The only one...
Date Thursday, 23 June 2022, at 1:53 p.m.
That is the only chisel that I ever finished in O1 that I can recall. It was right at the time that I realized I'd never find a constant supply of heller files that are 1/4" thick and not exorbitantly expensive, and 1095 wasn't cutting the mustard.
Not sure when I sent that to you ,but my machine planer still has three or four more paring blanks laying on the bed marked with marker - which is maybe a suggestion that I don't need that much, but one never knows when they'll be forced to make something they don't want to (I have two of those things on the horizon - it'll spin up for them). I have burned plenty of electrons with a grinder, though, and wouldn't be without it - there's no religious reason the planer doesn't run.
At any rate, it's probably the only O1 chisel, and it's also the only chisel that got tempered with food. Over-tempered a little thanks to the mrs. deciding I was in her way and ratcheting up the oven temp for baked potatoes. I thought for sure it would be overtempered and roll, but it passed the roll test without issue (hard malleting in something really hard).
O1 has a pretty wide acceptable range, though and makes a good chisel (375-425F-ish temper- ballpark 60-ish hardness or just a tad more).
There's a reality for a junk maker like me, too - there's no order list and if one does go out as a dud, it's not much work to just make another one. I can't make a case that 26c3 is practically better, but it is a little better and is probably inaccessible to do good work with it commercially, too. Regardless, O1 is a nice steel and it makes nice tools, and for practical purposes, it's as fine grained as anything - snapped samples look like clay.
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