Knife Steel Nerds

Here at Pops we have found that one of the best knife steel resources in the world is run by Dr. Larrin Thomas at knifesteelnerds.com. 

About Dr. Larrin Thomas
Larrin loves steel metallurgy! He writes about steel for knifemakers, collectors, enthusiasts, and all-around science loving people. Larrin completes original research to find the best heat treatments, processing, and steel for knives, and writes articles intended to make difficult and confusing concepts easier to understand with varying degrees of success. 

To support Knife Steel Nerds and what they do you can become a patron on Patreon and gain access to articles early, get your questions answered on the website, vote on what research will be performed, and even get a coffee mug! Click here for more information.

The Knife Steel Nerds Book
There is also a book available on Amazon by Dr. Larrin Thomas about how to make the highest performing knives. A book for knife enthusiasts, knifemakers, and bladesmiths. Not a how-to on knifemaking or bladesmithing but an in-depth exploration of the effects of different steels, metallurgy, heat treatments, and edge geometries on knife performance. This book provides ratings for toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance for all of the popular knife steels. Micrographs of over 50 steels. Specific recommended heat treatments for each steel.

And answers to questions like:
1) Does a thinner or thicker edge last longer?
2) What heat treatment leads to the best performance?
3) Are there performance benefits to forging blades?
4) Should I use stainless or carbon steel? All of these questions and more are answered by a metallurgist who grew up around the knife industry.

Note: The book now has conversions to Celsius throughout after feedback from Global readers. 

To purchase the Knife Engineering book click here.