Recommendation? Kitchen stainless steel for a beginner

B

Bill Ekhardt

Joined
Jul 9, 2020
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3
I am a beginner hobbyist knife maker. Since I started a year ago I've made about 12 knives. My aspiration is to learn to make kitchen knife sets for each of my 4 kids for posterity. I have made a few 1084 chef's knives as I have been learning. I've been doing stock removal on my 2x72 with steel from Aldo.

I would like to learn to make stainless steel because I don't want to give the kids the burden of worrying that they would rust an heirloom. I fear I wouldn't be patient enough for the three week turn-arounds to send out for heat treating, but I am open to your counsel. I am willing to buy a kiln and quench plates and learn to heat treat. I have tried to learn what I can from forums. I bought Larin Thomas's Knife Engineering book and am willing to learn more about the metallurgy. This is a hobby, but I enjoy it and I'm willing to let it be an expensive hobby.

Given that, I would appreciate any advice on which stainless I should learn to use to get to my 4 kitchen knife set goal for my kids.

Thanks for your time.
 
AEB-L. It stainless, it takes a fantastic edge, it's easy to grind and finish, and it's quite inexpensive. The only downside in my eyes is that it has a tendency to warp, but that's correctable.
 
AEB-L = 13C26
Add a tad of Nitrogen and it is 14C28N
Add a tiny amount of Vanadium ( grain refinement) and it is Nitro-V

Chart borrowed from Larrin:
Nitro-V-composition-table2.jpg


All good steels if the HT is done right.
 
I really like 14C28N, but it's so darn hard to get here in USA, and expensive if you do find it. I've moved to AEB-L for 99% of my SS knife making.

You'll need a good oven heated to 1925 to 1975F depending on room temp or dry ice (or LN) HT'ing. Then a decent tempering oven - a cheap PID controlled toaster oven works good. Not required but a Rockwell testing equip is nice to have. I'm making the "assumption" you have the 2X72 grinder, drill press, etc tools? If so and the only extra you need is the equip for HT'ing SS, then you're "only" talking about an extra $2K to $3K in cost for the extra equip.

While that is a LOT of money, it's cheaper than bass fishing, or golf, or hanging around in bars. The nice thing about the tools you buy for knifemaking they will hold their value nicely if you decided to sell a few yr down the road, while bass boats tend to drop in value, just like motorcycles.
 
Niolox is another commonly used stainless steel. It's easy to sharpen and holds its edge well cutting soft foods and meats.
 
Ken H> said:
Then a decent tempering oven - a cheap PID controlled toaster oven works good.
Click to expand...

Or check and maybe upgrade the household oven.
I was tempering in mine but temps were swinging depressingly sometimes 25 celcius over set temp and wife was also complaining, about poor meringue results. So win-win I thought and picked up a new one. Strike. If set at 150 celcius it goes to 151 and stays there. If set to 175 it goes to 176 and stays there. No need for PID toaster and you can use that shop space for something else instead. And enjoy great meringue too.
nPJfXy0.jpg

NALiUoF.jpg
 
This is really helpful, everyone, thank you. I’ve been looking at running 220 to my garage and getting an Evenheat. I do have drillpress and grinder. I didn’t know about the PID tempering oven. I got a little cheap toaster oven. I will have to look Into that.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Or, send the blade once profiled to JT and have it done with all those things for about $10.
Click to expand...
What are turn around times like? Clearly it would be cheaper for me to send out for my hobby making volume than buying equipment. I just don’t know if I could handle the delay in my workflow.

I fully admit, it’s all irrational, but it’s a hobby right? I do it because it brings me joy and the fruit of my hobby has lasting meaning for me and others. If other hobbyists have a workflow with sending out that brings them joy I’d be interested in hearing.
 
The turn around time varies of course due to his workload. But, I can say this about my own experience with JT and his work.
He does fantastic, top quality and honest work.
Until such time that I own my own equipment, and learn enough to do it as well (if ever), he will be getting my business!
Nothing like me coming up with a design I like, send a drawing, he does his magic and boom, I get the blanks cut out, heat treated, tempered to my specs, cryo'd, surface ground and sent to my door pretty fast considering all that.
Yes, there is a wait, but then when I get my blanks I can flow from there to my hearts content.
Would not hurt to give him a try...

Scott
 
Yep on JT! I have 18 AEB_L knives with him right now and 2 Damasteel. The AEB-L are all kitchen knives or leather working round knives.

How ya fix the work flow is send some off. Then while they are gone ya make more and send them off and when ya get the first ones back ya finish those but before ya get the second batch back, ya profile more and send them off. Always make sure ya send more than you are finishing off. With AEB-L and profiling it before ht and grinding it post ht this is easy. Soon you'll have a surplus of heat treated blades. This has worked for me and while our numbers are probably a little different it can work for you too. Certainly there will be a little down time while waiting for the first batch. Work on other knives of the steels you are currently working on while waiting....or go fishing maybe.
 
Dave gave you the answer, work in batches. That way you always have something to do while waiting for the next group to come back. It also means you can vary what you are working on at the time. If you have one of those days that grinding bevels is just not working, simply switch to profiling new blades or perhaps working on handles.
 
Any thoughts on making them in Vanax or LC200N? Those two steels basically can’t rust and would make nice kitchen knives. Much much more expensive than AEBL but Bill doesn’t seem to mind spending extra money. And they will be much more likely to last forever, even if his kids don’t take care of them. And I would definitely send them off for heat treat. I used JT for my last batch of 21 knives and was very happy with service. Lots of variables to heat treating yourself. And without an accurate hardness tester you would be using other people’s recipes and hoping yours comes out right.
 
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