Steve Knight wrote...

I don't know. 500 lbs would be enough to make more than 9,500 laminated
plane irons, or about 15,000 chisels. (Assuming the bulk of the tool is a
soft steel.) Seems like a lot for a niche market.

about a year and a half for me (G) well I use about 90 to 100# every three
months approx.

That's for solid irons, though, right? If your irons are like mine, 1/4"
thick x 2" x 4", you get about 175 irons per hundred pounds of steel.
That sound about right?

If the Hitachi steel were to be used on laminated irons, you'd only need
about a 55mm square x 1mm thick. The rest of the tool would be plain
steel. So, you could theoretically get over 2200 irons per hundred pounds
of the tool steel. Because of the stock dimensions, though, there'd be a
bit of waste, which would drop the yield to probably just under 2000
irons per hundred pounds.

how much is the good white steel a pound?

It's all good, right? (G) Hitachi quoted me $9.06 / lb for the No1A white
paper steel, in 500 lb quantities, cold-rolled. The Aogami No2 was
$10.46. I pay about half that for precision ground O1.

Cheers!

Jim