Shako

Yes indeed...but I found the thread where people were talking about it, so wasn't worried. Makes me a real blacksmith then I guess! ;) They should start selling 'I got the 403 Forbidden error message on IForgeIron' teeshirts! ;)

checking...AH...maybe it was Adblock that stopped me posting here..hmmm

@jmccustomknives...I've already been to your site a few times...that certainly does lend a lot of weight to your words. I have no idea what the file was made of. An old-looking file, with rather deep teeth..so I guess that's about the worst case to leave them on rather than grind them off to start with. Although the file was about 1cm deep. 'Stress risers that can crack or weaken the blade'...I don't suppose you're just talking about during the forging/quenching/tempering process? (crosses fingers). Yes, I tested the edge with a file and it was good. I had read that over-heating can cause problems, and read in The complete bladesmith' about gently working the edge when it was only dull red, and figured that making mistakes SLOWLY is always the safest way to make them . Having a reasonably dinky forge probably also helped! @Frosty... I've read dozens and dozens of your posts (along with the gentleman above ^^ and many others) in various places on this site, they've already helped me and inspired me to actually get moving into smithing....seems to me that if you go sit in a corner, it's probably to have some peace and quiet.. And you joke about me being consistent...LOL if I start being worried about not messing up at this early stage, smithing will seem look like a very steep hill ahead of me indeed. I was just following an idea, and didn't feel like compromising by being sensible ( to be honest, I think that being stubborn, or at least tenacious is one of those qualities that are quite useful in this game...along with being PATIENT).. To reassure you, I'm AM going to try to make a proper pair of tongs before I look at making a damascus katana from a piece of steel cable or something like that! 'Mule' is 'Ane' in French (pronounced EXACTLY like the name Anne...so easy to sneak in if you speak English. .

Thanks for getting back to me. @Frosty, yes I did shine it up and could see the first spread of colours really well. the trouble is it left the whole of the blade a straw colour, then I messed it up trying to draw more from the back of the blade. Well...it was RELATIVELY shiny, I figure I'm going to leave in the texture of the original file...the kids think they look like 'dragon scales' (can't get much better than THAT! . I'm not sure how to clean it up besides brillo pad and detergent, or sand paper or a wire brush...? (did I see someone mention vinegar somewhere here?). Thanks for the tips, very frustrating to SEE the colours but not be able to capture them with a camera. To be honest, I avoided the toaster oven out of sheer curiousity (that's one of the ways I learn ), and actually seeing the colours move across the steel was really awesome (I use the word in the old sense). I did (half!) what you said, went back, normalized it, requenched...and ouch, it came out warped (cocking up really badly is the other main way I learn ), I heated it up, straightened it out, normalized again, and quenched...looked fine. THEN... @ThomasPowers then I tempered it using two red-hot hammer heads that I wanted to anneal (one to make a light, rounded hammer to fill in for a ball-pein hammer since I don't have one ). I figured this way I kill two birds with one knife! I laid one head on the anvil, and held the back part of the knife on it, and laid the second one on top. Worked out pretty well...yah! (although I was shocked at how fast those colours raced across the blade...Lucky I was horribly worried and was watching closely..lol!) So thank you Gentlemen, problem overcome... Does this relatively quick tempering remove the need for oven tempering? Or should I think of doing that anyway? Yes, as I said, I know I'm going about things a little bit backward, but to counter-balance that, I'm enjoying every moment! AND...I discovered the name for my knife...I'm going to christen her 'Mule'! Again thanks...

Hello everyone, Okay, I'll make a full confession right off the bat and get it out of the way. I'm VERY new to blacksmithing, haven't actually finished my first set of tongs yet (because it turns out I'll have to adapt my forge to allow more room for them), and I've been happily banging away at a knife...in spite of the very clear (and without doubt very reasonable) warning that making knives is a TERRIBLE place to start forging. (waves at Frosty and ThomasPowers). I've read many times that you like pictures, so I'll explain my problem with a run-down of where I'm at... 1) Old (non-identified) file wanted to become a knife....I start carressing it to shape with my hammer. (photo) 2) I get it to pretty much where I want it (edge about 1.3 mm thick, hardly any grinding to do except to tidy up the contour or the point) (photos ) 3) I took it back to the forge to thin out the profile of the knife, taper the tang slightly, and get the edge tidy. I quench it (in oil) and start to temper it directly on the coals (as in the Knifemaking Unplugged dvd) (photos ) BUT run out of light, and figure I can finish the last part (getting more of the blade to a bluish colour) the next day. 4) Tonight I realised that it might be difficult to control the heat from a bed of coals to precisely the area I wanted heating, so thought Icould do it with a gas burner (I can feel some of you raising your eyebrows). 5) I heated the back of the blade, and the part I heated went bronze...and bluish colour seeped down almost to the blade edge. This was exactly the opposite to what I expected. Now the photos (called) show that most of the blade is bluish, but wiht some large Bronze areas near the point and at the black of the blade. (hard to see them because the phots were taking after dark with electric lights on) I imagine that I can just normalise a few times, then requench and start the heat-treatment again...but I also feel that the edge of the blade is narrower now than when I quenched (maybe 1 mm). Is that possible/normal? Remember this is the very first thing I've ever worked on, and although I don't like the idea of risking a new quech if the edge is finer, I don't really want to carry this knife forever worried that if I drop it it breaks. It's ONLY a 10c file from a flea market, but I've spent a fair bit on time on it, and I REALLY LIKE this knife already I'm not sure 'how bad' the situation is.... Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts for me? OOPS sorry, I've just edited this because the first photo should be with the last ones...that's how it is right now.

Thanks for the responses.....I live in France, and I fear that the easy-going support that I read you guys giving out here ("I'm only about an hour away by car, drop by and I'll give you and old vise that I no longer use" ) may be less simple for me ! Knives are certainly what pulled me towards smithing in the first place (could have been worse, I could have said "SWORDS! ). But honestly the whole traditon of smithing, along with the satisfaction of shaping things to your own ends is very appealing to me. I also have a real sense of disgust when you need a little item ( a hook, a pin etc and you have to buy it prepackaged and expensive) I bought a copy of Lorelei SIms 'The Backyard Blacksmith' and think that I'll be trying a some of the projects she shows (especially the tools), but also have Tim Livey's 'Knifemaking Unplugged'...which makes things look deceptively simple...lol! Both of you have said it....'coming into forging with your eyes fixed on forging a knife is a recipe for disappointment and frustration'! Yep, I hear you both. I also have seen you demostrating MASSIVE PATIENCE explaining this and beginner advice to person after person. Hats off to you both, I'm impressed. I'll try not to ask things you've answered dozens of times already ;)... ON THE OTHER HAND...surely it's those rather naive dreams that actually pull us to smithing in the first place...no? I'll be trying to my build tools as I go...eyes firmly fixed on a shining goal. That should give me plenty of chance to learn, to start to appreciate the practise of forging rather than chasing shiny baubles like breath-takingly beautiful knives If forging metal is going to seduce me, it'll have plenty of time to work its charms. (Imagine that this place is a trendy nightclub (going to have to use my imagination a bit here...) and I tell you "That FANTAAASTICALLY beautiful woman over there keeps on smiling at me and waving me over"...You COULD answer "Sheesh man, you're a bit of a noob at this, go dance with that balding chick with the limp, she's more your level" Me: "Yeah, but I want HER over there, she keeps on beckoning me over!" Probably you'd tell me..."Go try your luck, come tell us when things go wobbly" ). Forging is long-held dream for me, I don't really want it to be too easy....if it's too easy, I'll feel there's not enough substance to be worth my while learning. I imagine that if it was easy everyone would be knocking out epic knives and swords (oh no, I said the S-word!). Back on track, there's a place nearby where I can get a guy to cut me a length of railroad track, do you think that, or the sleageèhammer head you mentioned would be better than the cast iron anvil I have now? I very much like your comment about a sledge-hammer head being better than what smiths used for most of history. A big part of the attraction of forging, is to break out of the ideas that are so common about what IS or ISN'T possible/normal. Trying to pound a old file into a knife is already surprising to most of the people around me who 'know' that files are really hard and brittle, and can't be worked on easily. Thanks for the encouragement, I'll keep you updated as I inch towards the light... Shako

Hi everyone, I've been a serial lurker here for a fairly long time (since so often what I search for in Google brings me here ); but never felt the need to join...but... Now I've got my first little charcoal forge up and running, found myself a leg vise (must weigh 40 kilos and I came across it cheap while I was out in the wife's little car...nearly had a hernia trying to get it laid down on the back seat without ripping anything ), and just converted an old cross-peen hammer into a forging hammer (a LOT of work with a 10 cent file and some sandpaper involved in that), an old vacuum cleaner is hooked up for air, and I found a crappy cheap anvil (it's already got a couple of dings in it and I've only just started using it!). I'm sure you've seen it before, I want to give forging a try without spending too much. Over the last few months I've picked up some old files at flea-markets, various tools I hope I'll need, and so on. I'll be trying to make a knife to start off and REALLY enjoyed actually moving some hot steel around today.(edit: after really spending a few hours hitting stuff today, I guess I'll be starting with some tongs...I had a horrible job holding things properly while I hit them ). I'll be looking around pretty seriously before I actually ask any questions because it looks like there's TONNES of stuff here. Just felt good about how it went today and felt ike joining properly. (Enthusiastic gushing over! )