Need a little help from the makers out there

[brewcitymike]

I'm not sure if this is even where I should post this but it seemed to make sense. I recently reached out to JK about having a knife made but when he saw it was a scandi grind he passed stating he wasn't happy with his scandi grinds. So I'm looking for a make who can do a good true scandi and who can make a knife of my design, with a 5-5.5" blade with micarta handles for somewhere between $140-185. The thickness will be either 3/16" or maybe 5/32", solid SS pins, some jimping and a lanyard hole. The OAL will be just around 9-1/2" and I am hoping to use 01 or A2 but am also open to L6 or S7 depending on what the price will be for each steel because price is playing a huge factor in my decisions. So if you are a maker or if you know of a maker who does a good scandi for a good price please let me know and makers please include pics of past work so I can get a feel for your style. Hope somebody can help me. Thanks

 

[t_davis925]

You'll want to post this in the "service's wanted" section of the forum, you might find more responses there.

Anyways, to my knowledge scandi grinds are oriented towards woodworking, which means edge retention is the absolute priority. L6 and S7 are known for nickel content and incredible shock resistance respectively, and neither has the degree of wear resistance you'll probably want in your knife. A2 is good, and you can look at O1 as having a little more toughness and a little less wear resistance than A2, so either option would be fine in all likelihood. What I would recommend, without venturing into PM "super steels" is D2, which has the most wear resistance of any carbon steel I know of, with 12% CR for corrosion resistance to boot.

Also, I believe 3/16" is quite thick for a traditional scandi grind, though I'm sure it would work. Might lose a little control when working with wood as opposed to, say, a 1/8" thickness.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I'm not sure if this is even where I should post this but it seemed to make sense. I recently reached out to JK about having a knife made but when he saw it was a scandi grind he passed stating he wasn't happy with his scandi grinds. So I'm looking for a make who can do a good true scandi and who can make a knife of my design, with a 5-5.5" blade with micarta handles for somewhere between $140-185. The thickness will be either 3/16" or maybe 5/32", solid SS pins, some jimping and a lanyard hole. The OAL will be just around 9-1/2" and I am hoping to use 01 or A2 but am also open to L6 or S7 depending on what the price will be for each steel because price is playing a huge factor in my decisions. So if you are a maker or if you know of a maker who does a good scandi for a good price please let me know and makers please include pics of past work so I can get a feel for your style. Hope somebody can help me. Thanks

S7 at 58-59 Rc holds a great edge, I think it is under rated in that aspect. I would compare it to O1 at the same hardness. (actually better but I need to do a lot more testing between the 2 to make a decision) I know O1, A2 or S7 would all be great choices, I have no experience with L6.

Chisel grinds work very well on bushcraft knives, google some reviews.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Moved to Services Wanted.