Steel Recommendations for Tanto Style Blade

A

axeldoomeyer

Joined
Dec 31, 2005
Messages
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This will be my first knife, that I will make completely from scratch. I mostly affix handles on already made and HTed blades. I would like to try and make a tanto style blade and I have the design drawn on paper, and it looks good; however, I am little torn by which steel to use. The overall length is 10.5" and it is 1.25" tall. How thick should it be and what type of steel should I use? I plan on sending to TexasKnife for HTing. Any suggestions?
 
Hi,
I am not sure about TexasKnife (I am in Oz) but a lot of commercial heat treaters will only through-harden your work, meaning no hamon - but thats based on my very limited knowledge with commercial H/T'ers. You may need to do the heat-treat yourself if you are chasing a hamon.
If you want to clay coat the blade and get some activity going, 1075/1080 or 1084 is probably a good choice if you can find it, and a little more forgiving than 1095 when it comes to heat treat and quenching. I would go at least 3/16" or better yet 1/4" thick for your first tanto. This will be a thick blade, but will give you plenty of room to grind away (if you are into stock removal) and when you come to heat treat the blade, may be more forgiving to uneven grinding and may tend to warp a little less than a thinner blade if things aren't quite even.
Just some thoughts, hopefully the more experienced will chime in and help you out with some info which is a little more accurate.
Hope it works out for ya,
Steve.
 
I have ordered premade blades from TexasKnife in the past that are cryo tempered and the edge holding seems to be a lot better than without it. Like I said I have done everything except make the blade itself. I do plan on stock removal, it will be flatground.
 
Texasknife.com only heattreats air-hardening steels. 1095 is an oil-quenched steel. There are others that do that steel commercially....but I can't remember names right now....(sorry)

Do a search on "heat treat 1095" in this forum and you'll find it.


I have a tanto on my bench right now and it was made from 3/16" thick 1095.
 
For a first attempt,I would stay simple and not do any clay coating.Try O-1 or 1070/75/84 for the steel.Paul Bos does good HT,as will many on this forum.If possible try to find a maker near you and go to observe (learn) how the HT is done.There are a lot of Texas makers.
 
I am not sure that I want to take the plunge of HTing yet. I would prefer to send the blade out to someone to have it HTed.
 
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