Steel, Knives, and Bibles

Once in a blue moon a book comes along that's so good, so useful, so complete, and so definitive, that we affectionately call it a "Bible." You might recall the Bible, which isn't a book so much as it is a library. But there have been other books we might call Bibles. There's The Traditional Bowyer's Bible which comes in four volumes so is also a kind of library. The editor took a risk by putting "Bible" right in the title, but it has lived up to the name, so we can forgive any presumption that might've been involved.

Now, there is a new Bible. It is called Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry, and it's by Larrin Thomas, son of Devin Thomas, maker of Damascus and other things. Larrin Thomas isn't just the son of a famous Damascus steel maker, either. He has a PhD in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Having recently read this book, I've decided this is the new knife-maker's Bible. It is a must read for anybody who is interested in knife-making. It skillfully and articulately unravels the riddle of steel, its properties, the different affects of alloying elements, heat treating methods, and even blade geometry. Up until now, I've been recommending that everybody read Steel Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist by John Verhoeven (which I still recommend), but Knife Engineering has earned the title of the knife maker's Bible.

Maybe that's going too far, though. I think the information in that book is invaluable besides being really interesting. But it's not actually about knife making. There's no guide for how to actually make a knife. It's about one aspect of knife making--the metallurgical aspect. But heat treating is arguably the most crucial aspect of knife making, so knife steel metallurgy is pretty fundamental, so I'm still going to call it a Bible.

If you're not interested in making knives, but you are interested in buying and using knives, but you don't know anything about different kinds of steels or how to go about choosing a knife or judging between steels, you should still read this book. It will open your mind.

Larrin Thomas also has a blog called Knife Steel Nerds that is worth checking out.