TomD
I replaced all/most of my ECE plane blades with J. Blue Steel, I think they were. I repalced the block plane with a Hock.

So I gather Brian is saying his harder planes are better as far as finish is concerned on softer woods, not that they wear better? I have the opposite opinion on wear, I am ok on cut. After 40 years, I am not sure it is more than my expectation.

Speaking of soft O1. I have mentioned this before, but here goes. I did a bunch of blades outside, as always, but in very cold weather. Result was a few cracked and I stopped processing. But I got a bunch that were OK, and made one into a Jack Plane. It seemed like a nice plane, and I may have not used it on anything harder than Cherry. I used it with a fair amount of blade projection. One day planing a 2x4, or something similar, I hit a knot like a rock. I looked at the plane, and I had bent a large dent in the blade. Basically, I guess it never really hardened. I had been happily using it like an idiot for a year. Really I expect better powers of observation than that!

Some of you might remember that I bought a Rockwell tester at one point, but that is the one thing I have bought of the sort that turned out to be a boat anchor. To make sure I am hard, I skate a file, but there is sometimes enough oxide on the blade to make that fallible. So far this is the only stark failure I know of. Good lesson, in several directions. For one thing, my not hardened floats don't bother me much any more.