Tandy Stohlman Round/head knife steel

[Boriqua]

I have for many years wanted to try a round knife. I just didn't want to spend big money to experiment. However one of Tandy's Black Friday specials was the al Stohlman round knife for $20 and my wife braved the line and picked one up for me. So after working on a few projects with it I can certainly see why and how it is useful. It can easily replace 3-4 other tools I have and I don't have to get up to find them.

It isnt a great tool and I would have been a tiny bit disappointed at the regular price of $70. The bevel on the edge is all over the place and looks more like a faceted stone than a good cutting edge but I am used to getting tools and having to spend a few hours sharpening so not a huge deal. Handle is beautiful and while I still didnt get the bevels right I am happy with the edge. It glides through leather, even leather that I have that is cut resistant.

I am now a believer in the round knife and am happy to have one. Now the question is  .. does anyone know what this is made of? They say stainless on their site and its really soft. Bringing up a wire edge takes a few strokes on a stone. I am guessing 440A. If I strop it often it works great but it does dull pretty quickly.

Just curious if anyone has some inside info on the steel.

[alpha2]

1 hour ago, Boriqua said:

I have for many years wanted to try a round knife. I just didn't want to spend big money to experiment. However one of Tandy's Black Friday specials was the al Stohlman round knife for $20 and my wife braved the line and picked one up for me. So after working on a few projects with it I can certainly see why and how it is useful. It can easily replace 3-4 other tools I have and I don't have to get up to find them.

It isnt a great tool and I would have been a tiny bit disappointed at the regular price of $70. The bevel on the edge is all over the place and looks more like a faceted stone than a good cutting edge but I am used to getting tools and having to spend a few hours sharpening so not a huge deal. Handle is beautiful and while I still didnt get the bevels right I am happy with the edge. It glides through leather, even leather that I have that is cut resistant.

I am now a believer in the round knife and am happy to have one. Now the question is  .. does anyone know what this is made of? They say stainless on their site and its really soft. Bringing up a wire edge takes a few strokes on a stone. I am guessing 440A. If I strop it often it works great but it does dull pretty quickly.

Just curious if anyone has some inside info on the steel.

I picked up one at the Black Friday sale too! Couldn't pass up the price. I, also, have found that it is something that will replace a few other blades. Still working on the edge, but it's been an amazing addition to the tool collection. Now I can see that I need a larger one. I'm NOT surprise that happened. One tool ALWAYS leads to another...hence my purchase of a French skiver and size 0 edge beveler today. I got the beveler home, and realized that I also need a size 1...and 00. And a wider French skiver. Oh, my, I'm seeing a pattern here.

[Halitech]

I'm with you guys, I also picked one up on the weekend during the black Friday sale. I've been looking at it for a while but couldn't justify the 97.00 (Cdn) price tag so when I saw it for 27, I grabbed it. Haven't had a chance to actually use it yet but I'll be stropping it before I use it

[billybopp]

Some months ago I decided, like you, to see what all the fuss about round knives was.  I bought a really cheap one ($15-20) from ebay to give it a go and to learn more about them. So I bought the one pictured at the left below .. It is probably a food slicer blade cut and put into an old handle.  It worked pretty well once I learned how to sharpen it, and found that sharpening a curve like this has quite a learning curve so I'm glad that I could learn on cheap stuff first.  I liked it well enough to take the plunge for the other two antiques that you see below, a Gomph round knife and a CSO Newark head knife.  The antiques are just awesome, and seem to hold an edge well. 

What I found with these is that they are extremely versatile.  They don't replace other cutting tools that I use, but do just about every cutting task pretty well .. they are extremely handy that way!  It's also just very very sexy thinking about the history of these every time I pick them up.  How old are they really, who has used them and what did they make?  We'll probably never know, but it's just too cool and they are just beautiful.  One day, I want to add a W. Rose to the collection .. Just for history's sake since I live very near where they were originally made in Philadelphia.  It'd be cool to bring one back home.

They also led me to think about why these were so popular, and the best explanation that I can some up with is a matter of economy.  Modern mass produced tools cost a couple of hours to a day's pay, so buying a single-task tool is not such a big deal.  These, at $4-5 or so, would have been more like a week or two's pay.  For that money, they HAD to be long lasting, and versatile multi-taskers.  Even high end modern round knives such as LeatherWranglers or or Knipschield are comparably priced or less than these were in their day.

They won't replace my utility knife for straight cuts along a straight-edge, skiving knives especially for thin leather, rotary cutter for rolling cuts on thin leather, or going around curves with a clicker, but if needed they can and often do those jobs well.  The one thing that they do better than any other tool for me is free-hand long straight cuts. 

P.S.  The sheaths were each made using the knife that they hold.  I had to try them out thoroughly!  They also got progressively better as I figured out how to make them.  The "belt loops" are for future use when I have a proper workbench so that they can hang above it.

 

[Boriqua]

I would imagine too that those old tools were used by working dudes.Guys that spent a 10 hr day head down knocking out goods. I spend 6 hours a day at this but I dont have a boss hanging over me that is demanding a quota. I have a safety skiver a right hand grind skiver and left hand. Neither of which is any good at a deep skive say at a belt end of at the fold over at a buckle. I used a box cutter for most of my cuts and a ruler for long straight cuts.

I have done 4 holsters and finished up a guitar strap with the round knife and did all my perimeter cuts, skiving and long cuts. I dont have the space to have everything out on a bench so many of my tools are organized in drawers. So nice not having to take out each one when I needed it and just use the one tool on the bench. Were I REALLY working at a job it would sure help productivity if I could do a variety of tasks, strop and move on.

So far I am digging it!

I like those belt loop sheaths! I was going to make one like the one on the left but ... hmmmmmmm

[billybopp]

The sheaths were a fun project to design and make.  They are the thickest things that I have sewn to date, which presented its own challenges.  The beltloop, back, and strap are all one piece.  I made a mistake on the Gomph sheath and have the strap coming off the same side that the knife slides out from and it gets in the way a bit ... better to have the strap on the sewn shut side!  I may still cut the strap off and rivet a new one on going the other direction, but haven't decided yet.

 Another lesson learned from a straight knife sheath that I made previously was to put a thicker piece of leather between the back and welt to help offset the handle from the loop a bit.

 

[Studio-N]

for $20, the tandy knife was a good grab to resell it on ebay later.

[Rolandranch]

You'll never guess what I bought at Tandy for $20... 

I like it but it dulls SO fast. I have to sharpen it for every project and sometimes twice. I will be investing in a good head knife soon. Maybe a C.S. Osborne but not quite sure yet. A saddle making friend of mine had a custom head knife made for him and he let me try it out... I loved it so much but of coarse custom tools are a lot more expensive... so there's that.

[dirkba]

On 11/30/2016 at 8:20 PM, billybopp said:

So I bought the one pictured at the left below .. It is probably a food slicer blade cut and put into an old handle.  It worked pretty well once I learned how to sharpen it, and found that sharpening a curve like this has quite a learning curve so I'm glad that I could learn on cheap stuff first.

Hi billybopp,

The left hand blade was made from a saw blade - which has a hole for the shaft to go through. The maker probably used a DIY 4 1/2 inch circular saw blade to create that roundhead knife.

I did something similar and used an old saw blade - DO NOT use carbide tungsten tipped ones. Old saw blades are almost always made from high quality steel. ... The blade is already the right hardness for holding an edge, so you don't need to treat the steel to make it a good knife.

 

[charon]

Wow, @dirkbathose look fabulous. Can you tell me what tools and machines you used to make these knifes? I always wanted to give knife making a try but struggles to buy expensive machines like a belt sander for it... 

Edited May 28, 2018 by charon

[dirkba]

Hi Charon,

Email sent!

Don't want to hijack this thread!

 

[sheathmaker]

I've been using round knives (or head knives) for so long that I rarely even pick up another knife except for edge skiving or window cut out for inlays on very light weight leather.

Over the years I have accumulated 11 various round knives and only one of them is not a custom made knife.  It is an old Osborne that I had Danny Marlin reprofile for me and, of course, it's a terrific old knife. Danny Marlin is a really good maker and he uses a lot of L6 steel (repurposed circle saw blades).  Terry Knipscheild (Knip Knives) is another very excellent maker as is Joshua Fields (Fields Made Knives).  I recently got another gifted to me by T K Steingess which is only .039 thousandths thick made of AEB-L steel and it cuts like a laser.  Thinner (to a point) is better, but that .039 is about the thin limit.  My favorite thickness is .040 to.045  Any way the steel and the heat treat is the secret to  great sharpness and long edge holding life, and unfortunately those steels cost a bit more,  but considering the knife will literally last a lifetime or more the $200 to $250 you pay for a real quality custom isn't too bad in the long run.

If you're like me, once you get used to the round knife, you'll never go back to the pull cut utility knives.

Edited May 28, 2018 by sheathmaker