which steel alloy for plane blades?

[SlowSteve]

Hi,

Does anyone know what is considered the optimal alloy for making plane blades? I have a couple of my grandfathers planes which have been battered and resharpened so many times that the blades at pretty much finished - I don't have enough metal for a dramatic regrind - although one blade in 70 years is good value I guess.

I was going to use O1 tool steel as I have some and it's easy to work with. However, there are a lot of specific stteels for knife making, and I didn't know whether these were used much?

Many thanks

Steve

 

[Andy RV]

01 is the way to go for home made and arguably bought blades.

 

[Sean Hellman]

As Andy RV said O1 is your best bet. There are loads of other steels out there but a lot of them are more difficult or are more critical to heat treat. O1 is easily bought in almost any size you want to reduce wastage. I use it all the time and a lot of tool maker use it.

 

[ejtrent]

O1 is really easy to get hold of!