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Dear Forumites, I have made a review video of my knife in 4 parts I have already started forging my 3rd knife and managed to burn my ear lobe. I did not hold the piece properly and struck it at the far end. It got loose and spun up and landed on my ear lobe , then on my shoulder and fell down. Learnt my lesson. Will be ultra careful henceforth when holding the piece. YouTube - Reviewing my knives - Part1 YouTube - Reviewing my knives - Part2 YouTube - Reviewing my knives - Part 3 YouTube - Reviewing my knives - Part 4

Dear Forumites, I am happy to report that the second attempt at quenching was successful and did not cause any additional warping. So, what fixed it? I do not know as I did many things all at once. 1) I annealed the steel 3 times last night and let it rest 2) I coated the blade with clay ( which I did not do last time ) 3) I heated the spine and let the colour bleed into the edge and did not heat it too much. 4) I checked with a magnet before quenching 5) I did a partial or edge quench in cooking oil ( I did it in water last time ) . It seems to have worked. This is actually my first knife even though I abandoned it after I cracked the tip and broke the tang. Anyway, after I did my second knife successfully, I had the confidence to go back and resurrect the abandoned piece. I learnt that I need to cut off the cracked part as it kept creeping into the blade no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. That made my blade a little smaller, but it is still big enough to cut vegetables. I am embarrassed to say that I used an angle grinder on the portion where I had a MS bit welded on. It was too ugly and I could not remove it with a file or my hand cranked grinding wheel. But the deep curve gave it an exotic look. (trying to put a positive spin on things ) Anyway here are the pictures

Dear all, When I do an edge quench or a partial quench, my cutting edge warps in a zig -zag fashion. YouTube - Learning to blacksmith Warping problems I am using HCHCS. It has been abused by me , gone through at least 40 heats , this was my first piece ever and I have abused it due to lack of skill. I anneal the steel 3 times and let it cool overnight before I grind it with a hand cranked grinder and quench it. YouTube - Learning to Blacksmith - Annealing The same steel quenched with out any edge warping when the knife was heavier. However, I did not abuse that workpiece as I did this one. Kindly help. Ramachandran Subramanian

MarkB , Thank you for your advice. Next time onwards, I will try to make the setup more ergonomic. rmcpb, I will try to get some old blacksmithing book and read it and practice it on some MS. I know I need to learn more. I need to go get some old construction quality steel rods. Today's report. I spent 2 hours with my knife and a hand cranked grinding wheel and finally came up with a blade, a blade whose face only it's mom can love. Anyway, it seems to do the job I want and I am very proud of my achievement. I feel like a Kinder gartener who did his first "MOMMY" picture that goes on the refrigirator. Imageshack - img2468f Imageshack - img2467 I did the heat treatment today. Again, I operate mostly by mimicking what I have seen blacksmiths do in my village. I took some very fine clay and made a batter out of it and dipped my knife in it and let it rest with the edge facing the sky. After a few hours, I took the battered knife and put it in the forge and made it orange. Meanwhile I took some used/old cooking oil from our kitchen and brought it to a boil over the fire. Set it aside , took the knife and quenched about 1.5'' of the blade in the hot oil. Some of it I understand, but the clay part I don't. I was told that it helps to stop chipping of the blade. Anyway, I made some clay battered and fried kinfe today. YouTube - Learning to Blacksmith - Heat treatment of my first knife If my mom was alive, she would have been so proud of me today. After all I made my first knife and it cuts really well too. I am yet to do the handle, but I am all ready to gloat, so it doesn't matter. Thank you all for helping me make my first blade, That is not a perfunctory remark. I really mean it. Ramachandran Subramanian

I have some good news to report. Well , after my last post I had fallen ill and did not feel like doing anything for a week. Since I felt better yesterday, I decided to fire up the forge and try my luck at forging the remaining piece of HCHCS. This time I removed all the clay/mud packing I had inside my forge to make room for as much charcoal as possible. The previous attempt I had damaged the workpiece because I hammered it when it was not hot enough and it cracked. This time however I was super cautious and never struck the workpiece when it was not hot (once bitten twice shy ). I am happy to say that I have made some thing that looks like a knife. I am trying to make a vegetable cutting knife with out a pointed end. I have attached a picture of it as it looked somewhere along the way. I have also added two videos of me forging. I would be grateful for your time if you can view and provide constructive criticisms. YouTube - Learning to Blacksmith - Getting somewhere This is how it looked towards the end YouTube - Leraning to Blacksmith - Forging the mouth of the blade It took me 8 hours (4 yesterday + 4 today ) to make that round rod of HCHCS into the so called blade like shape. I did not strike it even once if I thought it was not hot enough. I must have put it in the forge at least 20-25 times. Regards Ramachandran

Dear forumites, I am making some progress. However, I think I have reached the limits of my skill and little knowledge and therefore seek your guidance. I have managed to make a flat piece of metal from a 1/2 '' rod of HCHCS. On the way i have found that my forge stops working after 30 minutes, just when it gets real hot, as the ashes block the airway. I am in the process of remedying it. I would be extremely grateful if anyone can take a look at the videos and correct my mistakes. Kindly see the shape of the piece at the end of each video. YouTube - Blade smithing - Baby steps 1 YouTube - Blade smithing - Baby steps 2 I have the following questions 1. Once I flatten or thin out a stock, I can't make it fatter. Is my assumption right? 2. Look at the picture below . I have painted myself into a corner. I have a blade that looks like a straight razor. How do I make a pointed edge with out making the metal any thinner? 3. I find that as I flatten out the rod, it takes a lot lesser time to heat it to working temperature, at the same time, a thinned out stock cools much faster too. Is there anything I can do to make it stay hot a little longer? Thanks for your kind efforts. Ramachandran Subramanian

Happy to report that I did better this morning. I did the following 1) Made the hole that drops down vertically a bit larger 2) Used smaller charcoal pieces 3) used wet rice husk to smother the coal bed 4) Used a sledge hammer I managed to deform the same HCHCS that I could not even dent 2 days back. Actions 1 and 2 were from western wisdom and 3 and 4 were from a guy who is a hand made tile layer. He saw me for the past 3 days struggling and decided to help me out. The bad news is that after about 1 hour of use the ash blocks the air way and I can't generate any meaningful heat. I need to drill a hole from the bottom and keep it on 5 bricks so that the ash can fall off if I just move the center brick, the other 4 being in the corners. Anyway, here is the video. I am holding the stock and the tile layer is striking the iron. You can see the handmade tiles at Aathangudi Chettinad tiles if you like artsy things. YouTube - MVI 24311

Sir, I am writing from Madras, India . It is called Chennai now, but the old British name is madras. I fired up the forge and put in a strip of blade from an old bench planer. Got to red hot and tested it with a magnet (it did not stick ) and I hammered it, but alas it cracked. I think I am not able to bring my metal up to the desired heat no matter how long I stick it in the fire.

Dear Forumites, After reading some of the information available here about forge design, I decided to upgrade, to my home made earthen forge. I don't know if it will work , but I have designed it based on what I read. I took clay, coal ash and rice husk in the ratio of 4:1:1 and mixed it all up with water and let it sit for a few hours. Next I took a fired clay pot (20'' dia ) with fairly thick side walls (3/4 inch) and made a hole at the bottom. Then I wrapped a bit of paper around the steel tube and pushed it through the hole so that the mouth goes to the center of the bottom. Next I took a few days worth of news paper and put it perpendicular to the tube and covering the mouth and started filling my clay mix in. As I came up to the top I filled up more and the sides and made a bowl like depression at the center 3'' deep. I have attached some pictures so that you can advise me . You can click on the thumbnails to see bigger versions of the picture. My SPGM gallery I hope to remove the pipe after it dries up. I use common charcoal and I do not have access to coal or lignite.

OK. Newbie dumbness. I asked myself, what makes a good knife. So I went and got myself some High carbon steel. I am aiming to hammer it into a plate and make a meat cleaver style vegetable cutting knife, about 7'' long and 2'' tall and 5 mm thick at the spine. You see I aim high , my skill level not withstanding Never thought or knew that HCHCS would be more difficult to forge. I just figured that you heat it and hammer it. I need to make a proper forge. This is just some thing I threw together to get off the mark. I will have to figure out a way to blow air from underneath, till I get hold of a old wheel brake drum.

Yes Sir, it is extremely difficult. I just spent 1 hour on a 1/2 ' thick rod of High carbon High Chromium Steel about 1' long and I barely made some hammer marks. I do not have a working sledge hammer yet. I have a hammer head and a handle. Need to put both together. I find that holding the stock still while I strike it, the most difficult thing to do at this stage. Would appreciate any tips. I do not have anyone to teach me. When I requested my village blacksmith, he thought I was nuts. His reply was "sir, you are well off and have a good job, why do you want to do this?" In such a situation, my only option is to learn by trial and error. So I have started. I have attached some pictures of my "shade tree forge" and some of my Indian machetes ( sickles ) most made by my village blacksmith and some gifted by other friends. You can see them at My gallery 7 PM CST would be 6.30 AM Saturday morning.

Dear Forumites, My name is Ramachandran Subramanian. Ram for short. I have no experience with blacksmithing. However, I have some experience with collecting knives (cooking knives ) and Indian machetes. After a few years of collecting knives, I decided to try my hand at forging my own knives and thats why I am here. I want to learn. I have acquired some basic tools. Anvil , a few hammers, a few tongs, a few files, a hand cranked blower, electric heat gun, electric blower, some cold and hot chisels, some punches, a hand cranked grinding machine, bench vice, lots of charcoal and a lot of fire bricks with which I make adhoc forges ( on my garden floor ) . My other interests are gardening and wild life photography. You can take a look at some wild life pictures at gallery , if you are inclined. I look forward to learning from one and all. Regards Ramachandran