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Advice on how to start making knives: choosing the steel, heat treatment and accessories 07 June 2019

Advice on how to start making knives: choosing the steel, heat treatment and accessories

Carbon or stainless steel, how do I choose?

Other than considerations of food compatibility notions , the choice between the two families will be answered by a a technical question when you come to making your first knife.

Are your steels ready to use? Do they need to be heat treated?

All of our carbon and stainless steels are delivered annealed. This means that after undergoing the various rolling operations, the steel undergoes a final heat treatment process to make its structure more uniform and relieve the stress. This also lowers the hardness so that it is easier for you to work the metal - cutting, drilling grinding and polishing.

Once your blade has been shaped, you will need to carry out the various quenching and tempering operations to obtain the required mechanical properties. For the heat treatment, we recommend that you use Thermic TO 10R, a slightly accelerated oil that is very well suited to quenching stainless steels and steels for knives.

Is it easier to work with stainless or carbon steel?

Depending on the composition of the steels, they may be more or less difficult to work with. Certain grades have higher wear resistance and require more effort to be polished and sharpened for example. However when working by stock removal, carbon steel and stainless steel for making knives are as easy to shape as each other. The main difference lies in their heat treatment. For stainless steel, the austenitisation temperature is much higher (on average 1050°C compared to 800°C for carbon steel) and it may have to be kept at this temperature for over 30 minutes. Consequently if stainless steel is to be worked in good conditions, an annealing furnace is required.

When starting to make knives, you don’t always have the equipment needed or the extra cash to buy it. So if you don’t have a furnace, it would be better to start out with carbon steels.

Which carbon steel should I choose to make a knife blade?

XC75 - 1075 – the one most commonly used by beginners for its excellent value for money.

80CrV2 - L2 – low alloy content, this steel has very good properties to resist shocks, bending…

90MCV8 - O2 – thanks to its alloys it had better mechanical properties than the XC75 (cutting resistance, aptitude to bending…)

XC100 - 1095 – this grade is similar to XC75 but its higher carbon content means it provides a harder blade and is therefore more wear resistant

C130 et 135Cr3 - W2 : is a steel with a very high carbon content, which allows a very sharp edge and very attractive quench lines (hamon)

If you want to make folding knives, XC45 allows you to keep the hardness level down so that the blade can bend better, and it is therefore recommended for making the spring parts. Available in 3mm. If you want to make springs in a different thickness (2.5 or 4 for example), you can use the XC75 and increase your annealing temperature to 280/300°C to lower the hardness and obtain better flexibility.

You can find all of the properties and compositions of the steels in our downloadable technical data sheets on the pages of all the products concerned. You can especially find full information on how to quench the steel for your knife blades.

What equipment and accessories do I need to make the handle?

We recommend X6Cr17 for the scales, also known as 430 or 1.4016. This is a ferritic (unhardened) stainless steel that is only used in knife making for decorative parts (covers plates, bolsters, dummy parts…) It is available in 1.2 /1.5 and 4mm. We also have brass or nickel silver that are used for the same purposes.

We also have different types of rivets. Our team recommends rivets in X6Cr17 stainless steel that are annealed and are therefore easy to work. They are available in Ø2 ;2.2 and 2.4mm. To hold these rivets, you can also use rosette covers, made of brass or stainless steel (also in X6Cr17) available in different sizes.

By choosing the same grade of steel for the different parts of the assembly, you will obtain a uniform colour for the entire handle of your knife and a better quality finish.

If you prefer using attachment screws rather than rivets, we can also offer you scales in hardened stainless steel (Z30 at 55Hrc) with an M3 thread and in different diameters.

For making handles, please visit our  section on plates.

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