Newb Design models

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darkaether

Joined
Dec 23, 2006
Messages
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What would you guys recommend as an easily worked material for a design model? I'd like to use something about the same density as steel so I could get a rough idea of the weight and balance before working on an actual piece of steel.

Would mild steel work much easier than blade steel before heat treatment, or would you just go straight to your actual material?

eta: right now I'm more in the mode of just exploring ideas of what I'd like to make with minimal equipment like files, until I'm ready to actually make something or buy any equipment.
 
1084 was my favorite and still is. It's so easy to work with and very easy to heat treat at home with a little homemade forge. And it still makes for a great knife blade In my opinion.
 
Mild steel will work, I like to make a model from 1/8 micarta first, easy to work and you can glue your mistakes back on. The only issue with most mild steel is it need quite a bit of work to get the scale off so you have some nice steel to work with.

if you can find some flat ground mild steel that would be best
 
Go with wood and save your belts or elbow grease. You should get the general idea of the weight from similarly sized knives and working with wood will give you the same overall balance. When you think you have it right just go with 1084 for about the same price as the Home Depot stuff and you can even finish it out.

As an alternative to wood I believe some people work with acrylics but I haven't tried it.
 
Wood is probably your best bet. You could use Mild Steel, Aluminum, or Plastic, but you wont be saving much in time or materials.
 
Lets look at your plan:
You spend an hour making a design in mild steel. That piece of steel costs about $2. It looks good, so you make one in 1084....taking another hour. The 1084 costs maybe $3. I don't know about you, but my time is worth more than $1 an hour.

Just make the prototypes in 1084 and if it looks good, harden and finish the knife. If not, either grind it into a different shape, or chuck it in the scrap bin.
 
bladsmth said:
Lets look at your plan:
You spend an hour making a design in mild steel. That piece of steel costs about $2. It looks good, so you make one in 1084....taking another hour. The 1084 costs maybe $3. I don't know about you, but my time is worth more than $1 an hour.

Just make the prototypes in 1084 and if it looks good, harden and finish the knife. If not, either grind it into a different shape, or chuck it in the scrap bin.
Click to expand...

This is how I started
 
Cool. I am in Chesapeake. I didn't see any sizes of 1084 in stock. Would 52100 be substantially harder to work? I won't be heat treating myself any time soon anyway.

Are there any hammer - in type events around here?
 
Steel type won't particularly matter. The basic steels all grind about the same...more or less. 52100, 1095, O-1, 5160 are all good. For stainless steels, CPM-154 and CPM-S35VN are good choices. For lower cost, good old 440C is fine.

As far as availability of 1084, Aldo has had a big run on it, but I believe the other knife suppliers have some in stock. You might check out a few of them and see.

We don't have many hammer-ins in our local area, but come on over to my show tomorrow and we can chat about knives. I'll fill you in on the events within driving distance.
 
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