Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry Hardcover – October 31, 2025

How to make the highest performing knives. A book for knife enthusiasts, knifemakers, and bladesmiths. Not a how-to on knifemaking or bladesmithing but an in-depth exploration of the effects of different steels, metallurgy, heat treatments, and edge geometries on knife performance. This book provides ratings for toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance for all of the popular knife steels. Micrographs of over 50 steels. Specific recommended heat treatments for each steel. And answers to questions like: 1) Does a thinner or thicker edge last longer? 2) What heat treatment leads to the best performance? 3) Are there performance benefits to forging blades? 4) Should I use stainless or carbon steel? All of these questions and more are answered by a metallurgist who grew up around the knife industry. The second edition has been updated with a new chapter on heat treating in a forge, expanded with new experiments throughout, and the "Heat treatment recommendation" section has been updated with forging, normalizing, and annealing recommendations. Read more