I've been having trouble, all opinions, advice, criticisms, help welcome.

I've been using RR spikes for all of the following, and propane forge(whisper momma) In pic 003 I have a crack, this was a wrinkle that started like those in 009, answer is proly smooth out wrinkles don't pound them in, but not sure.
?

I was forging at yellow heat in 007, looks bad, heavy fire scale. Forging too hot?

Fire scale pit in 002,again forged at yellow.

003 was forged at cherry red to dark red in dim light, and wire brushed at each heat, still seems like alot of FS?

010 draw filing...success in the gallery

Did You Anneal Or Normalize The Spike Before You Started?

No, just heated and started pounding.

looks like youve got to much air going into your burner. try choking it down a bit (it if doesnt have choke plates cover up a bit of the air inlet to the burner with some electrical insulation tape for a couple of heats, just to see if it makes a difference.)

the big dents look like you have hammered some scale / crud into the metal.

cant really see why annealing / normalising the spike would have the slightest differnece on its level of scaling in the forge (grain size etc after forging yes but no difference once the metal is above critical temp) - if anyone knows better please correct me.

Mark , pix

thanks Dale thats what I need to know. I guess I went too far the other way, also sometimes I have to get that last hit or 2, need to brake that habit, tired of make'n a junk pile.

John, I'll try choking my burners.

I also had this problem, I found that the scale were getting pounded in, I now use water on my anvil and hammer. The water on the hot spike make the scale pop right off and make for a cleaner forge.
Nitro

The excess fire scale is from an oxidizing atmosphere. You want a slightly reducing flame. Adjust your fuel air mix so there is some yellow flame coming out of the front. No too much but just some licks. This is a reducing flame. You should be able to keep the scale to a minimum in the forge. It will scale when you remove it though. But not nearly as much as you show. The amount of carbon in RR spikes do not have enough carbon in them to worry too much about annealing but it is a good practice to adopt.

I'll try again tomorrow, with water, thanks Nitro, and adjust for a reducing flame thanks Chuck, this speeds up the learning process.
Mark

Chuck Said" Annealing Was A Good Practise To Adopt"!
I Win !:)

Chuck Said" Annealing Was A Good Practise To Adopt"!
I Win !

surely that means annealing after you have forged it though? ? ?

4hrs. on this try today (am I retarded?)
Adjusted burners.
Hung a magnet.
Normalized 4-5 times.
Tried the water thing. (didn't care for the extra step.)
Blades a little short, and would like to have tapered the tang. ( too much time on the handle.
Still need to anneal.

I Thought All Scrap Needed To Be At Least Normalized ?
The Stress Is Still In The Steel From It's Previous Life,
That Spike Could Have Already Been Driven Into A Cross Tie.:confused:

If the material is lower carbon then it does not build any more stresses when forged. The main stresses come through uneven and low heat forging. Think about what you are doing when you forge a piece of steel also. By the time you are finished forging it all remnants of a previous life will be erased. If you are using High carbon steel or alloy steel then the normalizing process is very critical to refine the grain structure and relieve stresses. The carbon content in the average HC spike is .3%. This is below the reasonable expectations of a knife steel. It does make a nice novelty and is great practice but normalizing will not refine it much. But like I said it is always good practice to follow through with all the steps you would go through with a high carbon knife blade.

Mark, whats wrong with the picture you posted??? looks good from here. Also to add to the previous post. How many smiths normalize their wrought iron work?? The low carbon steel does not require it.

Thanks Chuck, I'm pretty happy with the last one, it just needs to be trued up.

I just thought 4 hrs. was a long time.

Mark, at this point I suspect when you're forging you're moving in slow mo due to your earnest efforts at getting things right. That would probably account for a lot of the time. I bet once you pound out a few dozen more of those things your heating, hammering and moving techniques will have become a beautiful and effective dance and your knives will be exceptional. Your present striving with the craft is impressive in its dedication, commitment and progress. Thanks for being so forthright in sharing your journey with us. -Phil

looks ok to me, scaling levels pretty normal.

It might be worth doing the basic 'excercises' a couple of times, forge a point on a piece of 1/2" round (similar techneque to forging the point on a knife), forging a piece of round into square etc.

Im pretty terrible at hand forging, I find it helps to mentally work through where im gonna hit it, and how hard when its still in the forge. I find I move most metal in the first 6 hits or so when its still very hot, and then use the rest of the heat refining it a bit.

it does get easier!!

Phil
Thanks for your support I appreciate it and I'm glad you're enjoying my posts, some times I think maybe this is all too boring and basic.

John
Good to know about the scale.
I've been trying different methods of forging, not sure which is the right way.
The last 2, I forged from square to round then started flattening, kind of wandering around looking for a technique, rhythm ,hammer control, etc. let alone I still don't know a lot of basic blacksmithing skills.

My interest in knife making started in the late '70's, I went to shows and bought books, joined ABANA collected and made tools learned to weld etc. but never really got around to actually make some knives, but it's time now before I run out of time.

I'm very grateful for the response everyone here gives, I look forward to it each time I post and it is a huge positive factor in my journey, and one of these days maybe you'll see a completed knife.

Mark

Just remember how to get to Carnegie Hall.... Practice practice prectice

Thanks Chuck
No short cuts.

How deep is your firepot? I get less scale since i made a proper fire pot. You want a few inches of burning coal below the work piece to burn the oxygen out of the air your pumping into the forge before it reaches the piece.

The more recent pics you posted though do look like normal scale to my un-professional eye, so it looks like you got a method figured out for your environment.

Feukair
there's a coal forge out back, but hasn't been used for years, maybe if I find a source for coal nearby I'll try it again, but now I'm using a propane forge. I did choke it down a little and your observation and others indicate it's in the more normal range.
Thanks Mark

Mark, if you feel like jumping over the cascades for a day, I would be happy to work with you on some stuff. I try to take a couple classes a year, it really helps to have the instructor come over and have me drop my shoulder a bit, pull in my elbow, etc. Most of the time, very subtle adjustments reap large rewards.

Mike
Thanks for the offer, I'll take you up on it. There's a house in the "Y" I'm doing for the same people you did the railing for that has to finish in the next month or so.
I'll send a PM. and thanks again this will help me tremendously.