Ideal Spine Thickness of 8" Chef Knife

[letorthopper]

I'm curious about this one. I've seen a lot of custom chefs knives that seem thick to me.

For the purposes of my question lets just look at an 8" general purpose chefs knife.

What thickness are you shooting for at the thickest part of the spine? If you are doing stock removal what thickness are you starting with? My preference is between somewhere slightly below 3/32 but still trying to really find the sweet spot. My favorite purchased chefs knives are right around 5/64th so that makes sense.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I like around .100" to start off for stock removal. Most of my Chef's knives are a double plungeles grind with good distal taper and tapered tang... that usually leaves me with a knife that is about 3/32" (~.093) thick at the thickest part.

I have used as thin as 1/16" but usually not much thicker than mentioned above.

I'm usually thinking of a few things when it comes to thickness... distal taper, flex, comfort, edge geometry, slicing ability, food release. There are lots of ways to do things and have them work well. For example a thinner knife will usually slice better but a thicker knife with a thin edge and shouldered grind may feel more comfortable and could provide better food release.

 

[Don Nguyen]

1/8" is a good starting point for that size, or like Daniel said, .100" can work too but it'll be a very thin cutter (chances are with some flex).

I've done up to 0.180" and 0.200" thick for those workhorses too; it depends on what kind of cutter you want. I've seen some wicked geometries that cut and release really well at 0.180", contrary to what imagination may say.

 

[samuraistuart]

I'd vote for .100" - .140". Under-sized to over-sized 1/8. The Blue2 available is .140" and makes for a really nice 8" chef's knife.