Blade Thickness Question

The proper thickness of a blade is all a matter of preference. Thin blades will give less resistance when cutting, heavier and thicker blades tend to be for chopping and non-cutting tasks.
To throw some numbers out, I wouldn't go much thinner than 1/16" and 1/4" is the usual thickness for a knife made to beat on.
 
Ankerson said:
A lot is going to depend on what you usually do with your knives as in how you use them.
Click to expand...

I use them for general everyday tasks such as opening things, food prep, etc.

I was looking at Nit Picker from TOPS but it is 3/16" thick and I'm thinking that would be too thick for a lot of things. Then again, most of their designs are too thick in the first place.

I might get the Nit Picker with some custom G10 scales but not if it will be too thick for EDC.
 
Hi CutleryMaster62 -

As the others have said, it depends.

For me, I like a thinner blade for normal everyday use, since most of my needs are for slicing. I find that the thinner blades will slice with less effort than the heavier duty, thicker blades.

However, I can make any of my knives work, it's just a daily preference thing for me.

best regards -

mqqn
 
CutleryMaster62 said:
I use them for general everyday tasks such as opening things, food prep, etc.

I was looking at Nit Picker from TOPS but it is 3/16" thick and I'm thinking that would be too thick for a lot of things. Then again, most of their designs are too thick in the first place.

I might get the Nit Picker with some custom G10 scales but not if it will be too thick for EDC.
Click to expand...


I would say about 1/8" then would be fine, something like a Spyderco Military, Para 2 ect or Endura 4.
 
If I were planning to carry & use only one knife, I'd probably pick one in the 1/8" ballpark. Especially so, in a wide blade (spine to edge). A wide, flat-ground blade, which is 1/8" at the spine, will provide a nice, gradual taper to what can be an excellent slicing edge (great for food prep). And the spine will be strong enough to make it useful for some tougher work, like cutting cardboard, hunting/field dressing game, etc.

The Spydercos suggested above, by Ankerson, are pretty good examples of this. Blades are all in excess of 1" wide (the Military is probably 1-1/2" or so), and all can be had in full, flat grind (the Endura can be had in a sabre grind, too).
 
Last edited:
Yeah, a shorter height, with the 3/16" spine would be more of a wedge shaped. The geometry is as important as the spine thickness.
Everyone has a different idea of EDC, folder, fixed, concealed, job duties, company policy, and the tasks for the knife must be considered.
In general, thinner blades have been used in pocket knives. I have a SOG Tomcat, it's a 1/4" stock used in a folder. I've never needed it to be that thick, it's too short to chop anything, too heavy for pocket EDC. A 1/4" thick spine on a blade 4" or longer is more common.
 
My Demko is .200 and that is perfect for my needs in a folder with a 3-5" blade.
 
For an EDC blade, you probably don't need a lot of thickness for heavy duty tasks. If you do, you might want to consider carrying around a fixed blade. 3mm seems like plenty of thickness for an EDC folder.
 
CutleryMaster62 said:
Which blade thicknesses are best for an EDC blade?
Click to expand...

We have experimented with about every thickness from .250 to .100. The thicker the blade, the taller it needs to be. To get an edge you loose quite a bit of metal. If you take two blades, one at 3/16 and another at 1/8 and grind on a 10" wheel, then sharpen, then weigh there is very little difference in weight. You have remove a lot of metal, or you end up with a hatchet, not a knife. Some folks like a thick blade, but there are compromises. The thinner blade will cut better through paper, boxes, cord, rope, EDC uses.

Draw a blade in cross section, and then see how much needs to come off.

I carry a 1/8" thick folder. Anything thicker, I use a fixed blade or an axe.



 
My Old Timer's blades start out at .10" and taper from there. It's worked well for cleaning trout, breaking down cardboard boxes, sharpening pencils, carvin' small pieces, most of the light duty work that a lot people use a knife for on a day to day basis. My dad used his to gut deer, although he did break a blade splitting that bone between the hind legs once. I'd recommend a good multi-blade folder with blades no thicker than .10".
 
For EDC 9/10 times I end up using a smaller, thinner blade like an Opinel. For EDC I think anything up to 1/8" thick should do for most tasks.
 
For my large edc folders I like a blade thickness of around .157" (5/32 0r 4mm). Some larger folders come with a .125" blade (1/8" or 3mm), which is ideal as a slicer and also for hard work. The thick blade, for me at least, is aesthetic.
 
I do everything with an edc you can do as far as cutting goes from clean my finger nails to skin and bone bull elk in a day and i prefer about a .100 blade on everything or alot of distal taper like on a spyderco millitary .
 
i EDC both a SAK, and a one handed folder, lately the Superleaf(i think 4mm) and i dont think id want much thicker unless i was going to pry stuff with it, then i think blade shape and steel would also play a part.
 
For food prep a thin blade is ideal, just like regular kitchen knives. For cutting boxes a thin blade is also ideal because it suffers less friction, just like, uh, box cutters. I often carry Kershaw Skyline (about 2mm thick) and it works nicely for food and the occasional cardboard boxes.
 
It is your personal preference.
I carry two blades,one thin for fruit and ""light"EDC jobs and another one slightly "thicker" for "harder" EDC tasks.
Anything in the "outdoor" a fixed blade.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top