Hi,

In the MSC catalog the price of 3/16" x 1 3/4" x 18" of A2 steel bar
stock is $35. This is enough to make five Krenov type blades (3 1/2"
long).

One A2 blade from David Finck is $47 (with cap iron)

So that made me think maybe I should make my own blades. Maybe it is a
lot cheaper?

Does anyone have any experience working with A2 bar stock? Does the bar
stock need to be heat treated after shaping it? Are cap iron's
hardened?

Thanks,
Peter

Hi,

In the MSC catalog the price of 3/16" x 1 3/4" x 18" of A2 steel bar
stock is $35. This is enough to make five Krenov type blades (3 1/2"
long).

One A2 blade from David Finck is $47 (with cap iron)

So that made me think maybe I should make my own blades. Maybe it is a
lot cheaper?

Does anyone have any experience working with A2 bar stock? Does the bar
stock need to be heat treated after shaping it? Are cap iron's
hardened?

Thanks,
Peter


You can read http://www.hocktools.com/ (makes krenov type blades)
on how A2 is treated for hardening. I know a local machinist that is
experienced working with A2, he says it's tough stuff, hard on bits and
slower to cut through, probably generates more heat.

In my experience it is not as hard to sharpen as a finished plane blade
than is tauted to be. But it does take a longer, and takes a fantastic edge
that lasts.

You want Krenove style blades, this site does not list them but is a
much cheaper site to buy them from, Canada:
http://www.spehar-toolworks.com/index.html as well as
http://www.leevalley.com/ , both for standard handplane irons in A2.
(giggle)

--
Alex
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/

It was somewhere outside Barstow when wrote:

Does anyone have any experience working with A2 bar stock? Does the bar
stock need to be heat treated after shaping it?

Don't start with A2.

Get some O1 ground flat stock, go read the rec.knives FAQs, and learn
to heat treat by making a couple of small knives, tenon rounders or
something. You can heat treat this with a torch and firebricks, A2
needs a more serious furnace.

I wouldn't recommend A2 to anyone making their own edged tools unless
they'd worked easier steels before, they were making something that
needed it (plane iron good, firewood spill plane bad), and they were
either sending it out for heat treat or had a reasonable muffle
furnace to do it themselves. Unless you work A2 quite competently, it
will have no advantage over simpler steels like O1 or 1095.

If you buy the plate, check your yellow pages for a water jet cutter.
For under $100 you could have all the blades cut out, with holes and
notches if you need them. Your cost per blade is still way under
individual costs.

Alan