John,

I've only machined 06, I've never tried to cold work it. Machines
beautifully, I think it has graphite in it. It also has very low distortion,
in thin sections, when heat treated.

I think you'll find taht most tool steels, especially A1, have a tendancy to
work harden when worked cold.

What type of material are you trying to take an impression from ?? The
surface area of a 1" circle is going to take one hell of a whack to impress.

Regards

Mark


wrote in message
oups.com...
I checked two major steel suppliers in my area (Southern California),
no luck on finding tooling steel (besides O1, A1). Any online
suppliers (I've checked a few with now luck) have this metal that will
also do a small orders? 1" to 2" inch solid cylinder pieces is what I
am looking for. Or maybe can someone recommend a tool/die shop that
will handle/supply a small order (assuming they have o6)

I'm interested in O6 because it seems to have a large difference in its
hardness between relaxed and hardenned states (roughly 40 - 58 rockwell
hardness if memeory serves me). Anyone have any experience with this
(using the soft state to impression, then harden to final use)

Thanks