I bought a few blanks (12"x1.5"x.125") the other day to make a knives just to find out I run out of material super quick when drawing out the blade. What would a good size blank should I start with? Also any ideas what I should use these blanks for?

Well not knowing what sized blade you are trying to make means any answer is meaningless!

Use the blanks for smaller blades.

fair enough. (12" = x, 1.5" =y, .125" = z) I was intending to make the Y the same distance, X was going to drop to 4" or so, and Z becomes to thin while I'm forming the blade. beyond those statements I'm not sure what sizes your still looking for.

Basically 12"x1.5"x.125" is given as a start but you don't tell us if you are trying to make a 3"x1.5"x .125"  or if you want to make a 16"x2"x.125". Or some other size.

In general if I plan to forge a blade I start at least .25" thick allowing me some "meat" for distal tapering and beveling the blade.  The length is dependent on how much tapering I plan to do and that is generally based on experience.  Back in the old Neo Tribal Metalsmiths days the goal was to have 10% or *under* stock removal done after forging.

.125" stock would be excellent stock removal stock to practice your grinding or filing skills to make stock removal blades and practice your heat treating too.

Personally I'd just do stock removal with that size stock.  You just don't have enough excess thickness to move the metal around much and you will lose some material due to scale and grinding out errant hammer marks.  I like at least 1/4" thick stock to start with.  Others may have their own preferences.

Looks like TP already beat me to it.

Nope, "dogpiling" shows that more than one person thinks similarly and thus increases the likelihood that an answer is valid.

For fun, you can fold it a few times and forge weld it into thicker stock!

Thanks for the Suggestions I'll make sure my next purchase will be atleast 1/4". I'm not super sure my forge can do forge welding. It max's out at around 1650.

 

Deg F or Deg C or Deg K?  Deg C or K you could weld in it; Deg F   is cold.

degree F if it was the other 2, they would be liquid

I don't know if you know this but you should be able to turn your burner DOWN; it doesn't have to run at max temp. (And not all steels melt at 2500 degF.)

Since I run it 20psi (my torches limit) which is only hitting 1650 at best...wouldn't lowering the pressure gauge lower the heat aswell?

What exactly are you using for the burner and the regulator?  When you say torch---do you mean burner and why is it limited to 20psi?

On 10/12/2021 at 11:45 AM, ThomasPowers said:

"dogpiling"

I learned auto mechanics that way. Describe a problem to 10 people and take the consensus. I can come up with a reasonable rate of success now if i ask 3. Progress.

It's one of the ways to judge information about a subject you know little about. Unfortunately on the internet "likes" have little to do with accuracy!  Discussions help, especially if you can get experienced folks discussing and not "one book wonders".