March 18, 201610 yr Good morning to everyone here at some point or another! New to this forum and new to the forging and blacksmithing world. I have an innate desire to make things from racecars to bone and stone objects! I'm enamored by how much a person can make from heating up steel and shaping it into a desired object; knife, hammer, axe, and other little doodads. Now having said all this, I would like to know or be lead to a former post about the most common steels used by forgers. For example, O1 tool steel, 1095, 1080, etc. I looked up in the astm.org steel standards for a list and it gave me a plethora of steels and their uses. I'm looking for the most common and their uses. I like knives and this where I want to start, simple, then work my way to bigger and better things! Any comments and or leads will be much appreciated!
March 18, 201610 yr Please start here if you are interested in knife making and get back to us after you've done a bit more reading on the forum. Your question isn't quite as specific as you think it is. Making knives is far from starting simple. New knife maker?
March 18, 201610 yr Author 3 minutes ago, Buzzkill said: Please start here if you are interested in knife making and get back to us after you've done a bit more reading on the forum. Your question isn't quite as specific as you think it is. Making knives is far from starting simple. New knife maker? Thank you, will do!!
March 18, 201610 yr A "forger" is the person who prints counterfeit money or maybe paints a very good copy of another artist's work and signs it with the artist's name. A person who makes knives might be called a blade smith, a cutler or maybe a blacksmith. A hammer or an axe is a serious piece of work, definitely not a doodad (Doodad definition, a decorative embellishment; trinket; bauble:) You should probably start with a piece of mild steel (AISI grades 1005 through 1025) and learn to forge it in to a taper. Some shapes you might begin with are : a four sided pyramid on the end of a square bar a cone at the end of a square bar a four sided pyramid at the end of a round bar a cone at the end of a round bar.
March 18, 201610 yr Just start with the common "structural steel" grades, aka A36 dont worry about the ANSI ratings for now, just work scrap till you learn to manage the fire and move metal. Welcome to the forum
March 18, 201610 yr 33 minutes ago, dickb said: A "forger" is the person who prints counterfeit money or maybe paints a very good copy of another artist's work and signs it with the artist's name. A person who makes knives might be called a blade smith, a cutler or maybe a blacksmith. Albert Craven, the last production bladesmith in Sheffield, refers to himself as a "forger" in this video.
March 18, 201610 yr I'll bet that isn't Sheffield California. Hmmmm? Folk all over the world call the craft by their own native terms. in The USA we be "blacksmiths" or by another term denoting a different specialization say, "Bladesmith" or how about "Goldsmith" the most general term would be "Smith," for smite or hit. In the USA "forger" has other correct connotations and our new fellow has enough on his plate just learning the basics without confusing him and us with sort of correct terminology. My recommendation to beginners is to Learn general blacksmithing to a competent level before you start on special metals. If you've become proficient as a blacksmith bladesmithing is pretty darned easy you only need to learn how a different steel moves and the more tricky heat treatment. Trying to do both is multiplying the difficulty, it's not additive it's geometric. What looks like process driven cause and affect for mild steel might look entirely different using high carbon steel so making the mild steel correction could yield wildly different results than expected. This leaves a fellow only knowing what's happening but not why, let alone how to correct the issues. Set yourself up for success, grab a comfy chair, something to drink and lunch or snacks and settle in for some seriously high value reading in the Iforge archive sections. Pick one you're interested in and get ready for hours of good reading. Sure, reading won't "teach" you to be a blacksmith but it'll give you a handle on necessary things like the Jargon. (craft language) If you don't know the language how are you going to ask good questions let alone understand the answers. I hear some of the guys here can be pretty long winded and rambly. Welcome aboard, Frosty The Lucky.
March 18, 201610 yr 4 hours ago, JHCC said: Albert Craven, the last production bladesmith in Sheffield, refers to himself as a "forger" in this video. awsome video love his take on people not being able to go from start to finsh on making a knife i would love to see his thoughts on the reserection of hobby smithing
March 18, 201610 yr Author Thanks for everyone's input especially the correctional officers. Now I know, albeit the hard way, that forging is a dirty word except for the actual work area where the hot coals sit...in the forge. Unfortunately the word is not synonymous. Thanks especially to Frosty for your kind words of affirmation! I will continue to increase my knowledge and take your advice full-heartedly!
March 19, 201610 yr About 95% new 1018. I know what it is and never had an item break 1/ 2 or 2/3rds through a project. And it is very inexpensive. Some folks drop stuff like rr spikes and some car spring in way of coil and In leaf. Some of that has its uses. One if the best is old crow bars. I got a bunch of em for free and they are medium carbon. But some of tha free scrap is just as others have said. Scrap. Junk. I have gotten in trouble with it, again cuz it is mearly scrap.
March 19, 201610 yr It's not always a trouble-free path, ... but you do learn a lot, working with scrap.
March 19, 201610 yr What I meant to type on this dang phone key pad is the fact folks drop stuff off. They Think I can use it. The rr spikes are cool. some car spring is ok. But sometime I get some stock that literally breaks apart and flies off the anvil and onto me. Very not fun. And other times it waits till both halves of tongs are done to break when I rivet them or make one last adjustment. Agh!!!! So yeah. I pay the few bucks it costs me for new. Sometimes cold rolled or otherwise hot finish. But I can't go wrong with it. Very predictable. Free delivery too. But they charge you extra to cut it. So I buy in production length of 20 foot. Somebody dropped off a box of good very very fine toothed files. Large ones too. Not them little hobby files either.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.