Thread: Drill bits for knife making

O1 Tool Steel!
Can be bought in very knifemaker friendly sizes (4x40x500, 3x30x500, 3x50x500 etc)
It is sold as gauge plate (fully annealed and precision ground) from a few different companies. I mostly dealt with Special Steels in Auckland. Email them for a price list of all their sizes. I was buying 4x40x500 for around $23 a piece a few years ago.
I started knifemaking using old sawblades but once I started using gauge plate I never looked back.
O1 is very easy to heat treat in the home workshop using nothing more than a map gas torch ($100 from Mitre 10) a few fire bricks, a few liters of canola oil and the kitchen oven for tempering.
Many of my early knives were heat treated with very basic equipment until I build a PID controlled electric furnace.
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