Head Knife Blade Thickness?

[metallurgynerd]

I don't own a head knife but I'm thinking of making one myself. As a metallurgist with some knife making and woodworking experience I figure it can't be that difficult to make a superior knife for a reasonable cost. The biggest question for me is, how thick should the blade material be? If anyone out there with a head knife could take a quick measurement with a caliper and let me know how thick your blade is I'd really appreciate it. I'm guessing you don't want the blade so thin that it flexes or is flimsy, but not so thick that it binds up while pushing through heavier leathers.

Thanks in advance!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

.0625", and .090" this was measured at the thickest spot visible. Both blades have a full taper to the handle.

This will probably vary depending on the size, and manufacturer. These two are 4.5", and 5" wide.

If you are doing stock removal, O-1 would be easy to get, inexpensive, and will give a good edge. I used D-2 for die sets that I made because of its great wearing characteristics. I would think that most good steels like 5160, 52100, 1095, O-1, D-2 would make a good knife. If you forge one out the high carbon steels may be a better choice than an air hardening steel.

On a side note, do you have access to a spectrograph?

Edited December 29, 2010 by BIGGUNDOCTOR

[metallurgynerd]

.0625", and .090" this was measured at the thickest spot visible. Both blades have a full taper to the handle.

This will probably vary depending on the size, and manufacturer. These two are 4.5", and 5" wide.

If you are doing stock removal, O-1 would be easy to get, inexpensive, and will give a good edge. I used D-2 for die sets that I made because of its great wearing characteristics. I would think that most good steels like 5160, 52100, 1095, O-1, D-2 would make a good knife. If you forge one out the high carbon steels may be a better choice than an air hardening steel.

On a side note, do you have access to a spectrograph?

I have access to all kinds of metallurgical equipment including OES, XRF, a scanning electron microscope, inverted table microscopes, polishing equipment, etc.

[gtwister09]

metallurgynerd (???? name),

There was a discussion in another thread and I miked a number of hand saws, circular saw blades and a number of round, head and half knives. That should give you a great start. I miked them at the top most portion of the knives so that it would yield the thickest portion of the material to start with. Hope that helps.

Regards,

Ben

Post with Thicknesses

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The reason I was asking about the spectrograph was I have a bunch of different bar stock that is unidentified as for what specific alloy it is.

I had forgot about gtwister09's post.That will give you a good sampling for thicknesses.

[metallurgynerd]

metallurgynerd (???? name),

There was a discussion in another thread and I miked a number of hand saws, circular saw blades and a number of round, head and half knives. That should give you a great start. I miked them at the top most portion of the knives so that it would yield the thickest portion of the material to start with. Hope that helps.

Regards,

Ben

Post with Thicknesses

Thanks, that's just what I was looking for!

Eric.