Steel advice for my first knife

[Tracer-san]

Hi there gentlemen,

Following a story about a first knife on another forum made me kinda jealous, so I decided I want to make a knife myself (I've been toying with this idea forever thou)
Thing is I'm a city boy, and I have almost no tools, so imagine my surprise when a close friend told me he could make a 3D model of a design I provide him and have it CNCed at his place of work for a small fee.... YES!!!!

I already made the design in 2D, a neck knife since I figured out that was going to be the easier to start (maybe later I can add some scales to the handle, we'll see )

So I'm gonna be asking questions about this and that all the way untill I finish it, please bare with me.

The prototype is gonna be machined in a 10mm (2/5") thick hardened aluminum bar, no problem till that point, BUT I was wondering what kind of steel do you guys recomend me for the first real knife...

I'd say S30V or CM154, but then again, I don't know how hard are those and if the machine can deal with their original hardness, I don't know how much they cost, where to buy it and how to heat treat it later (among other things that I'm still not aware of :O)

So I'd appretiate (sp?) any leads on this steel matter and any other recommendation you think I might need.

Thanx a bunch!

NsB

 

[Epsilon]

Since the work is going to be done by another, I'd just opt for a steel you like over a steel to learn with first. Between your two choices, I'd go with S30V. It will be different than machining aluminum, obviously. More wear. Some machinists here may be able to give a better idea of what your friend can expect from that aspect of tooling. Anyhow, S30V is available from Crucible in a typical annealed hardness of approximately 255 BHN, that's about 26 HRC.

As for heat treating, send to those who treat the material often for the type of part. Its the safest best. So, send it to Paul Bos. Most everyone who has outside HT work done, trusts Paul Bos. Others here will likely provide some costs for HT to Paul. I do not know how much he charges, because I do my own HT.

Hope that is some useful info. The best of luck.

-Jason

 

[Tracer-san]

Originally posted by Epsilon
Since the work is going to be done by another, I'd just opt for a steel you like over a steel to learn with first.

Thanx for answering Jason

The work the CNC is going to do is just cutting the shape of the knife (I guess), kind of stock removal, when you draw your design on a piece of steel and then cut the remaining parts, so then I'd have to do some work myself, grinding it and polishing, that's why maybe there were some problems (for a first timer) with my desired steels that I was not aware of.

The data on hardness will sure help me, as I'll check if the machines can deal with that

Bye!


NsB