ok, so I've been working on forging a knife. As i forged out the blade I realized that it was curving up and that i had left the spine strait before i started the blade. This means that now it is becoming a spine that sweeps upwards and away from the blade edge. I don't want this but i don't know how to re straighten the blade so the spine is strait. Any help would be great! Thanks!

Pictures please!

Sounds like beveling has caused the blade to curve upwards; I've found you can correct this over the horn or face with well placed softer blows to ease it back to where you want it. Keep an eye out for a wavy edge as the spine straightens, you'll have to keep that thinner steel reigned in with soft blows.

You can also pre-curve a blade to accommodate the steel's movement from beveling, or adjust as you go.

same way you take the curve out of any other steel...  arch up, and (gentile) hammer down... adjust as you go, and dont wait till its a pretzle

Ill have pictures tomorrow but ill try that out when i go out to forge. 

A ''swocker'' workers wonderfully.  It's basically a small baseball bat sized chunk of wood.  Heat the blade and let the thinner edge cool just a bit and lay the spine on the anvil and hammer the edge with the swocker.  The wood will smoke and scar, but if done rite you won't damage the edge and will straighten the spine out.  You can even prop one end of the spine up to get  a little more downward curve to the edge.

 

And that downward curve is the secrete, make your preform with the tip forged down and the edge curved down before hammering in the bevels.  When everything is rite, as you hammer the bevels the tip will rise and if you got your preform correct you will have to do little or no ''swocking''.  Wanye Goddard came up with the name because it makes a ''Swock'' sound when hitting the blade.  As an aside I highly recomend Wayne's books, ''the Wonder of knifemaking'' and ''the 50$ knife shop''.

 

BTW, the ''swocker'' is sacrificle and will eventually get eaten up.  I now just use a section of 2x4 and when it's eat up it goes as fire starter.

I have a bunch of Swockers I just didn't know the name! Wood baseball bats for cheap are on my buy list at yard, garage, etc. sales. A guy can't have too many Swockers.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

personally when I forge my blades, I preshape in anticipation of the curve. not by curving it the other way but by tailoring my geometries to my finished blade shape, ie hammering the tip down at a slope that might only start an inch or so from the tang. I also count on that upward swoop, because after beveling my edges I reheat and distal taper the spine - never fails, a perfect taper is also the correct correction to straighten the spine. slight adjustments can still be made by turning it spine side down on the face and tapping against the spine but I dont really have to do that with my method.

J

Then you are a very profecient bladesmith.  I can get close most times with my preform and as I add the bevels it curves up to the correct shape, and I include distal taper into the blade.  Even then I might need a little tweeking, and most beginer bladesmith require more tweeking than an experianced smith.  Hammering on the edge with wood is a good way to add or remove a curve without maring or folding the edge like a hammer can, though I have doen it with a hammer before.

By no means do I have as much experience as these folks, but I like to pre-curve my blade in the opposite direction. That way as I hammer my bevel it just straightens back out. 

Will52100 you just named that chunk of firewood next to my anvil. Thanks! :-). Frosty good luck on your next swocker hunt.

I don't think I have made the same knife twice, so there's a bit of tweaking I end up doing with each. In addition to what the others have said, I have also found that a leg vise with aluminum covered jaws can be a very helpful tool with the aid of a hammer or "swocker".

Here is the finished knife that I was working on. I chose to leave the imperfections in it this time because it looks kinda cool!

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38552-sam-0685/

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38551-sam-0684/

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38550-sam-0683/

Looks good! I too like to leave some of the hammer marks and dings in my work! Gives it a cool, rustic, handmade look, I think! 

I do like it but i want to make a high polish for my friend. Found out that there is no blade length limit in cali if you arent in LA and if you carry from the hip. So i think that knife will be a bit better quality for him. Its a late bday present already. Thanks to all of you who gave me advice, I really didnt like the way it was going to turn out before fixing the curve

Just an update. The knife has been great for just about everything and does everything with ease. It has kept its edge so far.

I like it! Sort of a "Green River" point. With the wood color, it looks like it could be kin to the two Frank recently posted. Are you going to make a sheath?

The material for handle was osage orange and I have completed a sheath but havent had a chance to take a picture and post it.