I don't know if I should add this to my first post or not so here goes. I built my own gas forge from scratch. Rig welded and built my own burners. Well I finished my first knife and it came out awesome. Used some steel I had laying around and it all went smoothly. Check it out. 

Jim

 

 

Pretty good for a first knife.  Can you tell us anything about the steel you used or the heat treatment you did?  Does the tang go all the way through the handle?  Is the handle just glued in place or do you have another method of holding it on the tang?

Looks like your forge did what you needed it to do.  Congrats!

The steel I used was just some scrap I had laying around I believe it is a medium carbon and started life as a 1 inch by 1 inch solid square rod about 10 inches long. I quenched it in used motor oil with a quart of transmission fluid mixed in as that is all I had on hand. I had to do it twice as it didn't harden properly the first quench. The tang goes all the way to the end of the handle and i actually had to cut about.25 off of it it was too long. I attached it with epoxy the 5 min type. The handle is made from some poplar wood I had laying around. I polished the blade just to see how it looked when done. It sharpened up perfectly and is razor sharp and seems strong enough. The forge worked flawlessly and only takes about 5 minutes to heat to non magnetic.

perty stinkin good for a first go-round. keep it up.