Calculator › Steels › MagnaCut
MagnaCut is the newest steel on this list and the one customers ask for by name. It combines corrosion resistance better than most stainless with toughness closer to a carbon steel and good edge retention, by leaving chromium in solution rather than in carbides. The cost is real — the highest price per pound here — and it needs a full kiln heat treat.
| Good for | Premium EDC and outdoor knives, kitchen knives for customers who will not oil a blade, fillet knives. |
|---|---|
| Forging | Crucible lists a range (2100 °F, not below 1750 °F) but it is a stock-removal steel in practice |
| Normalize | Not applicable — buy annealed |
| Austenitize | 2050 °F recommended, 20–25 min soak, in foil; 1950 °F only reaches ~60 HRC |
| Quench | Plates, then cryo (liquid nitrogen preferred) |
| Temper | 350–400 °F twice → 61–62 HRC with cryo; 300 °F → ~63. Don't temper above 750 °F |
| Working hardness | 60–64 HRC |
Typical shop values. Confirm against your supplier's datasheet.
Hot-rolled bar 1/16–3/8 in, 1–24 in wide from NJSB; precision-ground 1/8–1/4 in, 1.5–2 in wide from Jantz. In stock at the big suppliers as of Sept 2026; the 2021–22 shortage is over.
Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz
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 calculationFor a small blade, yes — the steel is a small part of the knife's cost and it is a selling point. For a big chopper, 80CrV2 or 5160 will be tougher for a tenth of the price.
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.