifemakers Guild, Charter Member Knifemakers Guild, voting member Registered Master Artist - GA Council for the Arts C Rex Custom Knives Blade Show Table 6-H |
#5
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Brian,
Do you have a Rockwell hardness tester? If not I wish to persuade you to get one. It will aid you greatly in learning proper soak times and such in your learning of heat treating steels. Over soaking can cause grain growth but with a hardness tester you can find the window that works best. A hardness tester can help show you where the undersoak is and where the austenization completes. You have advanced to a stage where you deserve a hardness tester. RL |
#6
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I sure would like a tester but cant afford one right now. I thnk I will look into getting one when the funds are right.
I am heating just the edge and watching for the "cold shaddows" to stop. Making sure everything is even then quenching the whole blade in 130 to 150 degrees peanut oil. I have even quenched in 115 degree oil with success. RLinger - Are those "cold shadows" the austenization state? |
#7
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I recently made a knife for a friend going overseas from O1. I was VERY impressed with its toughness and edge holding. I attacked a knot in a treated 4X4. After hacking threw the knot I had taken off about 1/3 of the 4x4. I would have gone farther but it was only a 6" blade with no slabs attched to the handle and my hand was starting to blister. The edge had gone from hair jumping out of the way sharp to shaving very well. Best knife I ever tested. O1 became my performance steel after that test.
I soaked the O1 at 1500 for 10 minutes then Marquenched at 400 keeping it in the oil for four minutes. Tempered twice at 450 for 1.5 hours. Seth __________________ www.SethHowardKnives.com |
#8
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Thanks for sharing Brian. I too test 0-1 quite often and have been very pleased with the results. It always comforting to a Maker that is doing his own heat treating to come out with results like this. Nice to know the Buyer is getting a good quality blade that will take an edge and keep it.
Shane |
#9
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Brian, it's hard to argue with success but - flexibility is determined by thickness not heat treat. .... Do you normalize first ? You ought to through harden and compare results .I agree with Roger , a hardness tester would be handy. In any case keep experimenting.
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#10
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Great test, Brian - you should be very proud and very confident. Make sure you print out some of those photos and take them with you to the next knife show.
I'm a fan of O1 steel as well. My last big O1 test knife only had a simple edge quench and single temper and chopped through 7 2x4's and would still shave hairs (just). Up to 4 2x4's it was still knocking hairs off with ease. I think the convex grind actually preserves edge life in chopping. But the best bit was when I started chopping nails in half with it when I got really happy. Sure... you need to touch up the edge after chopping nails, but hey... If I had to choose 1 steel to make knives - it would be O1. Jason. __________________ JASON CUTTER BLADEART Jason Cutter @ Dr Kwong Yeang Knifemaker, Australia (Matthew 10.16) |
#11
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Hi Jason
I'm a big fan of your large camp knives and came across this thread researching O-1 steel. At the moment I'm making a large 10" camp knife from 3/16" O-1. I've flat ground the blade and would like to know, how thick do you leave the edge before doing the convex grind?. Regards, Andy.. Sorry for Hi-jacking the testing O-1 subject! |
#12
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Thanks for the compliment Andy, I don't want to hijack Brian's excellent thread either.
Thickness at the edge ? Depends on the blade thickness / width to a degree (a bit of a intuition thing...) but on my 3/16th thick blades. I leave it about 1mm before convexing it. ie.- about 3/64th's. Seriously, on my smaller hunters, I go 1/32 inch before the edge and haven't had any sort of edge chipping when testing. But on hard use knives I like the insurance of the 3/64th thickness. Problem with convex edges is that you can modify where you start the convexing, so it affects the edge thickness depending where you are measuring it. We should ask Brian - whats your edge configuration on this knife ? Thanks. Jason. __________________ JASON CUTTER BLADEART Jason Cutter @ Dr Kwong Yeang Knifemaker, Australia (Matthew 10.16) |
#13
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Thanks Jason
I've got my blade down to about 1mm, just as you recommended. It would be interesting to hear what edge Brian uses. I've never done a convex edge, and assume you grind the convex on a slack belt just as the belt leaves the contact wheel ( 10" wheel in my case ). By the way Brian, I had the pleasure of handling one of your knives last weekend, at a knife meet in the U.K. It looked just like the one in your banner add. |
#14
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This is very encouraging, I just bought some 01 round stock and forged out a blade to test. :coolbanan Now, this has lit a fire under me to get it finished and see what result I'm going to get. Thanks guys, inspiration comes from all directions. eep:
__________________ Remember... hit it while it's HOT!!! |
#15
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Jason,
Its a flat ground 1/8" stock blade. About 1 1/4" tall I think. Edge thickness was about .020 or .025 I think. IS that what you wanted to know ? Glad my test could inspire a few other guys . B~ |
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