What grade and thickness stainless do you guys reccomend for my linerlocks?

[Keith Willis]

Wondering what grade and thickness of stainless do you guys suggest for making my linerlocks..I have always used Titanium
in .050 and .070 but am thinking of trying stainless.I am out of Titanium,and before I order any I may decide to go with the stainless.Thanks in advance for the help.

Besides weight,I was wondering if there are any other + or --'s when it comes to using one or the other


God bless

 

[Keith Willis]

Should this be posted somewhere else..Just wondering if it's in the wrong place
Thanks

God bless

 

[Keith Willis]

Wondering what grade and thickness of stainless do you guys suggest for making my linerlocks..I have always used Titanium
in .050 and .070 but am thinking of trying stainless.I am out of Titanium,and before I order any I may decide to go with the stainless.Thanks in advance for the help.

Besides weight,I was wondering if there are any other + or --'s when it comes to using one or the other


God bless

 

[bpeezer]

Probably should be moved to knifemaking section, not many of us here in "General" are experts

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

Drawbacks to using stainless are:
Weight
Possible rust
Having to heat treat your lock side or both sides so they finish uniformly
No anodizing
Magnetism

There are ABS guys using 15N20 for liners but they also tend to rust eventually.

 

[Keith Willis]

Thats the things I needed to hear....stick with what I know works...Titanium
Thanks Chuck

God bless

 

[Alpha Knife Supply]

410 stainless steel is easy to work, inexpensive and very tough when heat treated.

Chuck

 

[RevDevil]

Ideal thickness would be around 2mm I would guess.

 

[TriviaMonster]

If you want to go fancy, 154CM is great for liner locks.

But 410 and 420 are great also.

A price range of the finished knife would maybe help. Different prices dictate what people expect.

 

[spyderco lover]

I can tell you I've had a lot of liner locks, 420J2 when heat treated is a mighty tough lock. I'd say 1.75~2mm is perfect, any thicker and you have a really finicky game with balancing the strength with a proper lockbar cutout

 

[elementfe]

410 is easy to work, a very nice material to work with.
I've used from .032 on smaller knives to .050 on larger lockbacks and love it.
I personally won't use 300 series stainless. Some people do, but it's such a pain to drill and machine...
Mr. Gedraitis has some good points to consider- stainless has its own issues, as does Titanium.
There are lots and lots of great knives out there with stainless liners.