Where To Buy 01 Tool Steel
O1 is the most common grade of steel for precision ground flat stock. O1 is general purpose oil-hardening steel that is a popular choice for knife makers to make knife blades. O1 offers excellent abrasion resistance, ease of machining, wear resistance, and toughness. Buy your O1 Blade Steel online here!
where to buy 01 tool steel
Tool steel holds a cutting edge, resists abrasion, and maintains its shape at elevated temperatures. It's commonly used for drawing, blanking, stamping, insert molding, forming, and embossing applications. Tool steel rods and discs can be machined to produce drill bits, taps, shafts, files, punches, and more. Tool steel flat bars have excellent weldability and can be sawed, milled, drilled, turned, and ground into the desired shape.
O1 Tool Steel is a general-purpose tool steel that is commonly used in order to provide ample hardness, strength or wear resistance. It generally produces a strong edge and can be sharpened, however does not dull easily. Therefore it is often used to make gauges, shims, stamps, jigs, cutters, , guides, levers, saws, knives, straight edges, fixtures, machine parts, punches, blanking dies, draw dies, forming dies, lamination dies, molding dies, swaging dies, screw dies and trim dies.
The heat treatment requires O1 steels to be slowly preheated to 1200F and then heated at 1450-1500F. Then these steels should be held at the same temperature for 10 to 30 minutes and finally oil quenched.
Tool Steel Rectangle/Flat Bar O1 is an oil-hardening, general purpose tool steel that holds its size and shape with excellent accuracy when being heat treated. While not as strong or wear resistant as A-2 or D-2, it experiences significantly less distortion during the heat-treating process. O1 tool steel has deep hardening properties and fine grain structure with unusual toughness. The bar is precision ground to a maximum surface finish of 40 Ra on both the thickness and width. Also, the bar is mechanically straightened with a flatness aim of 0.005" per foot.
APPLICATIONS: Where greater dimensional stability in heat treatment or improved wear resistance is required, tool steels with higher alloy contents, such as A2 or D2 should be considered.
Grade Summary: Tool Steel O1 is a general purpose oil-hardening tool and die steel. Normal care in heat treatment gives good results in hardening and produces small dimensional changes. O1 has good abrasion resistance and sufficient toughness for a wide variety of tool and die applications. When properly annealed, O1 has a machinability rating of 90 when compared to a 1% Carbon Steel rated at 100. When oil quenched from the proper hardening temperature, this grade can be expected to expand approximately .0015 in. per in. Note: Distortion (bending, bowing and twisting) and part geometry can add to the variations in movement of a part being hardened.
Since 2002 Hudson Tool Steel Corporation has been supplying tool steels, high speed steels, carbon steels, and alloy steels to customers around the country. Our motto is "We make tool steel easy", and we strive every day to uphold that ideal. Our salespeople have years of experience in the tool steel business and can take care of your needs in a hurry. We stock all standard grades and sizes of tool steel and high speed steel as well as specialty grades. Our inventory is produced by the highest quality tool steel mills and we are continually adding more sizes to suit all of our customer's needs. Call, fax, or email us and find out more about our company. We're sure your dealings with Hudson Tool Steel will leave you satisfied.
O1 Tool Steel is a very popular and highly versatile oil-hardening cold-work tool steel. Type O1 steel consist of small amounts of manganese, tungsten, and chromium which gives it adequate toughness for a variety of tool and die applications. We stock O1 Tool Steel in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
My question relates to tool steel. I am about to purchase a Veritas shoulder plane and for the first time am faced with the choice between A2 and O1 steel. I understand that A2 is the harder steel, which has the benefit of holding an edge longer and the detriment of being more difficult to sharpen. I understand that O1 steel is softer, allowing for easier sharpening to a keener edge, but one that will dull more quickly. Can you please confirm, to the degree you are able, that I am correct in my understanding here.
Secondly, can you let me know which steel you would choose and why? I am leaning toward the softer steel (O1 by my understanding) because I understand it is easier to sharpen to a keen edge. I am not going to put a lot of miles on this plane, so more frequent sharpening will not be a big burden to me. Thank you for your input. I continue to enjoy the site and The Guild.
Hey Brian. You are absolutely correct in your understanding of the difference between A2 and O1 steels. In general, O1 holds a slightly keener edge and is easier to sharpen. But it also dulls faster and require more frequent sharpening. A2 steel takes a little more effort to sharpen, but you are rewarded with a more durable edge that lasts longer.
As a newbie, I am having trouble gauging the difference in the examples of O1 and A2, because there is a lot of difference in how much each person uses their tools. One person mentioned still having a good edge on A2 used on and off for a for a month while his friend sharpens every 10 days, but one person might use the blade more in 10 days than another might use it in an on-and-off month.
I make all my shapper blades from worn out sugger beet cutters, they are made of a multy layer steel composite, I can make about a 3/4 mile of molding between sharpenings! I think it is to some extent self sharpening.
A2 tool steel is an air hardening, cold work, chromium alloy die steel that is preferable to O1 tool steel in applications requiring greater size stability, machinability and safer hardening. The wear resistance properties and cost place A2 between that of O1 and D2 tool steel making it a good all purpose grade for many applications. The increased wear resistance and lower distortion make A2 tool steel particularly useful in longer production runs on either light or heavy gauge stock. Applications include: blanking dies, forming dies, trimming dies, stamping dies, coining dies, drawing dies, extrusion dies, punches, shear and slitter blades, gauges, knurling tools, rolls, mandrels and machine parts. Common trade names include Air-True, Windsor, Airkool, AL4, Select B, Thyrodur 2363, Airque, Sagamore, Cromo-Loy, EZ-DIE, A-H5.Chemical Composition:
D2 tool steel is an air-hardening, cold work, high carbon, high chrome tool steel with exceptionally high wear resistance properties. D2 tool steel properties combine minimal distortion in heat treatment, high toughness and wear resistance at the expense of grindability and machinability compared to other grades. Its deep hardening ability helps it to resist chipping and cracking. These characteristics along with price make D2 tool steel a high performance choice for applications requiring maximum dimensional stability in heat treatment, toughess, and wear resistance for longer life in long run, high production die applications. These applications include knife blades, thread rolling dies, lamination dies, blanking dies, forming dies, trimming dies, stamping dies, coining dies, drawing dies, extrusion dies, punches, punch plates, shear and slitter blades, gauges, knurling tools, rolls, mandrels and machine parts. Common trade names include Ontario, Aristocrat, Superior No 3, High-Chrome, Olympic FM, Airdi 150, Ohio Die, Ultra Die 3, CCM, AL3, CNS-1, Atmodie, 610, FNS.Chemical Composition:
H13 tool steel is air-hardening, hot work 5% chrome tool steel. It combines excellent shock and abrasion resistance with good red hardness making it ideal for use in die casting. Most commonly used in plastic molds and die casting, its ability to withstand rapid cooling from high working temperatures also make it a prime choice for use in extrusion dies. While designed to be a versatile hot work grade, H13 tool steel has been useful in cold work applications as well, particularly when extra toughness is desired but wear resistance is not important. Other applications include: trimming dies, extrusion dies, forging dies, die casting, forming punches, hot shear blades and mold dies.Common trade names include Dievac, Viscount, Thyrotherm 2344, Cromo-High V, Firechrome 44, Hotform V, VAD13, Potomac M, Thermold H 13, VDC, Hot Form V, Dica B Vanadium, Nu-Die V, Firedie 13, 883.Chemical Composition:
O1 tool steel is an oil hardening, cold work general purpose steel with easy machining properties and low hardening temperatures compared to other grades. O1 provides good wear resistance and toughness sufficient for standard tool and die applications making it a suitable choice for tooling with good tool life and econimcal production. In situations that require greater size stability during hardening, A2 should be considered. Some common applications include: bending dies, trimmer dies, perforators, broaches, blanking dies, forming dies, gages, cutting dies, bushings, forming rolls, knives, drawing dies, and embossing dies. Common trade names include Badger, Ketos, Truform, Keystone, Oilcraft, Presco, Colonial No. 6, Thyrodur 2510, Wando, Kiski, EXL-Die, BTR, Saratoga, Teenax, Keewatin.Chemical Composition:
M2 tool steel is the most commonly used grade of the high speed category. It is a molybdenum tungsten grade with excellent toughness, wear resistance and red hardness, making it preferable in applications where it is exposed to high heat condition from high machining speeds. M2 tool steel is generally suitable for use in applications specified for T1 high speed steel. Some applications include: drill bits, reamers, taps, gear cutters, lathe tools, broaches, boring tools, forming rolls, inserts, punches, milling cutters and end mills. Common trade names include Mustang, Double Six, Vasco M2, REX M2, Micro-Melt M2, Speedstar, Thyrapid 3343, TRM-2, Cheyenne, Sixix, Molite 2, Motung 652, Braemow, 66 HS, DBL-2, Molva-T.Chemical Composition: 041b061a72