Knife making

Primitive knives have been made from bronze, copper, brass, iron, obsidian, and flint.

There is a trade off between hardness, toughness, edge retention, corrosion resistance, and achievable sharpness.

Some examples of blade material and their relative trade offs: Unusual non-metallic materials may also be used; manufacturing techniques are quite different from metal: The initial shaping of a knife is traditionally done through forging though stock removal or blanking can be used.

This can be achieved by a number of different methods, depending upon the thickness of the material and the alloy content of steel to be cut.

Thinner cross section, lower alloy blanks can be stamped from sheet material.

Materials that are more difficult to work with, or jobs that require higher production volume, can be accomplished with water jet cutters, lasers or electron beam cutting.

Most steels will require a specific temperature, soak time, and tempering heat for the different grades.