5160 steel plane iron

[Fowamaq]

I've just forged a 5160 plane iron for a round bottom plane for making bucket stave's. I'll be cutting Cedar. This steel is much softer than others I've used for tool making, O1, H13, S7, D2 and A2.

I've got all the heat treating and tempering ovens with temp monitoring and control. This (5160) is a very forgiving steel and the iron is 3/8" (9.525mm) at the thickest end. The edge is ground in an arc with a 9" (228.6mm).

I've heat treated several test pieces quenched in Water, heated salt water (super saturated) and Texaco quench Tex 70 Oil. And 3 tempers from full hard RC 56-60 to medium hard RC40

With the rounded blade I want easy tune up of the edge. All the other steels I've used had very detailed tempering guides for hardness vs temp and time.

This is spring steel so detailed info has eluded me.

Has any one here made wood cutting tools from this alloy, and what worked best in your experience for soft woods? Maybe just use O1???

Thanks!