Stock O1 steel - how to cut?

[Federico Mena Quintero]

I've been playing with the idea of making a plow plane, and other "narrow" planes like hollows/rounds (i.e. not wide irons like for a jack plane). So, I would need blanks of various widths.

There is a steel wholesaler here who sells O1 in sheets - I guess I can use 1/8" thickness for mostly everything. However, to get an assortment of widths, I'd have to order the sheet cut into strips of those widths. This can get expensive quite fast.

How would one go about cutting such a sheet oneself? I have an angle grinder, but don't really know a good way to make straight cuts.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've never worked with steel like this, so I don't know if this translates well, but when I've worked sheet like this, I've used whatever was handy to cut it, a hacksaw or an angle grinder (I have no idea if a hacksaw would "cut it" [ha ha] when it comes to O1) and then cleaned up the edges with my bench grinder, making the final smoothing clean up with either the bench grinder and a jig, or a file followed by lapping on sandpaper. Substitute a stationary belt sander and it's even easier than the bench grinder.

I'm sure someone actually knowledgeable on this will come forward shortly, but I've used that method in mild steel and aluminum. No idea if it translates to O1.

If you're doing more than a few, I might make a few calls to local machine shops or what have you - for a smallish job like making little pieces of steel out of big pieces, sometimes if you can makes some friends they're very willing to help you out. You might still have a lot of cleanup to do, but if they can get you close, 5 minutes of their time can save you a lot of your time.

[Bill Bukovec]

Do you have a Sawsall? That's the only tool I have for cutting metal other than a hacksaw.

My guess is, the steel has not been heat treated. This means it is soft (as far as steel goes)

How big are the sheets and how much are they?


I found the following at Reid Supply. Not sure how this compares to your price.
SFS-54305 (http://www.reidsupply.com/sku/SFS-54305/): $28.32
L. S. Starrett 1/8 Inch x 2 Inch x 36 Inch Long Ground Flat Stock, Series 496 AISI O1 Oil Hardening InchMade of dimensionally stable chromium

[Roger Newby]

You can get O-1 steel from MSC mscdirect.com in 18" or 36" lengths X thickness and width. Widths normally run from 1/4" up to 6" in 1/4" increments. It can be cut with a regular hack saw. Grinding can introduce too much heat and cause localized hardening. O-1 will also file easily in its annealed state. A-2 is also available from MSC and is also workable with regular hand tools when annealed. Off the shelf hardness for both runs around 30-35 Rc. So it can be cut, drilled and filed easily. Just avoid introducing any heat to it by drilling too fast or using high speed abrasives.

[David Weaver]

hacksaw. Mark it with a metal scribe and work from both ends with a hacksaw, it's not too bad to cut when it's annealed. However, I wouldn't something that needs to be cut on all four sides or you're going to be doing a lot of filing to square it up.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Thanks to everyone!

I completely forgot that the steel comes un-hardened, so indeed it will be easy to cut with a hacksaw.

How did I forget? I've been cannibalizing a few spare jack plane irons for small planes, and have been cutting them with the angle grinder - those *are* hardened, and the hacksaw just wouldn't do it.

Roger and Bill, thanks for the pointers. I'd rather support a local seller (in Mexico) than import raw materials ;) Fortunately their prices don't seem to be significantly different.

[Trevor Walsh]

If you are cutting strips off of the sheet, get a hacksaw that has the ability to put the blade perpendicular to the frame, so you are holding sideways and the frame hangs off the long edge you are cutting. Similar to how you'd rip with a frame saw.

Or cutting disk in the angle grinder and some filework to smooth and straighten the edges. It's not that hard to cut straightly with the grinder as the disk wants to follow a line more than curve around.

[george wilson]

Only hack saw it. If you try a grinder,or a too fast running Sawzall,the 01 will self harden locally and ruin the teeth in a big hurry!! Grinding with a disc will harden the adjacent areas hard as glass.

If you had a bandsaw,it would have to be a metal cutting version,geared down quite slow to cut mild steel,and slower to cut tool steel. So slow you can see the teeth going by. You can cut brass and aluminum on an ordinary wood cutting bandsaw.

[David Posey]

Will the O1 really harden when using a grinder? I could see how A2 would harden, but I wouldn't think O1 would without being quenched. I've successfully used one of those thin cutoff wheels in an angle grinder, and I got something like tempering colors near the edge, but nothing that would indicate it got had enough to harden. The steel was still soft enough to file afterwards.

My preference would still be to use a hacksaw, but there are times when that's not convenient, like in cutting the slot in a bench plane iron.

[David Keller NC]

If you're going to do a substantial amount of this type of work in thin (1/4" or less), then a small plasma cutter is probably the best bet. These are quite inexpensive now; usually a lot less than a liquid-cooled bandsaw.