Making Plane Irons - A Suggestion For Woodworkers

If you’re thinking about making you’re own planes, first, you should do it! Second, don’t use O1 for your blades. At least not at the start. This isn’t a knock against O1! I really like O1, but you’re not going to get the most out of it doing a backyard heat treat. The standard advice that gets passed around online in the woodworking circles is to grab a bar of O1, heat it until it is non-magnetic, then dunk it in some oil. That technically works, but you won’t be getting the benefits of using O1. You’ll be spending more on materials and end up with a sub-par plane blade. O1 really benefits from keeping it at a specific temperature during the hardening and allowing it to soak in the heat for a specified amount of time. That is a difficult thing to do without a heat treating oven.

In my opinion, don’t listen to the woodworkers on this one. Instead, listen to the knife makers and use 1080 or 1084. This steel responds much better to the heating and dunking method. It doesn’t require a soak and there is a high degree of success that comes with this steel. Additionally, given that it is a popular knife making steel it is plentiful and you can easily get it in the size you need for a plane blade.

Router plane blade made from 1084.