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I want to make a knife, but I'm not shure what kind of steel should I use? I want to form it through blacksmithing, and normalize it later. Any suggestion?

Loboncos
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    That's a question for you to answer. What properties do you want the blade to have? – Chuck Oct 18 '16 at 14:40
  • suggestion: simply purchase it from some shop instead of making it. also correct the spelling of making in your title – Fennekin Oct 21 '16 at 14:48
  • I think this is a valid question in principal. I suggest that you edit it it ask what properties you should look for in a steel for forging a knife blade as a novice. – Chris Johns Sep 28 '17 at 19:50

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For a beginner the best choice is a low alloy carbon steel as these are relatively simple to heat treat and more forgiving to work with than more complex alloys.

In particular high alloy steels are often 'red short' this means that they have a relatively narrow temperature window in which they can be worked and can crumble if worked at too low a temperature and may require complex heat treating to make the most of their properties.

For a knife you typically want a carbon content of at least 0.6% to be able to harden it adequately.

Spring steels are generally pretty good and silver steel is probably the most readily available of forgeable knife steels as it can be purchased in small quantities from model engineering suppliers.

Chris Johns
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