rrnsss Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Welcome to I Forge Iron. While it is easy enough to get started making knives by stock removal, if you prefer to forge them, as I and many others do, then getting started by learning general blacksmith skills is the best way, as jumping into forging knives is very hard to do without the basic skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Welcome Ram, enjoyed your pics. Check out knife chat fridays at 7pm( don't know what time that would be in India). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrnsss Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Welcome aboard Ram, glad to have you. A couple things about making knives as I'm sure you're discovering. First is knowing how to forge. Tool steel is expensive and much harder to forge than mild steel. This means it's a LOT harder to learn the proper forging techniques than it needs to be. You aren't likely to get a good knife from your first forging experiences anyway so why waste good steel? Second, is understanding how the fire works and how it effects the steel. There's more going on than just getting it hot. By blowing air at the top of the charcoal you are not getting enough heat to the steel but you ARE getting WAY too much oxygen to the steel. Oxy on hot steel is a bad thing. Reconfigure your forge so it forms a more open topped box with a piece of black iron pipe coming in from the bottom. The air blast can aim upwards from the bottom or horizontally across, about an inch 25mm. or so off the bottom. Connect your blower to the other end of the iron pipe in such a way you can reduce the air flow. Charcoal doesn't require a lot of air, too much will consume it much faster than necessary AND damage your steel with excess oxygen. An easy way to control the air is simply moving the blower away from the pipe. Don't bother turning the heat on, it won't make enough difference to notice. Forging SS, especially high carbon SS is at least three times as hard as forging mild and there are mistakes you can make that won't show up till you're almost finished. It's a really hard way to learn to forge. Believe me it's a lot easier and FASTER to learn to make knives after learning to forge than doing both at the same time. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrnsss Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy seale Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 howdy from west texas,welcome to IFI. lots of knowledge and good folks here.have fun,jimmy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Hi Ram, Namaste! You will find so much very useful information here, and some extremely helpful people too! I understand what you say about Blacksmithing in India, I worked in Western Rajasthan with some Gaduliya Lohar folk, they too thought I was a bit nuts to want to learn from them! I found though, once they got over the fact they thought I was a crazy woman, they were very willing to share their knowledge with me. Can you make a ground forge where you are? Where are you located in India? Nice to have you here. Regards, Colleen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnr Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Greetings Ram: Check out the blacksmithing lessons here: Lessons in Blacksmithing That will go a very long way toward getting you started. Finnr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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