Blade Thickness for EDC Folders?

Chronovore

Chronovore

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As I've gotten deeper into the hobby and explored more knives, I've found something common among my favorites: thin blade stock. Being thin behind the edge is good but I'm talking overall thickness. No, not for big fixed blades or survival folders. I mean regular EDC folders.

I just saw some new special editions of the WE Practic on BladeHQ. I'd been wanting a Practic without blue hardware since they first came out. I was scrolling down to click it into my cart when I saw the .13" blade thickness. That's just too much.

Has this happened to anyone else? What is your preferred blade stock thickness for an EDC folder?
 
. 13 is too much? Most blade come in around .12-.125 or so, at least in my experience. Personally I'm good with about any thickness. I carry anything from my grip or Super Freek (both around .12) to my Shaman (.145 I believe). When I get my sbd Evo typhoon and if I decide to keep it, I'll carry it and it has 0.156 I think?

I guess I'm just not too picky. Thinner, thicker, as long as I like the knife I'll carry and use it. I really like something like my ad10, which has pretty thick stock but is also a hollow grind and cuts very well!
 
It depends a bit on the size of the knife. I like my Full Flat Grind Spyderco Endura that's 3 mm (0.12") at the spine and my Victorinox Compact at 2 mm (0.08").

I don't mind a thinner blade on a belt knife to bring into the forest neither. My main one is a Northwoods Mackinaw that's almost 4 mm (0.15") at the spine, but that one is a Bark River convex grind, so it cuts like a thinner blade anyway.
 
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It does seem that a lot of folders have quite thick blades. For me I don't think I'd want a folder with a blade thicker than 1/8, and I would generally prefer closer to 3/32. My Spyderco Chaparral has a nice thin blade.
 
For an EDC, I like about 0.12 inches, like my Sebenza. My large Rukus (4.2 inch blade), which I EDC constantly, is 0.15 inches, but I use it for light chopping. The edge is cut down to 0.015 inches at the shoulders, which gives it excellent slicing ability.

The Benchmade Onslaught, which for some reason gets almost no attention here, is a big blade -- 4.28 inches. It's blade is 0.12 inches and wide, making it the best slicing big EDC I know of.

Usually, I prefer thinner stocks for my kitchen or small fixed blades. My chef's knife is made out of 0.06 inch stock, with a full distal taper. The tip end of the blade is super flexible. My cardboard-slicing knives are usually 0.1 or thinner.

In days of yore, people had few knives and a large variety of tasks, so most knives were a compromise.

Today, we have a ton of knives and fewer tasks. Specialization is the name of the game. Fit the knife to the task.
 
Ideally, less than, or equal to, 0.12" with a hollow grind. CRK has done it well. If you're not batoning or prying open the lids of steel drums, what's the point of a thick blade stock? It's heavy and, all other things being equal, you get a blade that is thicker behind the edge. It does give the illusion of a better action as the weight of the blade makes the knife more "drop-shutty". Behind the edge thickness is (almost) never mentioned in knife specs, I prefer that to be BELOW .020"

I hate it when I see .15" to .16" blade stock with flat grinds, at least make it a deep hollow grind.
 
I'm with you, OP.
My limit is 0.12".
I am chasing sub 3" slip joint now, and for them 0.1" seems little thick.
my sweet spot is 0.08" and <0.01" for BTE thickness.
 
No more than 1/4".
Many of my folders are 1/8", some are 3/16", or 0.156". Got a couple at 0.100".

1/4" was getting kind of heavy, and did impede going through thicker material due to the grind.

Blades on my Swiss Army Knives are pretty thin; work well.
My thicker knives do too. If it doesn't cut well enough, I sharpen/reprofile till it does. I have one folder at 0.090" thick that didn't cut worth crap till I entirely changed the edge geometry...there's a lot more to how a knife performs than just the stock thickness.

I really don't worry about it all that much, as you may have noticed. ;)
 
For smaller folders like SAK and Delica, I definitely prefer thin behind the edge and thin overall. But for bigger/larger/longer ones, I prefer a bit thicker, definitely NOT the thinner the better. ZT 0562, HInderer XM-18 3.5", Hogue Ritter, Benchmade Griptilian, Spyderco PM2/Millie, and Cold Steel Recon 1 are all fine with me.
 
When I try to cut up an apple with 0.15” blade stock I remember right away why I love my Chaparral.

OP, I had a similar experience as you. I was totally in love with the Reate Iron. I had a couple in my cart trying to pick the finish I preferred. Then I noticed: Blade Thickness = 0.16”.

Out of the cart in a New York second. That’s not a pocket knife, that’s a splitting wedge.
 
I prefer not only thinner stock, but also a hollow grind. My Seb are like .125 inches, and this is perfect for me...thin enough for good cutting performance, but thick enough to where you get more than sufficient strength even if you are using the knife hard or for things you should ideally not use a knife for (within reason.) One of the reasons the Insingo blade is such a strong performer is IMO the use of such thinner stock (well, thinner relative to many other current folders).
 
My regular carry is a Hinderer XM-24 and the blade is 0.165", which I do not think is too thick. It cuts as well as most any knife out there. I don't see a thick blade as a disadvantage.
 
Some models that I think nail the stock/grind ratios are basically any CRK folder, any Shirogorov, and any Golden made Spyderco. Personally I like my edc knives to be the best jack of all trades tool I can get so I do prefer the thickness at the spine to push the limits of edge geometry. The above mentioned deliver what I want, though I’ve moved away from Shiro.
 
I would have no concerns about .13 at the spine on a relatively tall blade that looks like it has a fairly deep hollow grind.
 
sharp_edge said:
For smaller folders like SAK and Delica, I definitely prefer thin behind the edge and thin overall. But for bigger/larger/longer ones, I prefer a bit thicker, definitely NOT the thinner the better. ZT 0562, HInderer XM-18 3.5", Hogue Ritter, Benchmade Griptilian, Spyderco PM2/Millie, and Cold Steel Recon 1 are all fine with me.
Click to expand...
very nice
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