forging problems

[John N]

Originally Posted by pete46

Chuck Said" Annealing Was A Good Practise To Adopt"!
I Win !

surely that means annealing after you have forged it though? ? ?

[markb]

4hrs. on this try today (am I retarded?)
Adjusted burners.
Hung a magnet.
Normalized 4-5 times.
Tried the water thing. (didn't care for the extra step.)
Blades a little short, and would like to have tapered the tang. ( too much time on the handle.
Still need to anneal.

[pete46]

I Thought All Scrap Needed To Be At Least Normalized ?
The Stress Is Still In The Steel From It's Previous Life,
That Spike Could Have Already Been Driven Into A Cross Tie.

[Chuck Richards]

If the material is lower carbon then it does not build any more stresses when forged. The main stresses come through uneven and low heat forging. Think about what you are doing when you forge a piece of steel also. By the time you are finished forging it all remnants of a previous life will be erased. If you are using High carbon steel or alloy steel then the normalizing process is very critical to refine the grain structure and relieve stresses. The carbon content in the average HC spike is .3%. This is below the reasonable expectations of a knife steel. It does make a nice novelty and is great practice but normalizing will not refine it much. But like I said it is always good practice to follow through with all the steps you would go through with a high carbon knife blade.

[Chuck Richards]

Mark, whats wrong with the picture you posted??? looks good from here. Also to add to the previous post. How many smiths normalize their wrought iron work?? The low carbon steel does not require it.

[markb]

Thanks Chuck, I'm pretty happy with the last one, it just needs to be trued up.

I just thought 4 hrs. was a long time.

[Farmer Phil]

Mark, at this point I suspect when you're forging you're moving in slow mo due to your earnest efforts at getting things right. That would probably account for a lot of the time. I bet once you pound out a few dozen more of those things your heating, hammering and moving techniques will have become a beautiful and effective dance and your knives will be exceptional. Your present striving with the craft is impressive in its dedication, commitment and progress. Thanks for being so forthright in sharing your journey with us. -Phil

[John N]

looks ok to me, scaling levels pretty normal.

It might be worth doing the basic 'excercises' a couple of times, forge a point on a piece of 1/2" round (similar techneque to forging the point on a knife), forging a piece of round into square etc.

Im pretty terrible at hand forging, I find it helps to mentally work through where im gonna hit it, and how hard when its still in the forge. I find I move most metal in the first 6 hits or so when its still very hot, and then use the rest of the heat refining it a bit.

it does get easier!!

[markb]

Phil
Thanks for your support I appreciate it and I'm glad you're enjoying my posts, some times I think maybe this is all too boring and basic.

John
Good to know about the scale.
I've been trying different methods of forging, not sure which is the right way.
The last 2, I forged from square to round then started flattening, kind of wandering around looking for a technique, rhythm ,hammer control, etc. let alone I still don't know a lot of basic blacksmithing skills.

My interest in knife making started in the late '70's, I went to shows and bought books, joined ABANA collected and made tools learned to weld etc. but never really got around to actually make some knives, but it's time now before I run out of time.

I'm very grateful for the response everyone here gives, I look forward to it each time I post and it is a huge positive factor in my journey, and one of these days maybe you'll see a completed knife.

Mark

[Chuck Richards]

Just remember how to get to Carnegie Hall.... Practice practice prectice