what thickness of steel to buy?

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bronyblacksmith

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Nov 6, 2012
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I am going to buy some 1084 from Aldo and wanted to know what thickness to buy.
I am forging with a charcoal forge and finishing with files and am going to make knives with blades 2.5 -5.5 inches do you think that 1/8 would be strong enough for hard use?
 
Every blade I forge starts as 1/4" stock. But to answer your question about hard use, 1/8" in that small a knife should be just fine.
 
1/8 will be fine imo. A lot of the knives that hit the market today are too thick to do us any good other than look cool. I mean, I love a thick quarter inch knife, but there are battle used swords that weren't even that thick. :p
 
As long as you HT and temper it well 1/8 can handle most tasks. I agree with the above guy about blades being too thick most of the time.
 
Since you are forging, I'd suggest 3/16. It will forge down nicely to 1/8 and give you a bit of wiggle room. It's always best to forge it thick and grind it thin. If you start with 1/8" then you won't have much room to fix your mistakes while grinding.
 
As mentioned I have found that 3/16 is a good thickness, 1/4 is what I have done alot out of. Whatever you do dont try 5/16x2" bar of L6. That is a royal pain in the ......

If you are wondering if 1/8" is good enough for a 5 inch blade, make a test one. HT it and temper then put it thru some paces. At the end do a distruction test, u may be suprised at how strong it ends up being.
 
I like 1X1/4" bar stock. It makes most any size hunter. After pulling down the bevel, 1.5" wide blades are about what seems to form naturally. There will still be plenty of "meat" to file smooth after shaping. 3/16" doesn't leave much to spare unless you start with a wider bar.

Once you get used to working flat stock, switch to round bars. 1/2" and 3/4" bars will quickly make a knife once you get used to forging.
 
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