# Source for Knife Blanks



## ChefCosta (Dec 7, 2013)

I'm looking for high quality, heat treated knife blanks for kitchen knives. Fully annealed, ready to grind to shape and attach handle. I've seen the Damascus Blanks that HHH sells. Really awesome looking but I have firmly earned opinions about the types of steel that I like to sharpen. I'm probably fantasizing but I would like Cowry X, Aogami Super or SG2. I would happily settle for VG-10 if it was nicely heat treated. Does anyone sell ready to form annealed knife blanks in these materials?


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## orangehero (Dec 7, 2013)

I think you're a little confused about heat treatment as it's not really clear what you're looking for. Usually steel comes annealed (soft) in bar form so that you can easily shape it with grinder/files to the profile you want. It's difficult to find Japanese steels here, although there are a couple of places in Europe you can order San Mai and Japanese high carbon steel bars from. 

http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/cat...onid=D99C603440FED783E732A9F792A2F188?lang=en
http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/steel_billets.html

Jantz carries bars of Cowry X and Cowry Y. There are a number of retailers here in the US that carry powder metallurgy stainless steels from other manufacturers in thin stock that are also excellent for kitchen knives. You should be aware that the PM steels are usually extremely wear resistant so that it will be fairly difficult to do finish grinding once they've been hardened.

Once you've ground these annealed bars to the shape you want you can then send it out to get professionally heat treated.

I know there's a lot of buzz about steel types and whatever, but if you're interested in learning how to make a knife you'd be better off with something simple like O1 or 1084. It will be much easier to work with and you will end up with an excellent knife you can be proud of. You can even try your hand at heat treating it yourself.

If you're just looking to make a handle, then buy a knife in whatever steel you like and grind off the old handle.


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