Tool steel grades

[jmk89]

I was thinking of making a copy of Bob L's shoulder plane this long weekend, so I went to the Edcon website to see about buying some tool steel for the blade. Have a look at the relevant page (http://www.edconsteel.com.au/prod_tool.htm).

How do I find out what is the grade of steel that I want? I Googled to see if I could find a sensible page that told me what I wanted to know about tool steel and the various grades and descriptions, but nothing helped (maybe I asked it the wrong question).

Cheers

Jeremy

[Grahame Collins]

Your plane blade is still a glorified knife blade when all is said and done.
Why couldn,t one make it form what knifemakers make their knives from.

Your choice there may be A2 tool steel, M2 tool steel,1095 carbon steel and O1 tool steel.

Rather than be compelled to buy a whole length of the stuff, one might consider the guy in WA who runs the Australian Knifemakers Club who will sell appropriate lengths of the good stuff.
It would depend on the widest plane blade width,I suppose.
Not having yet tried to make a plane blade I can't say for sure ,but its a thought to start with.
hers a previous discussion on the same

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=41375
Have a great Easter break
Grahame

[BobL]

JK, why not make the blade from an old file like I do?

I reckon unless you are going to apply some vigor to a blade in hardwood for an extended period (ie using a hammer or big mallet on a chisel) and you make it carefully (see below) the chances of blades made from files shattering, are very small. {Jake reckons he never tempers his files when he uses them as blades} One disadvantage is an untempered blade will be a pain to sharpen but otoh it will need less sharpening.

Preparing a file for use as a blade is relatively easy. Tempering is as easy as heating it from room temp to 240oC in an oven and then holding 240oC for an hour. One treatise I read said even 20 minutes is sufficient. One problem not always apprecaited is 90% of all oven temp scales are usually wrong (too low) by about 10% and so you should aim for about 265oC OR use a temp probe if you have one. A DVM with a thermocouple is the way to go. Turn the oven off, leave the door closed and let it cool to room temp. This process knocks the edge off the hardness of a file and allows you to more easily :

A) grind the teeth off. This is more important for tools that will get a beating as leaving the teeth in place is where cracks start from. Grinding the teeth off is a PIA but you just have to be patient. Of course if you require a flat plane blade you have to grind the teeth of at least this face.
B) prepare the shape and bevel. I use a water cooled cutting wheel and a white coarse grinding stone and Jake's finger temperature probes to stop the blade from losing its Hard/Temp. This is fairly slow but overall works a treat. If you have a water cooled or slow grinder, all the better.

In future my approach will be to temper blades wider than about half an inch simply because it's easier to grind the teeth off. Blades half inch or smaller that will not be struck with a hammer I will leave as it.

Cheers

[Schtoo]

I gave BobL these directions a while ago, so I'll put it up here for general consumption.


(http://www.mcmaster.com/)McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/addlcontent/loadaddcontent.asp?ID=423545550317&Type=PRODTECH) <click this.

There is some funny web designing going on there, so you will need to follow these directions.

Go to raw materials and click on metals.

Click on steel.

Choose O1 tool steel from the list of steels there.

Choose a form (round or square), then a thickness, width and length. Click on one of the offerings.

For a shoulder plane, say 1/8" x 1" x 18" long and precision gorund.

When you get to the end of the line, and it shows lotsa info about your choice, you will see some links on the left hand side. Things like Bookmark This Product, Catalog Page and More About Steel Alloys. <click this one!

One of the best sources of info about steels for the everyday Jack in language that's easy to understand. Gives heaps of info, including heat treat specs. Worth saving a copy and maybe printing, if that's what floats yer boat.

Maybe too much info, but worth a look anyway.

For me, I'd choose O1 simply because it's easy enough to work with, easy enough to heat treat, it's a very good blade steel for woodworking and gives edges that are difficult to better. It's cheap, readily available and doesn't give much trouble at any time.

When you go to buy it, try Enco (http://www.use-enco.com/) in the US. They are effectively the metalworking equivalent of Lee Valley in regards to customer service. They also hold the record for shipping to me of 47 hours using regular post. LV did it in 48.5. Good people, and cheap too.

[Clinton1]

Great 'link' Schtoo.

Also, I've forgotten the name of the metal work 'bible', but see if Andy Mac knows the one.

[BobL]

I gave BobL these directions a while ago, so I'll put it up here for general consumption.


(http://www.mcmaster.com/)McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/addlcontent/loadaddcontent.asp?ID=423545550317&Type=PRODTECH) <click this.

There is some funny web designing going on there, so you will need to follow these directions.

Go to raw materials and click on metals.

Click on steel.

Choose O1 tool steel from the list of steels there.

Choose a form (round or square), then a thickness, width and length. Click on one of the offerings.

For a shoulder plane, say 1/8" x 1" x 18" long and precision gorund.

When you get to the end of the line, and it shows lotsa info about your choice, you will see some links on the left hand side. Things like Bookmark This Product, Catalog Page and More About Steel Alloys. <click this one!



Or you can PM me and I'll "organize" a copy you can access more easily. :D :D

Can tell you all good things about Enco as well, Ramps/Martrix/Clinton and I ordered 17kg of Tool steel from them a couple of months ago - well worth it - cost was ~50% Aus prices (inc freight) and a better quality steel as well.

[jmk89]

Thanks, all. Good collection of info, esp that website and Bob's tips for home tempering. I'll let you know what I end up doing.

Cheers

Jeremy

[eddie the eagle]

Bohler Uddeholm in guildford carry tool steel blanks, Jeremy.

A plane blade costs about $9- to professionally heat treat. I don't bother doing it myself

Cheers,

eddie

[BobL]

Bohler Uddeholm in guildford carry tool steel blanks, Jeremy.

A plane blade costs about $9- to professionally heat treat. I don't bother doing it myself

Cheers,

eddie

Good tip Eddie, but what state are you referring to ?

[eddie the eagle]

Hi Bob,

NSW - look up heat treaters in the yellow pages to get your local equivalent.

(ps: I was referring to O1 - they just put it in with batch of similarly sized components and treat in bulk.)

Cheers,

eddie

[BobL]

Hi Bob,

NSW - look up heat treaters in the yellow pages to get your local equivalent.

(ps: I was referring to O1 - they just put it in with batch of similarly sized components and treat in bulk.)

Cheers,

eddie

Thanks.

[Article99]

Also, I've forgotten the name of the metal work 'bible', but see if Andy Mac knows the one.

Machinery's Handbook. :2tsup:

[Pat]

Bob, I finally found the file too. They don't want us to find out stuff easily, do they? I think I'll print it to read it, later.

[BobL]

Bob, I finally found the file too. They don't want us to find out stuff easily, do they? I think I'll print it to read it, later.

Yeah, it helps if you know a little how HTML works to extract such files from these sites, ie Right mouse click - open frame in new windo, save file.