O-1 Tool Steel Pricing

I recently had the need to purchase O-1 tool steel and wanted to see who has the best price for it. In most cases these suppliers sell the EXACT same steel as each other, either Precision Matthews or Starrett.

This is for O-1 precision ground flat stock, I used the same size to compare each supplier (1/8"x1"x18"), used my address as the ship-to and selected the same type of shipping for each of them (UPS ground).

If you're paying more than this for tool steel, you're paying too much. If you are aware of other suppliers please let me know in the comments, I'll include them in this comparison for others.

Notes and caveats:

• This is the shipping cost to ME, it might differ to YOU but is here for comparison purposes.
• Pricing could vary by size, it's possible one place might be lower cost than another for other sizes, do your own comparison. At least you'll know which 3 to target for comparisons.

Drum roll please...

Supplier	Steel Brand	Cost	Shipping	Total
Die Supplies	Precision Marshall	$       12.23	$       13.65	$       25.88
McMaster Carr	Precision Marshall	$       12.97	$       13.45	$       26.42
Grainger	Precision Marshall	$       17.65	$       10.98	$       28.63
Onlinemetals.com	Precision Marshall	$       15.30	$       19.37	$       34.67
MSC	Starrett	$       25.56	$       12.79	$       38.35
Metals Depot	Starrett	$       24.88	$       14.38	$       39.26

So, the winner is Die Supplies but McMaster isn't too far behind. Grainger is actually in 3rd place which totally surprised me.