Sheet steel for a board/dough scraper?

Fascion · Dec 4, 2011

With Christmas around the corner, I wanted to do something a little special for my grandmother this year.
I always find it hard to buy for her, as she seemingly has everything and then some.
This year, a stroke of genius led me down a path that seems to have many Y's and frankly I'm a little lost.

One of the most invaluable tools in my kitchen is the cheapo board/dough scraper I picked up several years ago. Just a no-frills section of sheet steel. In hopes of one-upping such a bland, albeit extremely useful gift, I was looking to make one to gift her. Two, actually--gotta have one for myself, too! And here is where I've gotten hung up. Being the novice/aspiring knifemaker that I am, I don't yet have the experience with materials to know exactly what I need for this project. I've been eyeballing some 410 stainless on a certain unnamed Texas knifemaker supplier, which only has ~~0.40"~~ 0.040" in stock (sold out of ~~0.60"~~0.060".) I'm sure that would be plenty thick, given that the junker I picked up is practically a third of that... but I imagine it also comes annealed and this particular place, as far as I know, doesn't offer heat treat on oil-quenched steels.

Ideal, I guess, would be sheet steel (6" x 5" min) that wouldn't necessarily need to go in for heat treat, but that could stand up against the tasks needed for this kind of a tool (light work--e.g. cutting dough, picking up diced veggies to move from cutting board to cooking vessel, cleaning errant spices off a countertop, etc...) Something that wont bend, really. Pre-heat treated would be fine, I imagine; I'm willing to do a bit more work to avoid having to send it out for that.

Any recommendations as for where to begin?
Would this ~~0.40"~~0.040" thick 410 suffice without heat treat, or would that be iffy?

Tinbasher · Dec 4, 2011

Sounds like a job for Titanium @ .040 won't bend, tarnish or taint your food.

You can get 301 stainless in 1/4 1/2 and full hard but TI would work great.

Richard

SBuzek · Dec 4, 2011

Yes it will work.Over that size area it would be hard to bend by hand use.
Stan

Fascion · Dec 4, 2011

Err, thank you Tinbasher... just realized that I left out that very important 0.
The thickness on the 410 in question is 0.040", rather than 0.40" -- quite the difference!
Would that still be fine for an application such as this, even if left without a proper heat treat? (website doesn't say if it is, but I can't imagine otherwise.)

Not so sure I'm willing to jump right in on titanium at this stage, but I'll have to keep that in mind for the future if this goes as well as I hope.

mete · Dec 4, 2011

I'll bet mine and other commercially made ones are 301 stainless , . These are work hardened and that type is available ,probably 3/4 hard.One problem of the commercial ones is a poorly ground edge. These will scratch surfaces. Finely polish the edge including chamfering the corners and it will work fine. Set it into a nice handle like rosewood if she won't soak or put into washer, otherwise use a more durable composite.
BTW I got tired of ice scrapers for my vehicle breaking in a year !! So I made a scraper of that same material. As long as you polish the edges it will never scratch the glass !!

Fascion · Dec 4, 2011

So that's +2 for 301? Going to have to take a look at that, I suppose...

And yea, sadly woods are out of the question as I believe she dishwashes everything other than used Ziplocs.

hodgescl · Dec 4, 2011

matbe you could get the steel pre hardened and just temper the areas you need to cut? it would be more work on the edge surfece though...

mete · Dec 4, 2011

The stuff I bought is from Mcmaster.com and is Full Hard. This can be cut and drilled fairly easily. If you want to make one like my commercial one [one piece ] you'll have to form a handle by rolling the edge around a mandrel .I think you can do that with Full Hard if it's not too thick.