Small Chef's Utility Knife

Keep in mind that the thickness of the spine and the width of the blade determines not only your bevel angle, but the stiffness of the blade. How you grind the blade is important to consider. A full distal taper is going to put your spine thickness above the heel at about 80% of the original thickness. So if you want the blade about .070 at the spine above he heel (the front of the handle) you may want to start with a blade that is in the .100 to .110 thickness to begin with.

Most Japanese gyutos (Japanese version of a French pattern chef knife) are about 2mm at the spine above the heel. This works out to about .078 thickness. Again, with a full distal taper that tells you that you probably want to start with .110 stock. If you don't do a full distal taper, or if you make a knife with plunges, then you can start out with .070 and you'll be good to go but you will still have a flexible blade if it's 8 inches long and 2 inches tall at the heel.
 
8 inch chef. AEBL stainless. 2 inches tall at the heel. .110 stock with a full distal taper making it right around 2mm at the spine above the heel. The last inch or so has flex if you lean on it but the blade feel stiff and predictable. (A flexible blade can take an immediate turn on you if you twist the knife at all when you cut.)
 

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