Bar Stock Calculatora free tool from KraftyQuote

52100 for knives

52100 is bearing steel — 1% carbon, 1.5% chromium — and in the right hands it makes the best-cutting carbon blades on this list. It rewards good thermal cycling with a very fine grain and a fine, stable edge, and punishes skipping the normalizing with coarse grain and chippy edges. It is a second or third steel, not a first.

Heat treat at a glance

Good for	Kitchen knives, hunters, bowies — any knife where edge retention and fine edge stability matter and the maker can control heat.
Forging	Up to ~2100 °F; stop at 1700 °F — grain grows fast if overheated
Normalize	1700 °F 20 min, then 1460 °F 30 min, then a slow-cool anneal (KSN); or 1650 / 1500 / 1350 (NJSB)
Austenitize	1500–1525 °F with a 15-minute soak — a kiln helps
Quench	Fast oil (Parks 50); a medium oil may work on thin stock
Temper	400 °F twice → ~60–61 HRC; 300–350 °F for more hardness
Working hardness	60–62 HRC

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

Buying it

Flat bar 1/16–3/8 in at NJSB, 3/32–1/4 in at Jantz and Alpha; Jantz also sells 52100 round bar (1/2–2 in diameter, 6–12 in long) which forges into flat and is the cheapest way to buy it.

Round 52100 bar from Jantz is a great buy per pound; forging it flat is part of the thermal cycling.
Use an anti-scale compound or foil at soak temperature; the long soak is where decarb happens.

Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz

Work out the bar for your knife in 52100

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

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Stock per blade

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Steel weight per blade

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Finished blade weight

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Steel cost per blade

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Waste

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Minimum bar length

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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 52100

Chef's knife2 × 3/32 in Bowie1 3/4 × 1/4 in Drop point hunter1 1/4 × 3/16 in Cleaver4 × 3/32 in

Questions

Can you heat treat 52100 in a forge?

Yes, with care: a muffle pipe, a magnet, and patience for the soak. Many smiths do; a kiln makes it repeatable.

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.