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 (better than two fifths of the blank ends up on the floor, the highest of any pattern here), 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.
Stock removal: the bar is cut to blade + tang + clean-up, so the tang section and forged thickness below only change the finished-weight estimate. Switch to Forged and they change the stock length too.
Tang dimensions are estimated from the tang style until you change them. Measuring yours is worth doing — a forged blank's length depends on the tang's cross-section, not on what the tang is called.
Stock removal: fill factors only change the finished-weight estimate here. They set the stock length when the method is Forged. Grinding loss has no effect at all in stock removal — the bar is cut straight to the profile, nothing is drawn out.
The fraction of the blade's and tang's bounding box that is actually steel once the bevels are ground. Distal taper is factored in separately now (see "Distal taper" below, under What this assumed) and isn't editable here yet — these two fill factors are the ones worth replacing with your own measurements: weigh a finished blade, then adjust until the finished weight below matches the scale.
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 and nothing to clean gunk out of, and the handle can be shaped for the hand rather than around a folded blade, with the tang running its full length.
Small fixed blades have been carried forever; as a commercial category this is recent. The ESEE Izula (2.63 in blade, 0.156 in stock, 6.25 in overall, 2.0 oz bare, 1095 in the carbon versions) appeared under RAT Cutlery around 2008 and is the knife that proved people would buy one; ESEE's own figure is over 100,000 sold. The category went mainstream through the 2010s and 2020s. Blade lengths in the class run about two to three and a half inches.
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. Reviewers report the Izula's bare skeletonised tang gives limited comfort and wants to twist in the hand under side load, which is why ESEE sells G10 and micarta scales for it. 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.