Chef knife help

[Justin schmidt]

Hey everyone have only posted a few times here. But wanna be a more contributing member. 

So I'm really wanting to start forging chef knives. I've forged a handful of other blades and I'm still very much a newb. 

Question is what size stock should I use for say an 8in chef that's. 09 thick at the spine?  I'm thinking either 1/4x1 or 1/4x1.25? 

I've used strictly 80crv2 up to this point but want to try some w2. 

Any help is appreciated gents!

[Lou L]

I think it depends on your situation.  Can you hammer bevels without leaving deep hammer marks?  Do you have a good grinder?  How much of a belly do you want on the knife?  

If you trust your forging skills go with the thinner material and save cash.  I think most people would get the thicker stock and rely on the old “forge thick, grind thin” montra.  Since you aren’t an experienced knife maker that’s probably a safe bet.  It’s what I would do.  Still, take your time and forge it carefully like it is ultra thin and you have no room for tolerances, that way you will be able to use thin stock later on and save time.  I em learned the hard way that saving time during the forging costs twice as much time in the finishing.

Have fun,

Lou

[Steve Sells]

4 hours ago, Justin schmidt said:

Question is what size stock should I use for say an 8in chef that's. 09 thick at the spine?  I'm thinking either 1/4x1 or 1/4x1.25? 

 

we have members from over 150 countries and not all use the same measuring systems, so.... its a good idea to type in complete sentences.

[Justin schmidt]

Thanks Lou, makes a bit more sense. I have a 2x72 so grinding isn't a problem at all.  

Steve,  not sure how that's not a complete sentence. Since I cant edit the post this is what I'm asking.  

Is 6mm thick x25mm wide stock ok to use for a 203mm chef knife? Or should I use 6mm thick x 31mm wide ? I'll be forging it to shape.

[Steve Sells]

leaving off measurements makes the translators work extra hard and sometimes come up with weird results

[Latticino]

Size of stock needed also depends on the planned width of the blade and what type of tang you will use.  I used 6" of 1.5" x 1/4" to forge out an 8" x 2" chef knife with a full tang.  Had to stretch it pretty far for that, but it worked well.

Recommend you check out Nick Rossi's Youtube videos on  NESMforged:  https://www.youtube.com/user/NESMforged/videos  .  There are a ton of good videos there, but in particular I recommend the two Nick has on forging chef's knives.  

[Justin schmidt]

Yeah thtas about the size I'm going for. I actually watched those last night. Along with Matt Parkinson video. This is what I came up with. Top one was forged last night it's about 1.75in wide and 8in long. Just something about it seems "off" 

 

[Justin schmidt]

Well I finished the handle last night.  Man this thing is thinner than I wanted.  I think 1in wide is just to thin.  Live and learn right? 

 

[Latticino]

Looks OK for a small santoku, though handle look disproportionate to me.  You really have to work at forging quite thin to get the width needed, as well as a lot of work with the cross peen instead of forging length as with utility knives or hunters.  After forging the spine should be on the order of 1/8" thick, though you need to use some of Nick's tricks (wet forging, planishing passes, and surface flexing) to remove scale before normalizing so you don't loose too much in the grind.

[Justin schmidt]

Thanks. Yeah the handle is a little wider than I wanted but i can always grind it down. 

Yeah the cross pein is basically all I used for this. Thinking 1.25 will work out better. I actually found 2 pieces of .25x1.5in 80crv2 last night so I'm gonna try those and see how i like that width.