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I Forge Iron

First forged knife


Rmartin2

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My first forged knife. I made it from a lawn mower blade. The blade heat treated nicely and withstood being batoned into seasoned hickory. I know it's a small skinner but I had to make sure the heat treat and Temper was good. The oak scales are from a barn constructed in the 1930's. 

 

 

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Thank you both. 

 

As as far as the rustic appearance goes, I think keeping the forging marks gives character to a knife. This one might be a little rough, but like I said its my first one. Well it's the first one that actually made if far enough to call a knife. 

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On May 19, 2016 at 9:10 PM, TwistedCustoms said:

Nice looking Nesmuk! Good job, keep the pictures coming.

Thanks. I did another one from the other half of the stock I cut it from and will post it when it's finished  

On May 26, 2016 at 3:09 PM, SpencerDirks said:

I love the rustic look. Good work!

Thanks. I was going for rustic.

On May 26, 2016 at 3:33 PM, Prevenge said:

I wouldn't say it's that rough at all ... looks like you didnt have to grind much off for the blade which means you forged it very close to final shape right? Well done indeed!

Thanks. You are correct. The only grinding was smoothing out the edges and puting a bevel on the blade.

On May 26, 2016 at 5:45 PM, ausfire said:

Great! I never thought a mower blade would make good stock for a knife. Could you give a little detail about how you riveted the handle?

Im not sure if all mower blades are created equal. My brother in law gave me the blades and I don't know type of mower they came from. The blades I got were excellent stock.

I wouldn't call them rivets as I didn't peen them. It's just 1/8 brass rod from Lowes. I laid the blade on one scale and marked the holes and drilled. Then I used the drilled scale for the template to drill the other one. I do a test fit of everything before I epoxy. I started using 60 min epoxy 

On May 27, 2016 at 7:28 PM, bigfootnampa said:

Although I have heard of mower blades that were not good steel... IME they are usually 1095 steel or something very similar!  Which is definitely decent blade stock!

I have heard mower blades were good and bad. I guess it depends on the blade. These blades heat treated very nicely. Very tough after temper. 

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On 5/27/2016 at 8:28 PM, bigfootnampa said:

Although I have heard of mower blades that were not good steel... IME they are usually 1095 steel or something very similar!  Which is definitely decent blade stock!

I've played around with more mower blades than I care to think about.  With the stock pile I collected from random blades picked up at the scrap yard, it has been hit or miss on whether they would harden at all.  Some worked well, some were ok, and about half of my collection wouldn't harden at all, even in water.  If you get a mower blade, its best to nip a small piece off and play around with heat treating it to see if its even worth your time to forge a blade or if it would be better used for a different project. 

For a first knife, I think you did really well.  Better than my early attempts.  Love the reclaimed oak.

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