Which Steel

dmackey

Active Member
I'll be finishing my grinder build here shortly. I was wondering what would be the best steel for a newbie to start out with for building his first knives. I plan on sending the blades to Pete's heat treating to have them heat treated.

Thanks
David
 
If you're going to do stock removal and send them out for H/T then it really doesn't matter. Peters will do an excellent job on whatever you send them. However, since you are a newbie I suggest that you stay away from the high Vanadium steels until your grinding skills improve.
Having said all that, you can't go wrong with 1084 for a carbon steel and AEB-L for a stainless. Both are cheap, easy to grind, and make excellent knives when ground and H/T'd properly.
Good luck, have fun, & be sure to post some pics.
 
Dave,
Not sure the type of knives you intend to make, what you plan to do with the knife will define the best steel for the particular knife. If your doing kitchen knives AEB-L is great but I like CPM-V3 for big choppers. For my folders I use CPM-154. However, if your just getting started I would recommend a carbon steel and doing your own heat treat. I started with 1075 and 1080. There is a learning curve and your first blades will be functional but most likely will not be a work of art. The more you grind in a short period of time the faster you will improve. For the cost of some high end steels you can get 10 feet of carbon steel and build your self a 2 brick forge and use a pan of peanut oil and your oven for heat treat. I love using Pete's for my CPM-154 but to keep cost down I always ship a batch of 10 blades. When I was starting the couple week turn around time would have driven me crazy, I wanted to grind and test my work right away. For me when I messed up a grind I always tried to fix it but sometimes it's beyond hope. When I have $1 in material I don't feel so bad about adding to my scrap pile, if it was a more expensive material I might have pushed it and let a bad knife leave the shop.

Hope this helps,
 
Thanks Alan
My plan is to make hunting knives and Camp knives for the most part. A couple buddies have asked for a tactical knife but I told them it might be a little ways down the road..
When I do feel that I've produced a knife worth selling it will go out under the name of
DEM knives

Thanks again
David E. Mackey
 
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