Gustav

I ordered some 10 mm (3/8") and 16 mm (5/8") earlier today and this is what've come up with: Cut off a short piece of 16 mm (5/8") Upset it until the very end reaches 20 mm Taper the other end closer to 10 mm (3/8") (Now this is when I'm uncertain) Forge the end ready for a scarf weld Forge a scarf on the end of a ~450 mm (~17.7") long piece of 10 mm (3/8") Forgeweld

I have seen people like Black Bear Forge do candleholders with pipe, but when it comes to candleholders, I really want to make them the traditional way like in the video I linked. It's been more than 2 years now since I built my forge, and I've managed to forge a lot of things just by trial and error. But yeah, you could say I'm new.

Hello! This is mainly about candlesticks, which I have made roughly 8 of and they all have been very time consuming, so I want to find other ways to forge them. So far, I forge two at a time, one at the anvil while the other is in the forge. I start with 500 mm long pieces of 10 mm square and begin upsetting one end until it gets thick enough at the very end (17-20 mm). This is not only very time consuming, but also dangerous since I've hit my left hand (that holds the bar) a lot of times when upset the piece (I've tried holding it with tongs, but it's not stable). I then flatten it out with the cross pein side of my hammer until the end resembles somewhat of a circle sector (also takes a lot of time). A problem that often arises during this part is that the metal in the upset piece wasn't enough, which means that I have to either make a tiny cone or flatten out the circle sector until it's paper thin to make it big enough. Obviously, if it's too thin it's going to break during forging or burn away in the forge (has happened a lot of times in my solid fuel forge). After that, just forge the circle sector into a cone and 90% of the work is done. If my explaination was bad or if you haven't seen candlesticks being forged, check this video out. It's in Swedish but atleast you can see the process, but with much bigger stock and power hammers. "But why use 10 mm square?" you might ask. Well, the very first one I made was 14 mm square and upsetting it was easy, but forging down the rest into smaller dimensions was also very timeconsuming since I don't have a power hammer or hydralic press. Forging down very thick pieces of stock into much smaller dimensions is not very convenient for me. I'm probably just bad at it, so if there is any really efficient way I'd love to know. Instead of using 12, 14 or 16 mm square and upsetting one end a little bit before forging down the rest of the bar into 10 mm square/round I start with smaller stock and enlargen one end before flattening it out. Now, here's a few ideas I've come up with, but never tested the first two: Forgeweld a shorter and thicker piece (12, 14, or 16 mm) onto the end of a 10 mm bar before upsetting "a little bit" and continue with the process from there. Draw a circle sector onto a thinner piece of sheetmetal/plate of steel, cut it out with an angle grinder and forgeweld it onto a 10 mm bar and continue with the process from there. Just bite the bullet and start with 12 or 14 mm bar. Upset one end and forge down the rest into a smaller dimension. But is there an efficient and effective technique that I can practice so that it becomes faster? I'd be very glad to hear your thoughts and ideas. // Gustav

Hey! How do you guys grind your secondary bevels after HT? I'm thinking about buying whetstones to go from no edge at all to "papercutting sharp", but what grits should I use? I've learned that a stone in the 180-240 (or even lower) range will create the edge, but I don't really know how big the gritsteps should be after that. Should I buy something like two two-sided whetstones, a 180/400 and a 1000/3000? Or should I skip the 3000 and strop on a leather belt instead? Replace the 400 with a 600 side? I really have no clue. One thing that's annoying me is the fact that the extremely low grit stone would solely grind secondary bevels on newly forged knives, and on nothing else. The other grits above will probably get used more in the kitchen or just general knife repair. It just feels weird having a stone that gets used very little, but is it true that you can use lower grit stones (120-240) as a flattening stone for the other stones? I love this hobby but just can't seem to figure sharpening out, no matter how many hours I've spent researching this on the internet. I'd be very happy for all the help I can get. // Gustav

Yeah I've always wanted whetstones but they seem too expensive. A coarse, a medium and a fine stone plus one for flattening must be very expensive? How much should one pay for each stone to avoid either getting a crap stone or a way too expensive?

Ok, the knife is finished (two days ago) and I've never been this proud. The thing isn't perfect, but it's perfect for me atleast . I have to get better at sharpening. I used an electric knife sharpener that my parents had, even though I don't like that way of sharpening. It cuts, but the steel has more potential.

So I tried out filing the whole edge by hand and it pretty much worked. I really felt it being harder near the tip and softer in the middle, so I just filed as much as I could. I basically filed until I literally couldn't file more, since the soft metal got removed, exposing the hardened steel. I then hand-sanded it up to 600 grit, and glued everything together. Tomorrow will probably be when I actually finish the knife! One question though, what grit do you think I should go up to on the knife (not sharpening)? I can imagine a mirror finish being annoying in the kitchen with food sticking more easier than on a satin finish, but what grit specifically do you recommend for a chef's knife?

I do however have something I'm worried about. When I ground away the surface after HT, i really wanted the edge to be clean. I then dipped the knife in water and quickly ground away some material throughout 70% of the edge with the knife perpendicular to the sander. Later, I tried filing and noticed that the tip (the part I didn't grind) might be a little bit harder than the other part of the edge. I am however uncertain and could just be thinking this, but I'm thinking about how to fix it if 70% of the edge actually got some of its hardness "removed". I did not see any tempering colors whatsoever during grinding, however. One thing I thought about is to file away a bit of the edge to hopefully "get to" harder steel a tiny bit closer to the spine. How should I do this? Use an ordinary file until I can't remove more material, or sand it away? What grits? I'd also like to have those rockwell files that test hardness. What are they called, how many should one have and which HRC should they range from? Or if you have any tips on how to quickly check if the hardness of the edge is "good" and not ruined. HT went well, the problem (if there is any) does not have to do with quenching or tempering. Like if a file shouldn't even bite into the steel at all after HT or if it's fine if it bites a little bit.

I've been very busy and finally found time to get going on this project. If anyone's still following this I have some results: Forged Normalized (is it really necessary before annealing?) Annealed in vermiculite Ground the knife Normalized x 3 Quenched in well heated canola oil Tempered in oven at 200 °C two times, 1 h each. I got an even heat by placing a square pipe in the coke forge, it was supricingly effective. It pretty much created a propane forge lol. The quenching went good, even though I got a slight warp that I wasn't able to correct. It's probably something I'll have to grind away if I have enough material. However, there were no cracks. Also, the file-test was just wonderful. The high pitch just echoed in the shop and I let out a long sigh of relief. The picture is the knife before the tempering cycles. It is now at a straw/light bronze color with some patches of purple (not on the edge).

I normalized in air and then annealed in vermiculite yesterday and took the knife out today. It's soft! One question though: what's the difference if you compare dead soft carbon steel and just regular old mild steel? The knife is soft, but mild steel is softer. This might be a no-brainer, but not for me.

I'll make sure to regularly dip it in water. Thanks!

Now that's something I didn't know. Normalize and then anneal! One question however: after grinding etc, do I need to normalize and anneal again just before quenching? For instance, if the steel gets pretty hot while grinding (maybe not glowing, but hot), is it necessary to redo steps 1 and 2 before hardening? It definitely did!

anvil - Ok if I want to shape the knife after forging so a file can remove material, is it air cooling (normalizing) or vermiculite (annealing)? I've always thought of annealing as the process after quenching with the tempering colors and normalizing as the "remove all hardness and stress before shaping and quenching". Before the quench there's the normalizing cycles so it's critical temp then air cool regardless of how thin it is? It feels like it cools down too quickly when air cooled so it's not very soft.

Hey. I'm a new bladesmith (with a couple of years experience of traditional blacksmithing) and I've made a couple of knives out of O2 steel. The first one turned out great, but the second one had cracks all over the edge and spine. I've done a little bit of research and people say: the edge hardens first, so when the thicker spine hardens the edge can't flex => cracks. What I think caused it: I had problems normalizing it before hardening. The oil (canola oil) was probably not hot enough. I used a coke forge and struggled to reach an even temperature. Read a bit online and found out O2 isn't for inexperienced bladesmiths. I didn't know this when I began forging my next knife, a kitchen knife. It's not hardened yet, and I'm terrified of doing it. My question is: how do I make sure I don't get any cracks in my new knife? I've bought some vermiculite to normalize in, but someone said online that you shouldn't normalize O2 in vermiculite. He said you should do a "sandwich" with hot pieces of thick metal under and over the knife. Does vermiculite work or was he right? Is there anything else you recommend me doing to increase my chances of a successful quench with O2? I've ordered 80CrV2 steel (which supposedly is a more beginner-friendly steel) so next time will be easier. Very thankful for all answers! // Gustav

Hey! Really happy about my first knife! I've tried twice before but it was pretty much just practice ones on mild steel. This one is made from 5x40 mm O2 tool steel. It successfully hardened and tempered, but I'm not really happy about the sharpening. I went from 120 to 400 grit on our belt sander (the highest grit we had lol), tried honing but failed so it almost cuts paper. So there's a lot to improve and learn from. What do you think about it?

I've experimented with some patters on my openers. I really don't like the zig-zag one, but what do you think? Are there any good looking patterns that are quick to cut with a chisel? The openers will be sold, so it can't be any over complicated ones that take a lot of time. (Any other thoughts on the openers are also appreciated! )

Yes that's working out pretty well when it comes to learning this craft! I made another one today: This one fixed some of the problems I had with the "left one". It's much thicker, it has a smaller "hole" and a wider "tooth" (what's it called?) so it can grip underneath the caps easier. It also works, which is a good thing As for all the things I forge, there are always things to improve and as you said, learn from the recent tries!

Just forged my first ever! Actually, it's two of the first things I have forged at all. They were forged from 14x14 mm bar and finished with boiled linseed oil. They turned out quite small but the "hole" was a bit too large. On top of that, only the one to the right worked (even if I burned it a bit) since the left one couldn't grip onto the cap with its tiny scroll. It also bent since the whole thing was too thin for an "open" loop. Anything to keep in mind when forging bottle openers? I could use a bit of help as you can see...

Well, turns out we have 2 welders!

What kind of clay would that be?

If I find some 10 mm sheet metal, what kind of welder is required? I have a "Micro-Mig" atm (with specs I don't have in my head). Will that do?

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll try to find some thicker plate. I suppose it doesn't matter what type of steel it is? As long as it's not galvanized or something like that. Mod note: don’t use the quote feature if you’re replying to the immediately preceding comment. It’s a waste of space and bandwidth.

Hey guys! It's time to upgrade my forge. The first picture is what it looks like ATM and the secound is what I want it to (sort of) look like: The plan is to weld sheet metal to make this a "table" and then cut out a round opening to make room for the rim forge. That way the forge I have now acts as a firepot. It will probably look like something like this: The things I am uncertain about are: 1. How large should the "table" be? 2. Should I weld some plates (like these: ) inside the rim to make it look more like the firepot from the picture I pasted? 3. How thick does the sheet metal have to be? Both for the table and the eventual plates for the firepot in question number 2 above. 4. Should I ditch the rim and make an entirely new firepot? This could be difficult since I'll have a hard time finding extremely thick sheetmetal. Just realized that this got picture heavy. Very thankful for all answers. // Eophex

Thanks everyone for helping me with this hobby. Unfortunately there will not be a propane forge built nor bought. This is mainly because I already have a solid fuel forge (which might not be so good) and because I already have a virtually unlimited amount of coke. Investing in a propane forge, tank and propane would be too expensive compared to just continuing with the forge I already have. At the moment, I will propably just modify it with some sheet metal (another thread is possibly going to take care of that). However, I'm certain that I will build a propane forge in the future, when I move. When that time comes, I will have most of the knowledge of how to build one, thanks to you guys!

Just found this on a swedish craigslist-type site: The guy wants $224 for it (2000 SEK). The interior is about 80x300 mm and I've asked for more pictures and wether anything else comes with the price (making sure I only have to buy a propane tank after this is a huge plus).