jdm61
itinerant metal pounder
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2005
- Messages
- 47,357
In the time that i have been making knives, I have tended to use either 1/4 stock or round bar and forge and grind my blades down to their final thickness. I am looking at doing a some stock removal knives. The initial model would be a field knife with a blade around 5.75-6 inches that is a hair under 1.5 inches wide. I did a couple of knives in this general size a while back in CPM 3V using Aldo's .227./.207 stock which cleaned up to right around .205-.207 as advertised.. Some folks told me that I didn't need to use stock that thick for a knife that size. I used the next size down, the .188/.172 for a smaller 4.2 inch blade and it worked out nicely. Here is my concern. Do you guys think that the smaller size is big enough for a 6 inch hard use knife? I know that in 3V, the answer is probably that it is plenty thick, but how about steels that are not so tough like CPM S35VN or CPM 154?
That brings me to my second question. If I was going to use a more reasonably priced steel like Aldo's 52100, which comes in .187, would it end up bring thick enough after cleanup/ surface grinding? I ask because the next size up after that is the full .250 and I can tell you from making a prototype from .250 Cru Forge V that even after cleaning off the mill scale, it is still more steel than I need.
That brings me to my second question. If I was going to use a more reasonably priced steel like Aldo's 52100, which comes in .187, would it end up bring thick enough after cleanup/ surface grinding? I ask because the next size up after that is the full .250 and I can tell you from making a prototype from .250 Cru Forge V that even after cleaning off the mill scale, it is still more steel than I need.
