Stock removal steel

[beardking]

Alright, I'm looking into making my first knife in the not too distant future (I hope). I plan on doing my first knife using the stock removal method because I don't want to go through the pain and effort of building a forge, etc just yet.

So, what I need to know (or for this question it's what I need to know), is what kind of steel is most popular for this method. I'd like to make it from stainless if possible since a rusty knife just doesn't look that great Is this a fairly acceptable metal to start with?

Thanks in advance and hopefully I won't annoy too many people with the plethora of questions that I know will be coming in the future.

 

[Mike Hull]

Sure, a great many knifemakers use stainless for all their knives. The only thing is, they require more care in heat treat than regular tool steels, so you can't just get it cherry red and quench it in the olive oil or whatever you might use. The temps required are much higher and the knife has to be held at those high temps for a certain amount of time.
The best bet is to send it to someone that specializes in HT'in SSteels and have them do it.
Professional heat treaters will use a sub zero quench as part of the HT and you get a much better knife from the use of that, IMO.

Good luck.

Edited to add: For steels, 440C, ATS 34, CPM 154CM are all popular steels in the stainless catagory. Of those three, I prefer 440C. Easy to work, been around for a long time so no surprises, is somewhat tougher than the other two and is less expensive than most. It's also usually available in more sizes than many other steels.