Stock Thickness?

So I've decided on my first two (yes, two) projects once I get up and running.

I'm looking at a skinner for myself, using dancom's DS1 pattern (his website brought me here. Shameless plug for him!) and a paring knife for my g/f since she asked me so nicely. I'll figure out that pattern sooner as opposed to later. I'll have to pay more attention to how she does the prep work when she cooks.

The skinner is going to be 1084 (maybe 1095, since I'll be sending it off for heat work) and I might try 440C for the paring knife, unless it's advised that I don't.

Scales are most likely going to be a homebrewed micarta using either denim or cordura (I have a bunch of both kicking around) with either chicago screws or SS pins to keep the scales on.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what thickness of stock I should get. I'm leaning towards 3/16" for the skinner, and 1/8" for the paring knife. Should I go thicker for a better margin of error, or am I on the right track here?

 

I am still getting a feel for everything myself so I would not pressume to know what is best, but 1/8th inch seems to be very nice to work with so far...

 

Hi,

I keep a some stock of 1/16", 3/32" and 1/8" with the odd piece of 5/32". I hate grinding some 5/32" down to 3/32" to fit the purpose. 3/16" is pretty beefy, but then you may want that or even 1/4" for the style that you are making. Personally I'd go with 3/32" for the paring knife, but that entirely depends on the maker. I have about $100 worth of powdered steel in a bucket under my grinder. LOL

Good luck!

Keep us posted.

Dan

 

After doing some measuring of some knives I have here at home, I realized I'm going way too thick (I think.) A couple of the old beater paring knives I have in the kitchen are really thin, like in the ball park of 1/16 to 3/32 inch at the spine. My EDC folder measures up at around 5/32", while the fixed blade I got as a teenager (it looks more like a boning knife than anything) is around 3/16"

I'm thinking a slightly thinner blade for a skinner would be beneficial, but I could probably get away with a thicker blade because the knife is going to be really big to fit in my massive paws.

Good news is I still have a few months to think about it all before I actually get to work on it. I'm not going to work on this inside my apartment, less because of noise and more because I don't want the g/f's cats to get into the filings and track them all over the place or worse. I can already tell you having a cat hop up on the counter top I set up my reloading stuff on can play havoc with the scale. Once the snow is gone and it's warm outside, I can set up out there, until g/f and I find a new place with a basement or garage.

 

Good advice.

 

from first hand experience 1/8" thick to 1/16" taper is loads of fun. lots of frustration sand measure sand measure etc. thought it would never end and with less than a dozen knives under my belt I would not recommend anything that thin as a first or tenth project.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I plan on staying up late on my next weeknight off (I work in a bar, so I'm typically up all night and asleep all day, at least until I can find some daytime work and go back to working weekends only in the bar) so I can phone around for some pricing on material. I already know CKS' pricing, but I'm planning on finding out what Metal Supermarkets, Maple Leaf and maybe even General have to offer, since they're all nice and local to me, and within 20 minutes drive in city traffic.

 

Metal Supermarkets (Edmonton South) has O1 in 36" bars.

 

Have you looked at knifemaker.ca? I have been ordering stuff from them. Maybe not as big of a selection as the bigger US companies, but they are Alberta peeps, stuff comes fast and the pricing is all in Canadian dollars. Our exchange rate sucks with US ordering!

 

I think Grizz referenced them as CKS in his post. I think the Christmas rush just about cleaned them out, but they got a pile of new steel in at year end. All stocked up now.

 

Looking at 1084 to start off with, but O1 might happen later.

Yeah. That's CKS (Canadian Knifemaker Supply)

 

1084 is cheap as chips @ $0.77 or $1 per inch. For me, living in the boonies, a drive into Edmonton cost me about as much as the postage.

 

Well then, allow me to offer my delivery services. My rates are very cheap.

 

General doesn't have much, if any blase steel. I asked about O1 and all I got was a blank stare in response, Maple leaf is likely the same.

The quote I have from Metal Supermarket South is:
1/8" x 2" x 36 " = 69.50
1/4" x 2" x 36" = 107.39
1/4" x 4" x 36" = 188.48

 

Is that for O1, @jonliss?

The 1/8" stock works out to about $1.93/inch at that price.

 

Hey, they call themselves the "The Convenience Stores for Metal".

 

That was for O1