MrDarkNebulah

Allright guys. I've been forging for almost two years now and I dont want to stop. However, I just moved into college. (Cooper Union in Manhattan if you're wondering). So now I'm stuck with wondering how do I continue forging when I have no space to do it. I know some people can do stock removal knives and heat treating on fire escapes. I dont have anywhere like that. I don't want to stop but it seems like thats my only option, especially on a college student budget.

On 9/6/2017 at 6:09 AM, Johnnyreb338 said:

I like it very clean and simple.    Only thing I see is mabey incorporate some beveling on the scales at the front where the scale and blade meet. Looks kinda square from the pic. But I still am a fan.

Yea I wasn't sure what to do with that. I really only noticed it after the handle was attached. Once again, a good learning experience.

On 9/6/2017 at 7:49 AM, JME1149 said:

Very nicely executed. One minor comment, I might have shortened up the scales just in front of the finger slot. They look a little fragile being that thin right at the cutting edge of the blade.

That was something I was also worried about. I think it should be fine, as the knife won't be experiencing any heavy use, but still. 

Thanks for the compliments and critiques guys.

Thanks guys. The pins are copper because that was all that I had. I should've done them with a metal that matched the steel in colour, but lesson learned I guess.

This is the first knife that I've made that I'm actually happy with. Its a simple hunting knife that I made for my friend. The knife is forged from a leaf spring and ground with a 1 x 30 which is a pain to use and an angle grinder. The handle is ivory micarta. That would not have been my first choice for handle material, but the guy I was making it for insisted on it. After the forging was done, I showed the blank to him as well and he wanted the handle to be longer than it was initially was so I welded on another half inch or so. I personally think it is too long now and out of proportion, but when I gave it to him he said it was perfect. It is hand sanded to 600 grit and then I used a finishing sponge. This is also the first knife that I am happy with the plunge lines as well, as I finally got around to using a guard/jig for that. All in all I am pretty happy with it. Please Critique.

Thank you all for the critique. TP, I did accidentally burn the tip a bit while forging, so I had to grind off an inch or so of it. 

I was able to grind out the remaining warp so now it is pretty straight, and yes, I now realize after doing some actual research that it is not very tanto like. It was more of my attempt at a tanto without really knowing what one was when I had extra time while forging. I quenched it in used motor oil. The handle is mahogany with some lacquer as a finish and a bronze guard. I made the guard too small and didn't have any more bronze to make a new one, so it is a bit off on the spine. All in all, I am happy with how the knife came out, as it was my first ever hidden tang and guard, but I definitely need to work on my fit and finish. (It is a bit blotchy because I was messing around with it a bit by the wood pile. No breaks or bends!)

So I've been doing blacksmithing for over a year and now I've decided I wanted to try some knives this summer. This is my 3rd or so forged knife (I did some stock removal as well previously) and I wanted to try to make a more traditional tanto. It is forged out of a coil spring and after hardening, it passed the file test, so I'm happy with it. Unfortunately, it took on a bit of a warp but it looks like I can grind it out. Please critique as much as you can, I know I need it.

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I'm not an expert here but I've heard that 5160 is tricky to forge weld with due to the chromium content. I would try leaving it out next time, because I know 1090 and 15n20 are common in Damascus

Yea the actual forging in the bench was not much. But the project was year long, so I spent the entire year trying to learn the ABANA skills I talked about above.

It actually was not a capstone. My high school has a yearlong project that they make every senior do so I did mine on blacksmithing. And yes, I did get quite a bit of tooling from the school for the bench. They ended up buying me a welder, 210 pounds of coal and the materials, as well as some other odds and ends.

Thank You! I forgot those existed. They will be perfect.

Hi everyone. I've been blacksmithing for a while now and I'm about to go give a presentation for school on my progress through the year. I was wondering if anyone could point me to a good place to find some diagrams demonstrating forging techniques. I'm in a bit of a time crunch right now so I can't look as deeply as I'd like to but I'm having trouble finding them. I'm trying to find diagrams or pictures demonstrating the journeyman skills located here: https://abana.org/resources/journeyman/index.shtml#skills

And if anyone is curious, the project was trying to learn as many of those journeyman skills I could and makes smaller pieces demonstrating each. The final project was making a bench which I donated to the school, pictured below.

Bart next time I will try that. I could not seem to get a good transfer when I was using it, but I think it was because I was using too high quality of photo paper.

By it I mean the iron method

On 4/13/2017 at 4:27 PM, WoodnMetalGuy said:

Had not heard of these before, so I learned something new today.  Here's a link to setting one up for anyone else who might not know what a pitch bowl is: http://www.alberic.net/Student_Home/Handout_Archive/files/PitchBowls V1-Web.pdf

Do I understand this correctly - that the idea with the copper that it's softer than the steel and so the ridges on the reverse side indent the copper vs. the copper mushing down the ridges?

-- Dave

Another thing that works is using a laser printer - when you put the paper face down in contact with your work and heat the back of the paper with an iron, the toner will transfer to your work.  I haven't ever tried that on metal, but it works on wood.  Remember you need to print your design in reverse if you have lettering or other non-symmetric items.  

-- Dave

 

You're right, I meant to say laser printer. The heat is what makes the toner transfer. I don't think inkjet will work.

If you do the whole printing and etching thing you need to make sure you use an inkjet printer and photo paper or else the transfer wont work well.

I've been meaning to look into draw filing. The pitting on the larger one I am going to leave due to the fact that it is already pretty thin and grinding them out would simply take too much out of it.

Here are two of my first few knives. Both are made from an old circular saw blade, which I did the heat, quench, and break test. They were both done with stock removal. The large one has an oak handle and the pins are made from old nails. The small one also has an oak handle but stained and has a brass pin. I definitely need to work some more on beveling but I am pretty happy with these ones. I'd love to hear what you all have to say about what I need to work on.

From my understanding all that people would do would to make 3 links at a time, then join two sets of three, then join two set of seven, then two sets of 15, and so on. So it would probably be designated to different people along the way.

Thank you C-1. Most of my knives Ive been doing lately are stock removal, so I won't be doing the beveling forged in to start, but that seems like a pretty good process for grinding things out.

Ok, I thought that was what you meant but I wasn't sure. I forgot to mention in my first post, very nice knife.

Hey Das, as someone also getting into bladesmithing without a belt grinder, I've had some issue with the bevels as well. Could you post a picture of the jig that you used?

Nothing for me as well. I'm recently single, but looking on the bright side it happened before  Valentines day.

the 3d printed cast copper, How do you do that? Is it just 3d models in greensand or did you do a lost wax type thing but with the 3d models instead of wax? Would that even work? It looks amazing by the way

Hi everyone. Here is my first "real" knife that I've made. I say real because I tried my hand a while ago at some railroad spike knives, but those were when I had just started and weren't the right steel. This one was made from an old file and the handle is a railroad spike wrapped in paracord. It is a little less wide than I would have liked, but if I were to make it wider then I would have lost the file pattern and I wanted to keep that. I should have been a little bit more careful with my hammering at the tip as you can see there were some things that I couldn't grind out. It was quenched in used motor oil and tempered in a toaster oven. Tested with a file it skated off. The inspiration for this knife was a knife I saw at the New England Fall meet (The bottom one). Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the guy who made the first one. Sorry. 

I would love to hear what you guys have to say and any comments or critiques. Thanks in advance!

This is the workout that I started doing. https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

The guy goes into a lot of depth on why the exercises are chosen and the benefit to each.

I think that the issue is not what steel you start out with but rather what project you use. The steel only really matters to that huge extent once you have done some beginning projects and decide to move on. Too often people are too ambitious, and in those projects the steel type can ruin their desire.