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I enjoy putting knives together but don't want to take on the task of making my own blades. Care to recommend a source for some carbon steel blades?

Texas Knifemaker Supply has a variety, not sure what steels they use, and Jantz Supply in Oklahoma probably have some but I've never looked at their catalog.

Sheffield Knifemaker's Supply.

You might try Great Lakes Waterjet. They can cut most any pattern you want.

JB:

Have you used Great Lakes? I've bookmarked a post he had on one of the blade forums about sending CAD drawings and steel to him, seemed like a decent enough offer and his pricing seemed pretty cheap to me. I've got a lot of Ingram'esque stuff CAD'd up, just haven't taken the time to send it off and give it a try.

Try ebay and do a serach and you will find damascus, carbon steel blades that are finished and ready for a handle and guard.

Stalter Edge Tool Company in Grand Rapids MI has done some nice water jet work for me.
Spike (Mike) @ stalterermsn.com
www.stalteredge.com
616-459-3205

Tim

Not me personally, but a lot of well known knifemakers use them with good results. I am impressed with their slipjoint patterns, very reasonable. I have a couple of gadgets on the burner for them in a few months.

Thanks, they have one heck of a catalog.

Jantz supply appears to be gone. I'm unable to link to their home page.

eBay has all sorts of listings but I prefer to work directly with a business.

What is 6A carbon steel and is it any good for knife blades?

A6 is an air hardening, but low carbon (.7%) tool steel used mostly for dies, but another application listed was for shear blades.

I have no experience with it, but I prefer a steel with at least 1% carbon, but the A6 would probably be a tougher steel than the high carbon steels. What that means, is that it might spring or bend a little before it broke, if you were using it to cut the joints or pelvic bone or a game animal.

Jantz is still in business, http://www.knifemaking.com I downloaded their catalog as a pdf last night. I've never used them, but a coworker has. Even if they don't have the blades you're looking for (which at a quick glance they had some carbon stuff), they've got anything and everything needed to put a blade together, micartas, stabilized woods, pins, epoxy's, etc, etc.