Newbie: Need help deciding which steel to start with

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syvmn

Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
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A friend of mine is getting married in a year and I thought I would make him a knife for his wedding. He is a hunter, so a hunting knife is what I want to end up with. Problem is I have never made a knife, nor do I know a thing about the process or materials. All I know is that I need some steel and I'll go from there.

I see people talking about 0-1, 1084 and 1095. Those seem to be the most used. I have no tools at the moment but can pick stuff up along the way.

First things first, what type of steel, and where to get it?

Thanks for any help!
 
Start with 1084. No need to go to the trouble of O-1 or 1095 just yet. 1070/1080 would be a good choice too. Try Aldo Bruno on this forum, Kelly Cupples at elliscustomknifeworks.com, or Admiral Steel. Some guys on here have had problems with Admiral, but they've always come through for me.

Now, are you doing stock removal or are you forging?

And where are you from?
 
Do you plan to do the HT yourself? If so , 1084. If not, something air hardening.
 
That you guys so much for replying so quickly!

For now I am just planning on doing stock removal (I'm guessing that means grinding down the steel that I get). I Live around the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I think the 1084 is the way to go too from what I've read about the ease (or relative ease) of heat treating it.

Am I just supposed to message Aldo? What is the general cost for steel? Thanks again!
 
Holy cow I can't figure out how to do a search. I'm trying to figure out how to get a hold of Aldo Bruno but can't figure out what I'm doing...
 
I started with O1 that I got from Nick (NWA) here on BF. It's easy to work with, cheap, and easy to heat treat. Besides that, Nick is a stand-up guy who is an invaluably sourse of information. You won't find better customer service anywhere, he spent alot of time and effort helping me get my heat treating right.
 
I got 1/4" x 1.5" x 36" and it was about $6/ft. shipping included. This was a small order as well (from Aldo).
 
And that was from Aldo? I put a message on his "Visitor Messages" in his profile. Is there a better way to get ahold of him. I'm kinda antsy about this and would like to get some steel in hand asap
 
syvmn said:
Holy cow I can't figure out how to do a search. I'm trying to figure out how to get a hold of Aldo Bruno but can't figure out what I'm doing...
Click to expand...

To search the forums without having a membership, type the following setup into google:

your search query site:bladeforums.com

with the site:bladeforums.com, it will only show links that match your description from bladeforums.com.
 
5/32 is good too. if your going to be beveling this with a file, 3/16th can take quite awhile.
 
If you want to go cheap and readily available, some old files make good knives. Nicholsons are known to be good and I've heard Simmons work as well. Some are case hardened though and won't make a good knife.
 
Kostoglotov,

That would be fantastic to get started. I see that you're in Minneapolis too. I have no problem paying for the chunk, just shoot me an email and we can figure it out from there. syvmn@yahoo.com.

One more question, does anyone have suggestions for files? I'm pretty sure I have some laying around but a new set would probably be a good investment.

Thanks!

EDIT: Wow I just read Dustin's reply. I'll take a look today and see if I can find Nicholsons files. Would Menard's have something like that?
 
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