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I Forge Iron

First Knife


magikk

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Hi Guys first of all I'd like to thank everyone who posts on IFI for the great wealth of knowledge. My name is mike I'm from central PA. I've always been interested in blacksmithing since I was kid and I've always liked knives so now that I'm older 49 I have the opportunity to pursue this new hobby. I've been reading the site since last summer and I have learned a lot and have a lot more to learn. I started making wall hooks and s hooks and some tools.This is my first attempt at a knife.It turned out pretty rough but it cut well.I used it to skin a deer and it held it edge and it was satisfying to know that I had made it. I used a car coil spring for the blade and some scrap wood for the handles and brazing rod for the pins. I had a hard time getting the bevels even but I'm sure with enough practice I'll get better. I heated to non magnetic and quenched in vegetable  oil.To temper I set a fire brick on the fire in my coal forge to get hot and set the blade on the brick over night while the fire burned out.Maybe not the best but I had oven.Thanks Mike

Knife 1 pic 1.JPG

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2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

What colour did the brick bring it to?

Hi again and thanks for the comments. I placed the blade on the hot brick on the forge. Immediately after quenching the blade. So as far as color it was still black from the oil.  Should I have cleaned the blade before tempering? I have an old toaster oven now but if it doesn't fit. Would using the hot bricks over the coal fire ove obj the sufficient? Thanks mike

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YES; you should have read a good book on knifemaking first.  The low tech way to temper a blade relies on the fact that the interference film of iron oxide on a polished blade shows a colour that is related to the temperature it reached.  If you can't see that you have no idea if you over or under heated it or if one area was very different in temp than another.    This is covered even in books over 100 years old "rub the piece with a piece of broken grindstone and watch the colours run; quench it in water when you see" (colour right for the alloy and item).   

You can test the edge to get an idea on how it was tempered or repeat the entire  heat-quench-clean-temper process so you *KNOW* what you have.

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Thanks for the advice .I admit I didn't research the tempering process enough.I've been doing some reading since the last post and I understand that I should have cleaned the blade so I could watch the color of the blade.I ended up doing it with the brick since I didn't have an oven to use in the shop.The blade got hard a file would skate off but I understand now i have no idea if its to hard or soft.One thing learned today. Thanks mike

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