What would you do with a big, thick hunk of 1084?

S

Sprayman

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Nov 15, 2014
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Hi Guys:

I accidentally ordered the wrong thickness of 1084. I now have a bar of .200 and don't want to send it back, so I'm trying to decide what type of knife would be good to make with steel that's almost 1/4 inch thick. Any ideas? Have any of you made knives with such thick stock?:confused:

Thanks,

Sprayman
 
Cut it into smaller bits and forge it out into knives...
 
I have a mis-ordered bar of 440C that's .30. I use it when I need something heavy to compress things, it's going to become my new platen when the mill gets un-buried. There are lots of bowies and such made with spines like that, good chance to learn tang tapering if you haven't yet.
 
pwheeler said:
I have a mis-ordered bar of 440C that's .30. I use it when I need something heavy to compress things, it's going to become my new platen when the mill gets un-buried. There are lots of bowies and such made with spines like that, good chance to learn tang tapering if you haven't yet.
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I'm still working on my first hidden tang knife, and I must admit that the tang isn't tapered too well. It will be easy to fix, I think, but perhaps some of this 1084 would be good for practicing on, like you suggest. Thanks!
 
I doesn't matter if it is tapered well. That's why you hide it. :D
 
I use to use .2" 1084 for bolsters. Until I learned how quickly high carbon can discolor. Ended up scoring a crap load of 316 1/4" stainless from my brother
 
How wide is it?

If it's wide there's plenty of things you can do with it. If it's only an inch wide or so you could do some kiridashis. That way the bevels could be facing more lengthwise on the stock and be elongated for a more acute bevel.
 
A bowie if it is wide enough, and a dagger if it is narrower. Thicker stock lends itself to a "Besh Wedge" grind, too.
 
JG Custom Metal Works said:
How wide is it?

If it's wide there's plenty of things you can do with it. If it's only an inch wide or so you could do some kiridashis. That way the bevels could be facing more lengthwise on the stock and be elongated for a more acute bevel.
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It's 4 inches wide, so there's plenty of room to play with. Kiridashis are new to me. I'm looking at pics of them now and I like the design. Apparently they're a good utility knife with a pretty simple design. Maybe that's a good choice for me right now since I'm still quite the novice. Thanks for the advice!
 
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
A bowie if it is wide enough, and a dagger if it is narrower. Thicker stock lends itself to a "Besh Wedge" grind, too.
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It's definitely wide enough for a Bowie. I'm still pretty new at this (I've only completed 3 knives), so a Besh Wedge is probably beyond my grinding capabilities right now. Is .200 too thick for a basic bushcraft?
 
Sprayman said:
It's 4 inches wide, so there's plenty of room to play with. Kiridashis are new to me. I'm looking at pics of them now and I like the design. Apparently they're a good utility knife with a pretty simple design. Maybe that's a good choice for me right now since I'm still quite the novice. Thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...

My mentioning the kiridashis was in case the stock you had wasn't wider than 1in. Disregard.
 
With 4" wide by .200" sheet, I would also consider a set of cleavers . Nest the handles for max steel use from the strip.
 
When you mark the steel for cutting, mark one cleaver with the handle at the top as normal. Draw the next cleaver upside down with the handle below the first drawing. This is called "nesting" the handles. It saves 4-5" of steel.
 
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