Some tools I made...

[Eric Hartunian]

Here are a couple recent tools. A small float, with a mesquite handle. I made it with 3/16" O1 tool steel. Pretty easy project, but cutting the blade was tedious.
The small plane is a Krenov style compass plane. THe iron is homemade, 3/16" O1. That was my first time shaping an iron from scratch, and heat treating. All told, I am pretty happy with both. The float wasn't used to make the plane, but will be put to use making some moulding planes one of these days.

Comments welcome,

Eric

[David DeCristoforo]

Love the little "compass plane". Sweet....

YM

[Pam Niedermayer]

Eric, how did you harden and temper the O1? Love the looks of that float.

Pam

[Eric Hartunian]

Pam, I didn't harden the steel for the float. From the bit that I've read, it isn't needed,and it makes future filing easier. I think I may do it anyway, but we'll see.
The iron for the plane is hardened. I used a small MAPP torch. To be honest, 3/16" steel probably could have benefited from two torches. I noticed that as the steel came to temp, the side not touching the flame seemed like it was cooling down. I think it was just too much steel for the little torch. But, in the end, it worked out. I heated to cherry red, and then quenched in a coffee can full of veg. oil. There are probably better ways to do this, but it worked. I tested with a file, and my unscientific self thought it was hard enough. I tempered in the kitchen oven for about an hour. I should say that I ground the primary bevel prior to hardening.

On a side note, I also am in the process of making a large tap to make wooden vise screws for my upcoming bench revision. Part of that included a cutter using the 3/16 O1. It was much easier to harden as it was only about 5/8" or so wide (the plane blade is 1 1/2").

Eric

[Lars Thomas]

Those are some great looking tools. Enjoy using them! Lars

[Ron Petley]

If you heat the steel just hot enough so a magnet will not stick to it you are at the right temp, hotter than this and you are overheating. Also rember the cutting edge is thinner than the body and will get hotter faster and overheat even though the thicker steel is not up to temp. It is the cutting edge that you are really wanting hard/tough in the end.
If you cook it in the oven you can tell the right temp by the color it turns, I would think a straw yellow would be fine, which should put you in the rockwell hardness range of 55-60 (someone else might know the right hardness better than me), this would be about 375-400F for 2 hours, cool and some will repeat another 2 hours at the same temp. Clean off the vegie oil so it does not give you a baked on yellow color. The color is a better indicator as you oven temp could be a little off. Pre heat the oven and put the steel in a can of sand to even out the temp swings of the element coming on and off.
The great thing with 01 is if you are not happy with the results you can re quench and re temper it again.
Great looking tools, good for you, nothing like the satisfaction of home made. Cheers Ron.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Pam, I didn't harden the steel for the float. From the bit that I've read, it isn't needed,and it makes future filing easier. I think I may do it anyway, but we'll see.
...

On a side note, I also am in the process of making a large tap to make wooden vise screws for my upcoming bench revision. Part of that included a cutter using the 3/16 O1. It was much easier to harden as it was only about 5/8" or so wide (the plane blade is 1 1/2").

Thanks, Eric, please let me know how the float performs, whether you harden it eventually.

The tap sounds very interesting, look forward to seeing it.

Pam