Adding handmade scales to cheap blade blanks feels wasteful

Myztro

Myztro

Joined
Mar 7, 2019
Messages
167
Hey all,

I just finished making custom scales for a pair of matching knives to give to each of my daughters. I've only done this twice before and they're not perfect but I'm happy how they turned out. I used exotic woods and thought the white liners made them pop pretty nice. My frustration is that pretty much all the blade blanks I could find were still made up of a Chinese steel like 9Cr18MoV. I know that this isn't horrible and I really appreciate places like USA Knifemaker that provide materials, but I'd love to get some good blank options in S30V or better. I know I can get the material and would have to cut and heat treat the steel, but I'm only interested in doing the handles at this time. Would love some opinions. Thanks!

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Buy the cheapest versions of top quality knives. Take the handles off and just use the blades. Buck knives with the black phenolic handles would be a good choice.
 
That's some really nice work! I mostly rehandle decent kitchen knives as gifts. If you want other styles of knives you can find blanks with decent steel with some online searching, or buy blanks from makers here, or as eveled said buy production knives you like and then replace the handles
 
Nice!
Google reports-n texasknife has cryo 440C, knivesandknifemaking and Whole Earth Supply (reskinned knivesandknifemaking?)
bother offer D2 57RC, discountcutlery.net HAS ALABAMA damascus.
 
Thanks for the feedback! I hadn’t thought about the option of removing scales from a mainstream brand like Buck or Gerber. I’ll have to start looking at blades I like and see if they could be removed.
 
Yea... Good knife blanks can be hard to find.

If you come across any Spyderco Mule Team knives, those make for phenomenal blanks (as far as steel and heat treat quality go) and can often be found under $100 for the less in demand steels. There is talk of them starting production back up on those so you might be able to pick them up for the much more reasonable price they used to go for ($60 - $80).

Real Steel makes some pretty solid quality blanks out of 14C28N for under $50. Morakniv makes a plethora of blanks ranging from $15 - $30 which I am a big fan of. I prefer their carbon (C100), but their stainless (12c27) is also great. Helle also makes some great blanks that are similar to Moras, but are a bit more spendy. They use 12c27 for their stainless and UHB-20C for their carbon steel I believe. Condor sells some decent 1075 blanks, but I imagine that's not what you're looking for. The Schrade SCHF55, SCHF42, and SCHF42D have solid 1095 (for now) and cheap, bolted on handles that make for great blanks if you want something with thick stock (and was designed by a fellow forum member). I also like Beckers (like the BK16) for this. The Grimalkin (also designed by a fellow forum member) features 1095 with a great heat treat and also makes for a great blank. My favorite blanks so far have actually come from John Landi (also 1095). I sent him an email and he cut me a great deal on some really high quality blanks heat treated by Peter's. Good stuff. Buck is another great route to go, but that could get a bit spendy if you want something better than 420HC, and their knives with s30v/20cv/etc tend to come with really nice handles already. Cold steel makes a few 3V knives that I've been a bit interested in trying out as blanks, but I haven't bitten the bullet on that yet because I believe the majority of those will require a hidden tang which I haven't yet mastered. Enzo makes a few blanks out of of O1, and even have a few made of Elmax, which might be more what you're looking for. There is also a Finish company that makes knife blanks out of all kinds of premium steels, but I have yet to try them.

All in all... Since the Mule Teams went off the market, it's REALLY hard to find a blank with high quality steel and heat treat. :(
 
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Fixall said:
Yea... Good knife blanks can be hard to find.

All in all... Since the Mule Teams went off the market, it's REALLY hard to find a blank with high quality steel and heat treat. :(
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Wow.. Thanks for putting in so much detailed info! I'll certainly be checking out these options to see what works for me. I'm wondering if the surge in the forge craft over the past several years has lead to less companies selling blanks since more people are making their own? I think it's an awesome trade to learn and I might just try to take it up at some point but really wanted to focus on one discipline at a time. Besides, every time I start getting interested in some new aspect concerning knives, I end up spending a lot more money that I planned going into it!! :confused:

On my first knife attempt below, I also decided I was going to take up leather working and make the sheath. Again, I think it turned out pretty good for my first try, but I was stressing out a bit and it took way longer than it should have. I'm currently making the sheaths for the two posted above and hope they come out right. One of my daughters is vegan so I'm trying to use leather alternatives on hers and I'm not very happy with it at this point.

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Duh, I'm the guy getting excited about cryo 440C blanks, and prompted by OP question and observation, to google for s30v. But I forgot Benchmades respectable 375 Adamas.
 
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