caotropheus

Thank you guys for your replies. I posted these "cold working steel" questions but soon I will be building my first forge ;)

Thank you guys very much for your help. First of all, sorry for my broken English. If we return to the issue of shaping a knife by cold stock removal(after all "sculpturing" the metal ) just using an hand file, lets say, from a piece of spring leaf steel, do I still need to harden and temper the metal after I finished the knife? Isn't the stock steel already hard enough for a knife edge?

Greetings everyone. My first post here in "I forge Steel". I've been around the net to learn as much as possible before I start in my first blacksmithing steps. I would like to start by fabricating a couple of knives and I have a question that many of us have asked them selves: "Shall I take a chunk of steel and start cold sculpturing it in a shape of knife with files and other hand tools or should I get serious about this issue and mould this chunk of steel by the forge, anvil and hammer?" First of all, I would like to get a final product as strong and durable as possible. Forging steel may give me these properties because I mould the steel keeping (I think) a fluid molecular structure, reducing stresses throughout my object. On the contrary if I cold sculpture the steel, I simply remove bits of material from the metal, disrupting (I think) the continuous molecular structure of the steel, creating stress points that will weaken my knife. On the other hand, if I do not know or I cannot harden and temper properly the steel after the work in the forge, my knife will be weak and of low quality. On the contrary, If I am able to cold sculpture the steel into a knife I do not have to worry in the end with the correct hardening and tempering processes. Please experts, I would like to read your opinions on this issue. Thanks