? On steel thickness

[Anthony Chaney]

I have my forge all tore apart and have a hankering to piddle. All my steel 1/4 1084. So, I was going to Fastenal and pick up a couple feet of 01. I've never make a knife with just a file, thought it might be fun and would allow me to tinker instead of twiddle'n my thumbs. I saw a little blade on another forum and would like to put my spin on it. Small skinner, three finger 2" blade. What do you guys think about starting with something A little thinner than 1/8? I'll be sending it out for HT. What's the thinest you would go with?

 

[Justin King]

A lot of large "tactical" style folders have blades around .095 thick. As long as the knife is used in keeping with it's size and limitations this is adequate for most users. You might consider a differential temper on the spine and tang to give it some additional toughness but there is no reason why you can't make a functional fixed blade from stock around this size.
It is really easy to make knives that are severely over-built, it might provide some insight to make a blade of relatively thin stock and note how it performs alongside thicker ones, You might be surprised.

 

[SBuzek]

3/32" would be about the smallest if your gonna file in the bevels before H/T.Leave the edge about .020.You could make the knife out of 1/16" and it would be a serious scalpel but you would need to grind after H/T.
Stan