Bar Stock Calculatora free tool from KraftyQuote

1084 for knives

1084 is the steel to learn on. It has enough carbon to get hard, no alloying to make heat treat fussy, and it hardens fully in a fast oil straight from a forge heat. If someone tells you they made a knife that failed in 1084, the heat treat was wrong, not the steel.

Heat treat at a glance

Good for	Hunters, camp knives, seaxes, kitchen knives, anything forged. The right choice for a first knife and for teaching.
Forging	Up to ~2100 °F; stop forging at 1500 °F.
Normalize	1650 / 1500 / 1350 °F, 10–15 min each, air cool between (NJSB); or a single 1550–1600 °F normalize plus a 1400 °F cycle (Knife Steel Nerds)
Austenitize	1450–1500 °F, 5–10 min soak
Quench	Fast oil — Parks 50. Warm canola works at 1/8 in but is the slowest common oil; expect lost hardness at 1/4 in
Temper	400 °F, twice, 2 h each → 60–61 HRC; 450 °F → 57–58 for a chopper
Working hardness	58–61 HRC

Typical shop values. Confirm against your supplier's datasheet.

Buying it

Flat bar in 3/32, 1/8, 5/32, 3/16, 1/4 in (NJSB also 1/16 and 3/8) by 1 to 2 in wide — up to 4 in at Jantz, 16 in at NJSB — in 12, 24, 36 and 48 in lengths.

Decarb is shallow — leave 0.01–0.02 in to grind after heat treat.
A hamon is possible but faint; use W2 if that's the goal.
Price is the lowest of any knife steel, which makes it the right steel to make mistakes in.

Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz

Work out the bar for your knife in 1084

Your knife

Method

Blade length

Blade height at ricasso

Spine thickness (finished)

Tang length

Tang style

Steel

Price per lb (edit to match your supplier)

$/lb

Advanced: allowances & bar lengths

Forging / grinding allowance

Forged: scale, decarb and clean-up (10–15%). Stock removal: extra length for layout (about 5%).

Cut-off per blade

Saw kerf plus the stub you can't use.

Forged thickness

Forging to shape, then grinding the spine to size? Go one size up.

Buy this bar

Recommended stock

—

Stock per blade

—

Steel weight per blade

—

Finished blade weight

—

Steel cost per blade

—

Waste

—

Minimum bar length

—

Bar length	Blades	Bar cost	Per blade	Left over

What should I charge for this knife? →

Steel is only part of the cost. Add abrasives, handle, heat treat and your time, and see the price that actually pays you.

or skip ahead and save it as a quote in KraftyQuote

Knives to make from 1084

Drop point hunter1 1/4 × 3/16 in Seax1 1/2 × 3/16 in Camp knife1 1/2 × 3/16 in Chef's knife2 × 3/32 in

Questions

Is 1084 good for knives?

Yes — it's the standard beginner and production carbon steel for forged knives. It hardens easily, takes a fine edge and is tough enough for camp use. It will rust if neglected.

What temperature do you quench 1084?

About 1450–1500 °F, just past non-magnetic, into fast oil. Then temper at 400 °F twice.

Free: the one-page stock size chart

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.