1095 Steel Flat Stock for Knife Making-Annealed High Carbon Steel,Flat Steel Bars,12x1.5x0.12,4 Pack

When this arrived I started thinking to myself how can I rate flat bar steel? Well as someone who welds and fabricates quite a bit of stuff around the house I can tell you this is very good quality. It arrived with a light coating of protective oil to keep it good during shipping. It was wrapping in wax paper and 3 layers of bubble wrap to protect it. When you have a company that takes the time to do their packaging like this you know it is going to be good. I mainly got this so my son could attempt to make his own knife. He has collected knives for several years and has wanted to attempt to make his own. After drawing a rough sketch that would fit the steel, he has been in the workshop most of the night working this metal. So far it is easy to work and he is making pretty good progress with it. Hopefully he will get it done soon and I can post some pictures of it for you all to see.

Got this XIOBTQT 1095 Bar Stock 12x1.5x0.12in 4-pack for stock removal knife making. First project, and test for this review, was to replace the ~420 stainless blade of a knockoff K-BAR I got back in the late 90s, keeping the original guard, handle, end cap, and sheath. Design is atypical bar stock 12in x 1.5in x 0.12in with a polished finish. Build quality is decent but tiny bit thin, at first my caliper had inconsistent measurements between 0.1200in to 0.1300in due to a bur around the edge, removing the bur reveals this is only 0.1180in thick, but the width is good at 1.5030in and length is good at a tiny bit over 12in. No warps, no tarnishing, no defects other than the bur around the edge. Functionality seems good as far as I can test it, this steel makes a good blade, but Im not testing to failure or doing anything extreme with it. Price point is good, a bit less than similar items, and $1 less than original listing price. Overall, 4 stars, good steel but thin.

My son and his uncle have a hobby of knife making with a home made forge. They stated that this was hard steel that was able to be worked into a knife.

Good steel as discribed.

I am not a knife-maker -- yet! But these steel bars are exactly what I wanted. They appear to be just as they are advertised, and Im happy with them.

Howdy folks! Overall, this is decent entry level steel to start making knives with. Two of the four flats did not come annealed ( or werent as well annealed as the other two) and were a bit of a pain to work with hand tools. For the price, they arent too shabby; but be prepared to bust out the power tools if the annealing wasnt done correctly. Absolutely great for getting started with knife making for the price!

These metal blanks came well packaged they were slightly oiled which was nice, there is no rust or corrosion. This metal was as easy to work with as was described on the Internet. It is a great beginner metal. It does hold a very nice edge. Im very happy with how my knives have come out so far and I look forward to using the rest of these blanks as my craft can only improve with such great quality materials to learn from.

My son bent a piece in half with his bare hands. He tried to forge one of the pieces into a knife, but it was too thin to work with very easily.

These flat stock pieces are perfect for getting knife making started. They came packed tightly and very clean with no rust spots. Will work well for various sizes of knifes. Good price for the material.

This is listed as 1095 steel flat stock, but we have doubts about that; it bends quite easily when annealed, unlike the 1095 of similar thickness and size that weve purchased from other sources. Annealed 1095 shouldnt bend at all unless youre using great force. We tested it by heat treating it in the same way we heat-treat any 1095 knife. In a temperature-controlled kiln and correct quenching oil, all at precisely the right temperatures for an exact temper, the resulting blade failed to achieve the same hardness and toughness as 1095 steel from our regular sources. Its well-priced, but Ive noticed that some mystery steels Ive received from Chinese sources at similiarly great prices behave this way--the percentages of carbon, nickel, and other metals can be slightly off. Not sure whats going on there, but the only way I would recommend this steel is as a beginning knifemakers practice steel before moving on to the real thing.