inuroku842

one method is to bend it such that the forging of the bevels straightens it into proper form.

Okay, I read and reread tips and pointers as well as the book by Jim Hrisoulas, and am still having no luck with a clipped point blade. I tried tapering out the front end of the bar to form the "clip" then went on to make the blade. Only problem was, when I formed the blade, the clip disappeared every time. I attached a picture and circled what's left of the clip, and that was after about 6 or 7 times of flattening it out and starting at square 1 all over again, basically wasting the whole night. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. I know I can all too easily just grind a clip, but that's not the point (no pun there) I'm trying to make. I know I can forge the clip in, and want to learn how.

Charcoal was used for year here in Denmark by the Vikings. Go to any of the Viking villages and you will see smithing done with charcoal. It is a matter of fire management and "learning" charcoal.

ahh ok. At least I was gettin something right. What's the trick for welding with no flux? Perfect fire management?

ahh ok. I think that was my biggest problem, not hot enough because my welds would always fall apart. I've burnt my pieces plenty of times, but never in an attempt to weld, I always waited for it to get just yellow. I'll keep this in mind, I go back to the forge in a few weeks, can't smith in an apartment so I use a local shop. I've also heard something about the flux. When I take my piece out of the fire, do I need to get the flux off before the weld or does it sizzle out in the fire?

Okay, I suppose whatever works, right? It just bugs me that I can't get it down. But I think I realized/was told of my mistakes, so I'll keep at it. I've never touched a welder, don't know how to use one. JB weld works wonders, haha.

Ahh, i thought you were talking about the briquettes. I've worked with regular coal before. But I never used anything to keep the fire narrow and depp, i used to forge in an insulated bucket and while my air flow wasn't the best either, I did have that issue of my fuel burning up without use. Thanks for the help. I think I'll make up another forge and give it another go with regular old coal, that welding is really kickin me in the pants.

I've always heard that smithing with charcoal is a blacksmith no-no, so to speak. How did you manage to do it? I've never even bothered to try working with charcoal.

Awesome, okay then. It seemed a bit sketchy, but I wanted to ask anyway, thanks. That may be my problem though, I think it was that I kept on putting it too far down into the fire, thanks.

I have a forge and am now at the stage where I am attempting to forge weld. I have tried a few welds (only attempted faggot welds), but have been unsuccessful. I know it has something to do with my technique, heating, position, little details like that. But someone tipped me off that it may also be a fire issue. I am using coke as fuel, but I heard that coal works better for welds. Is this true? Is coke or coal better for welding? Does it make a difference? Thanks for the help.

here's what it looks like. Not at all going to become an actual knife, but was the best one i did last night.

well i managed to figure it out on my own. It occurred to me that a clip is merely a dip in the metal since the actual blade part is straight, so I stood the bar on it's side and kept it level with the anvil and pounded a tapered dip into the top of the bar. This created the clip effect and then I formed the blade on the other side from there. Worked pretty good, just needs practice now.

hey, I want to make a good bowie/skinning knife for a friend, but I have no idea how to forge in a clipped point, I don't want to grind one in. Any pointers?

i just joined a blacksmithing group and they said that the hammeres I have been using are just xxxx. they are too flat and too harsh on the metal, and the peen is too sharp to be of any good use, causes more pits and valleys than does any actual useful work. I got these hammeres from Lowe's and Home depot sells the same darn thing. I checked on the blacksmithsdepot website and all the hammers look to be the same flat face kind of hammers I now have. Does anyone know where I can get a decent hand hammer without having to go through an entire file set just to face it? (exaggereation, but ya get the point)

Hey all, I just moved to San Antonio TX and I'm wanting to know if there's any smiths near San Antonio, not Houston. I'd like to get together and hopefully learn a thing or two from another blacksmith.

Hey all, I just moved to San Antonio TX and I'm wanting to know if there's any smiths near San Antonio, not Houston. I'd like to get together and hopefully learn a thing or two from another blacksmith.

ahh, ok. so can anyone point me in the direction of a decent belt grinder? i've seen the kmg grinder and the radius one, but is there anything a little less expensive than the kmg?
also, what can i use the slack belt for, or should i not use slack belt to grind?

So I would need to get a grinder that uses a belt instead of a regular wheel for blade work? I'm not trying to form the entire blade with just the grinder, for those were asking, it's for after forge work and post heat-treating. But from what you guys were all saying, spend the extra money and go for one that uses a belt? What is the difference between using a belt and the stone wheel?

I've gotten to the point where I now need a grinder, but I'm not sure what one to get. Will a variable speed grinder help me out in the long run at all or will it be more hassle than it's worth? Should I just go with a cheap 40 dollar single speed walmart grinder or what? Does it matter?

Fellas, forging blades is done using basic blacksmithing techniques. Plain and simple. You can rename these techniques if you choose. But they are still basic blacksmithing techniques. Nothing more nothing less. These techniqes have been used for hundreds of yrs with good results.
If you think you have come up with a new way to forge blades using more than these basic techniques , lets hear it.
Learn the basic techniques or don't. The first couple blades I made were tribunals . I didn't know the first thing about blacksmithing and there wasn't any IFI to go to for advice. When I decided I wanted to LEARN how to forge blades, I had to follow some well worn guidelines, like how to draw a piece of metal into a point.

i had a lot of trouble at first with the points. and i never learned anything before starting to make knives. the first thing that i ever made with a forge was a small utility knife out of 3/4 inch flat stock. it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but i use it for just about anything i can think of and it still works. It may be what some on here would call a letter opener, it's made form mild steel, but that it what i had to learn on at the time. working with cheep low carbon steel helped me figure out things like points without wasting a lot of money. and i had fun in the learning process. If you don't want to use stock removal then don't. i haven't yet. what i do is just pick the side that i want my edge to be on. i forge the point first. hammer the corner of the edge until it starts to buckle a little, then lay it down and hammer out the buckle. after a couple times doing this you'll start to see the taper. you'll have to fiddle around a bit to figure out how to shape the curve to the point the way you want it, but if you practice on inexpensive stock you can figure it out before moving up to the good stuff.

it looks good no doubt, but I have a question. since you made it out of a file, which is essentially a bar stock, how did you make the point? Did you cut away material to make the point or did you forge the point? I am working on my first knife and I don't know how to make a point on a blade.

So in essence I should be tapering it down to a point, then form the blade? I really don't feel like cutting away any material before the final grind (am I wrong for doing this?). I may not be a master of the basics, but I know I don't HAVE to cut away parts of my material to put a point on my blade.

Here is what I've done so far.

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single edge, but I'm working on a piece of rail iron for an anvil. I used a piece of leaf spring for blade material. I don't really know how to forge a tip onto the blade, I don't want to have to cut away any material in order to put a tip on it, partly due to the fact that I don't have the hardware required to do it (aside from cutting it on the edge of the anvil, kind of a pain sometimes).