So How Do I HT O1? (ie. the beginners steel that beginners shouldn't use)

[Dave Stephens]

22 hours ago, steven smith said:

We learned in the bug wars on klandathu if a blade isnt utterly sharp that a thrust would just glance off the hard exoskeleton of an arachnid beast and you might not get another chance at it, or maybe those were roaches at my friends place...

Either way I dont know why we were fighting them like that, we should have just bounced out of there and gassed them from the sidewalk.

I just noticed this . . .LOL. I love Starship Troopers.  One of my favorite novels of all time.

[Vern Wimmer]

7 minutes ago, Dave Stephens said:

I just noticed this . . .LOL. I love Starship Troopers.  One of my favorite novels of all time.

One of the first sci-fi books I read. On a related note. The first movie sucked as a representation of the book. Second one was a tribute to suckology, but the third one (IIRC produced outside of the normal Hollyweird channels) was closer to the book than the first two, at least in the armor and technology.

[Wes Detrick]

On 4/10/2018 at 2:11 PM, Vern Wimmer said:

One of the first sci-fi books I read. On a related note. The first movie sucked as a representation of the book. Second one was a tribute to suckology, but the third one (IIRC produced outside of the normal Hollyweird channels) was closer to the book than the first two, at least in the armor and technology.

While you are correct, the first movie was a poor representation of the book, I still loved it.  It was campy and totally a Paul Verhoeven movie (Robocop and Total Recall).  But than again, most movies are a poor showing of the book.  Anyhow, sorry to add to the thread hijacking

[Gerhard Gerber]

I HT'ed two small O1 blades last night, following the Cashen recipe using my digital kiln.

They came out nice & hard, I did a 1-hour temper at 200-205C.

Question: I see no mention of multiple tempering sessions, is 1 enough?

The steel was soft as cheese when I started, yesterday one of the last steps before HT was filing in the sharpening notches, and I pretty much ruined 2 round files doing that......work hardening I assume?

[Jerrod Miller]

8 hours ago, Gerhard said:

Question: I see no mention of multiple tempering sessions, is 1 enough?

No, do 2.  The second can be slightly cooler than the first (like 10 C), but the same temp is generally used.  

[Gerald Boggs]

On 4/12/2018 at 2:06 AM, Wes Detrick said:

While you are correct, the first movie was a poor representation of the book, I still loved it.  It was campy and totally a Paul Verhoeven movie (Robocop and Total Recall).  But than again, most movies are a poor showing of the book.  Anyhow, sorry to add to the thread hijacking

Adding to the highjack: From Wiki

"Relationship to novel

Because the movie originated from an unrelated script, with names and superficial details from the novel being added retroactively, there are many significant differences between the original book and the film."

I had read somewhere else, that the director had never read Starship Troopers.

[Gerhard Gerber]

15 hours ago, Jerrod Miller said:

No, do 2.  The second can be slightly cooler than the first (like 10 C), but the same temp is generally used.  

Thanks Jerrod

Another question if you don't mind....... How much would tempering the next day negatively affect the end result?

I did the tempering in my bachelor oven with the blades buried in sand as per your advice IIRC, with a temp probe in the sand so I'm sure I'm getting nice steady temperature.

It would however be more accurate and much more efficient using the kiln for tempering, but it takes too long to cool down.

[Jerrod Miller]

In that case do a "snap temper".  Always temper immediately after quench, if only at a relatively low temp.  Even 250 F (120 C) is beneficial.  I'd suggest 25-50F below your final temper temp if possible.  Then do your 2 temper cycles at that final temp when you have time.  A day or so later shouldn't be a problem at all if you do the snap temper first.  

[Doug Lester]

Follow Jerrod's advice.  You can't delay tempering for at least one cycle without the risk of the stresses in the steel from breaking the blade.

Doug

[Conner Michaux]

When im reading these long explanations of O1 I forget everything I read, So I need this plain and simple 

Im making a knife out of O1 and its almost ready for H-T  

Normalize a few times then heat up past magnetic and quench, Will that work for O1?

Thanks.

[Brian Dougherty]

On 4/5/2018 at 4:12 PM, Alan Longmire said:

To elaborate a bit, simply heating to decalescence and quenching O-1 will give you a hardened blade, roughly equal to 1084 in edge holding and abrasion resistance.  Following the proper procedure of soaking at heat, however, allows the carbide-forming elements to come into solution and distribute themselves evenly.  This structure when quenched and tempered results in a blade that can shave slivers off the first one with no damage.

So, while a simple heat treat sort of works and will produce a decent blade, that steel is capable of much higher performance.  A better comparison would be driving a supercharger-equipped car with the supercharger turned off.  It will still get you there, but not as well as it has the potential to do.

That's why some of us get snobby about it.  We're steel geeks.  

@Conner Michaux I was about to write something  that would have been similar to Alan's response and then decided to look scan through the thread to see if someone had already done so.  Alan said it with more knowledge than I could have so I just quoted him.

(I was going to say it's a bit like buying a Ferrari but never driving it above 30mph)

[Conner Michaux]

Okay that helps, thanks for that