Bar Stock Calculatora free tool from KraftyQuote

MagnaCut for knives

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.

Heat treat at a glance

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.

Buying it

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.

Price per blade, not per pound: an EDC blade is only a few dollars more than in CPM-154, and buyers pay for the name.
Cryo makes a bigger difference here than on most steels.

Suppliers: New Jersey Steel Baron Alpha Knife Supply Jantz

Work out the bar for your knife in MagnaCut

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 MagnaCut

EDC / small fixed blade1 1/4 × 1/8 in Chef's knife2 × 3/32 in Fillet knife1 × 1/16 in

Questions

Is MagnaCut worth the price?

For 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.

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.