What size steel for a sheepsfoot?

On a sheepsfoot, the height at the ricasso is what sets the bar. The preset is a 3 3/4 in blade, 1 in tall at the ricasso, with a 5/32 in (0.156 in) spine and a 4 1/4 in full tang. Add 1/8 in for clean-up and you need 1 1/8 in, which rounds up to 1 1/4 in. 5/32 in is already a stock thickness, so that makes it 1 1/4 × 5/32 in flat bar. Forged or ground, it is the same bar.

The matching KraftyDesign blank (the "Draw this blank" link) has a straight edge, and the spine rolls down over roughly the front third of the blade to meet it at the point. Behind that curve the blade stays full height, so the curve doesn't change the bar width.

The calculator starts this one on 1084, and 1095 and AEB-L give the same 1 1/4 × 5/32 in bar. 5160 gives it too, but the calculator notes that 5160 isn't commonly listed in 1 1/4 in width or 5/32 in thickness. Check what your supplier stocks.

The calculator starts on stock removal for this one. Stock removal takes the whole 8 in profile plus clean-up: 8 1/4 in of bar per blade. That is about 7 oz of bar for a blade that finishes around 4 1/2 oz. A 12 in bar gives one blade. The 18 and 36 in bars give two and four, both at the lowest cost per blade. A 24 in bar also gives two, and a 48 in bar gives five.

Forging the bevels stretches the blade, so about 6 1/2 in of the same bar (about 6 oz) is enough. The blade finishes near 4 oz. A 12 in bar gives one, 18 in gives two, 24 in gives three and 36 in gives five. A 48 in bar gives seven at the lowest cost per blade. If you start thicker and forge down, set "Forged thickness" to "One size up". That starts you at 1 1/4 × 3/16 in, and it only applies in forged mode. The calculator won't forge AEB-L, CPM-154, 14C28N, MagnaCut or A2. Pick any of them and it works out the bar as stock removal, even with Forged selected.

The main curve to profile on this blank is the spine. In a KnifeDogs thread on profiling, the poster who started it found a 10 in contact wheel easier on curves than a flat platen. He still couldn't say the wheel was better, because it was slower, heated the steel faster and left the spine at an angle that took time to square up.

What a sheepsfoot is for

A sheepsfoot is a knife for controlled cutting. Wikipedia's article on blades describes a straight edge and a straight dull back that curves toward the edge at the end. It says the shape gives the most control, because the dull back is made to be held by the fingers. Buck Knives says the sheepsfoot is made for cutting, not piercing. The flat edge suits clean cuts, especially on a flat surface, and the blunt tip avoids piercing what you don't mean to. Practical Sailor, a boating magazine, says the sheepsfoot has long been the traditional sailor's blade shape, partly so there is no dagger point out front on a lurching deck. It adds that the blade is big enough to serve as a pry bar, stirrer and spoon.

Away from boats, people use it for everyday cutting. In a BladeForums thread on the shape, one poster says it excels at starting a cut in the middle of a surface instead of at the edge. The same poster likes it for opening packages, cutting rope, trimming flash off plastic parts and cutting vegetables. It is easy to sharpen too, the poster says, with no curves to complicate things. That poster wouldn't pick it for skinning a critter or carving a spoon. In another thread, a poster who mostly cuts boxes starts each cut near the handle and draws the blade through to the tip. For whittling, Bob Duncan, writing for Woodcarving Illustrated, suggests a sheepsfoot, where the tip lines up closely with the main cutting edge. Many pocketknife blades are drop points instead. He says that shape centers the tip in the middle of the blade and makes small details hard to carve. Whittlers on BladeForums don't all agree. One prefers straight edges for control, and roughs out with a sheepsfoot and does detail work with a coping blade. Another finds the point of a coping blade makes detail cutting much easier.

None of the stories below has a firm source, so read them as tales rather than history. Wikipedia says sheepsfoot blades were first made to trim the hooves of sheep, and that the shape looks nothing like a sheep's foot. It cites a 1990 Blade Magazine article. Blade magazine's buyer's guide to sheepsfoot knives tells the same hoof story. Buck Knives says instead that the name comes from the point looking like a sheep's hoof. The Star gives both versions and adds that herders wanted no point that could stab the animals. The sailor stories are just as loose. The Star passes on a theory that ship captains had the points broken off sailors' knives, to make them less useful as weapons and to cut down on accidents in stormy weather. A reader comment under Blade's guide says that on British ships, the ship's blacksmith broke the points off new crewmen's knives. In a BladeForums thread on why navy knives are sheepsfoot, a US Navy veteran recalls that Navy Regulations once barred pointed knives on ships, with exceptions for some ratings. Another poster in the thread calls the idea that it stopped fights apocryphal. Wikipedia says sailors used Wharncliffes for a similar reason, so the tip wouldn't stab the work or the user's hand when the ship moved suddenly. Gear Patrol ties the shape to 19th century sailors leaving England with a similar tool called The London, and says the design hasn't changed in over two hundred years. It gives no source for either. Rescue use is just as thin. Gear Patrol says emergency response teams often favor the sheepsfoot. The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, says firefighters and rescuers prefer it for cutting away clothing and seatbelts, because it lowers the risk of hurting someone who is already in trouble. Neither gives a source. In a BladeForums thread asking EMTs and firefighters about rescue knives, about half of those who replied say they cut near a patient with shears, and one who owns a blunt sheepsfoot rescue knife says he needs a tip on his knives.

Stock for a sheepsfoot

Some makers go thinner than this preset. In for-sale posts on BladeForums, one maker sold an AEB-L sheepsfoot slicer ground from 3/32 in stock with a 3 1/2 in edge and a high flat grind, and another offered a small sheep's foot with a 2 1/2 in edge from 1/8 in AEB-L. In a BladeForums thread on 5/32 in stock, one poster says it is good if you want a little more confidence than 1/8 in gives, for a knife you plan to beat on.

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.

Steels that suit it

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