thickness

[chaos_customs]

i was wondering wat a good thicknes would be when buying steel i was thinking of buying 1/4 inch but am not sure and am just looking for some advice

[Jan Dox]

It all depends on the kind of knives you want to make.

For stock removal using knives a good start is between 1/8" to 3/16".
1/4 " is allready on the heavy side.

Jan

[chaos_customs]

thanks thats wat i thought i was just getting a second opinion ya i am doing stock removeal and need to buy some steel to make a couple fighters and some bowies

[SteveS]

I'd go 3/16" Think about it. Metal pounders use a lot of 1/4" stock and you loose a bunch to scale and such. So the finished product is often under 1/4". With stock removal you don't loose that much thickness.

Not saying you can't have a 1/4" thick fighter, but that's a big knife.

(Maybe you shouldn't listen to me. My favorite size for my style knife is 3/32".)

Steve

[george tichbour]

Stock removal takes a long time, try to start with a thinner material...at least at first.

[chaos_customs]

ya i bought a piece of steel today its a 4 foot length of 1/8 " that is 4 " wide i got it at cadiain tire and am not sure if it will ht if not oh well its still good pratice right and it was only 10 bucks so not that big a loss

[SteveS]

chaos,

Probably not a tool steel. To see if you can make a knife, cut a piece off, heat it with a torch until a magnet won't stick to it (just above red hot). Plunge it into some water.

If it hardens up (it'll probably crack too), it's a hardenable steel, duh. If not it's good for practice and making knife fittings like guards.

Steve

[chaos_customs]

ya that was my general idea if i cant use it to make knives there will be a use for it some where i am actualy useing it now i have one blade ready to cut out and another on the bench i am hand planeing some walnut for the handle at the moment

[Jason Cutter]

At the price, it doesn't sound like any sort of tool steel, unless the guy who sold it had no idea.

I think that for starters, 1/8th inch is a good stock thickness. I'm not sure how you are going to be doing your stock removal, but there won't be too much work removing metal on 1/8th inch thickness. If you got 5/32inch thick stock and started working on that, you'll notice that the added 1/32inch thickness, already makes quite a difference to the time and effort involved. Let alone the steps up to 3/16th, 7/32inch and 1/4inch stock. The main work is in developing the main bevels.

When choosing thickness, the width of the blade also makes a difference. A wide blade will often "require" a thicker blade to help maintain the same cutting characteristics as a narrower blade without losing strength. Think about it - a 2inch wide blade vs. a 1inch wide blade.

Aside from that the thickness will affect the balance and of course, weight of the knife. 1/4inch thickness seems a sort of magic "macho" number for combat / survival etc. but its probably not the type of heft most men would tolerate for long before abandoning it for a lighter more handy knife for the general chores.

You might already know all this - pardon my rambling. Jason.

[Joe H.]

Funny, i was going to post this same question.
Im starting with tool steel I got at a hard ware store, it is 1/8in thick, and 1 1/2 in wide. so it works good for starters. i found a place where I can get better knife making steel, but I have to buy a minumum of 20ft, so i was trying to think of what would be the most usefull size.
i think that 1 1/2 wide by 3/16 thick would be the most usful.
heavy enough for fighter but not so hard to get thiner if nesasary.

just my 2cents

[miller14]

Hey,

One thing to also consider if you have not already is what you want to do for a gaurd. The thinner the stock the smaller the files you need to mill out your gaurd.
With 3/16 obviously you need to have files smaller than your drill bit. I don't think there is enough meat in 3/16 to file a shoulder 360 around the ricasso. I file the gaurd sides nice and square and undersize, then a drive fit to home plate. If you use 1/4" you have enough meat to file a shoulder around the ricasso area, and this will be more forgiving when it comes to fitting your gaurd. You will just mill it out to clear the tang then run it up to the shoulders.
I only mention it because I got caught off gaurd by that along time ago. I made a nice blade that was pretty thin, didn't think ahead, and had no files to slot my gaurd.
If you do file shoulders make sure and use a radius. another topic

Take it easy, and good luck

Rick