Precision, mill, or Blanchard ground steel

[Mimic Knife & Tool]

I’m about to choose some steel to buy and am wondering what the difference is between precision, mill, and Blanchard ground steel is? Precision seems straightforward, and the other options just seem like they may be rougher and with more variation in thicknesses? What do you guys buy?

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Thescrawnylumberjack]

Precision is usually something like .001 over 12 inches it’s the flattest stock you can get it usually has a good surface finish,

Blanchard ground Is usually less precise than precision but should be fine for knife making unless you’re doing folders.

Mill is basically raw from the mill and usually you have do a few min of grinding to get everything looking clean.

There’s also wide belt ground which takes off the mill scale but isn’t the most accurate for thickness.

Personally I would see what the upcharge is and then determine if it’s worth it. I would rarely spend the extra $$ on any grinding. Now that I have a surface grinder I see no reason to not by unground stock.

 

[Mimic Knife & Tool]

Precision is usually something like .001 over 12 inches it’s the flattest stock you can get it usually has a good surface finish,

Blanchard ground Is usually less precise than precision but should be fine for knife making unless you’re doing folders.

Mill is basically raw from the mill and usually you have do a few min of grinding to get everything looking clean.

There’s also wide belt ground which takes off the mill scale but isn’t the most accurate for thickness.

Personally I would see what the upcharge is and then determine if it’s worth it. I would rarely spend the extra $$ on any grinding. Now that I have a surface grinder I see no reason to not by unground stock.

right on thanks

 

[Forrest Taylor]

Precision ground - no surface prep, nice finish just profile and grind bevels.
Blanchard - rough ground with deep sanding lines, you'll have to spend time and belts making it flat before or after you bevel.
Mill, roughest, same as above with time and belts.
Personally, I would rather pay extra for precision than spend time going through the grits to make it flat with a nice finish.
If you have a surface grounding attachment it would be way easier.
Left to right, precision, Blanchard, mill.

 

[Alpha Knife Supply]

TLDR - Ignore marketing terms and focus on tolerances. If tolerances are not called out, they are bad.

There is no standard within the knife community for defining how steel is made flat. Some names for steel finishes are:
• Belt ground
• Blanchard ground
• Cold rolled
• Flat ground
• Hot rolled
• Mill finish
• Precision ground
• Surface ground
• Time Saver

Some companies use the terms above to intentionally distract from tolerances. If you are looking for flat steel, beware of any process that does not define the tolerances.

None of the terms above define the surface finish, surface flatness and parallelism of both sides of the sheet. Precision and flatness are not the same.

A ground surface finish is determined by the size of the grit of the abrasive, not the machine doing the grinding. In other words, grinding with large grit wheel on a surface grinder is not as smooth as a fine stone on a Blanchard grinder.

A surface can be flat, but not parallel. Surfaces can be parallel and not flat.

Cold rolling can be more precise than grinding. The quality of both processes is determined by the machines and operators.

Chuck