Calculator › Knives › EDC / small fixed blade
Everyday-carry fixed blades are 2 1/2–3 1/2 in, 1/8 in thick or a little under (3/32 in makes a great slicer), almost always full tang and stock removal, and very often stainless or a stain-resistant tool steel. That points at 1 1/4 × 1/8 in flat stock in AEB-L, CPM-154 or MagnaCut, sold by the foot.
These are the most steel-wasteful knives by percentage — half the bar ends up on the floor — but also the cheapest in absolute terms, and the pattern is where premium steel is worth paying for because the buyer reads the name on the blade.
Steel is only part of the cost. Add abrasives, handle, heat treat and your time, and see the price that actually pays you.
Copy link to this calculationPackaging, tape, cordage, zip ties, a sandwich at a desk, a seatbelt in a bad moment. Nothing about those tasks needs a fixed blade — the argument for the format is mechanical. There is no lock to fail, no pivot to loosen, nothing to clean gunk out of, and a two-and-a-half-inch fixed blade gives you a real handle where a folder of the same carry size gives you a stub.
Small fixed blades have been carried forever, but this as a commercial category is a 2000s development. Early factory attempts carried badly and were uncomfortable; the ESEE Izula — 2.63 in blade, 0.156 in stock, two ounces, over a hundred thousand sold — is the knife that proved people would buy one. Blade lengths in the class run about two to three and a half inches, overall five to seven and a quarter.
Two things decide whether one gets carried, and neither is the blade. The sheath and carry system come first: adjustable kydex that rides comfortably and draws clean, because a knife that is awkward on the belt lives in a drawer. Second is the handle. Skeletonised tangs are the classic cost saving and they raise hot spots on anything longer than a quick cut — ESEE selling separate scales for the Izula is an admission of exactly that. Worth a sentence for buyers too: fixed-blade carry rules vary by state and often by city, on length, on what counts as concealed, and on where you can carry at all, so it is worth checking locally.
Stainless needs foil, plate quench and a kiln or a very careful forge heat treat. If you only have a forge, make the same knife in 80CrV2 or 1084 and it will be an excellent EDC.
| Neck knife, 2 1/2 in blade | 1 × 1/8 in |
|---|---|
| EDC, 3 1/4 in blade | 1 1/4 × 1/8 in |
| Larger, 4 in blade | 1 1/4 × 5/32 in |
Widths assume blade height + 1/8 in rounded up to stock; thickness is the finished spine rounded up. Change the inputs above for your own pattern.
1/8 in is the standard; 3/32 in makes a great slicer, 5/32 in is the upper limit before it stops feeling like an EDC.
Bar sizes for ten common knife patterns, weight per inch for every standard flat bar, and quick heat-treat numbers for the usual carbon steels. Print it, tape it to the grinder.