I have been interested in blacksmithing/knifesmithing for a long time. So I dived right in and started it. I bought J Neilson video on his way of doing it. I guess I don't completely understand how he doesn't get fish lips? Here are my first three. The top one is my first, middle is my second and the bottom is the third (from this morning). How do they look?

"unfinished"...I like the shape of the middle one the best; I'd work over the blade/tang area with a chainsaw file for that bottom notch to avoid a stress concentrator.  What alloy?

Yes sir very unfinished lol. okay I will give that ago. This is 1080.

Good alloy; are you going to drill some large holes in the tangs to lighten them before you slab them? (Personal choice; some like heavy "handed" blades; others like them light.)

What was the starting stock size that during forging you got the fish lips?

 

Fish lips always start with the first blows, always forge tapers backwards. As in forge the bevel and then forge the taper back from the edge/point.

Fish lips are also a result of cold metal on the inside allowing only the hotter outside to move

Thanks for the reminder, Steve. 

you are welcome young padowon

41 minutes ago, Steve Sells said:

you are welcome young padowon

Theyre not curmudgeons, theyre jedi! It all makes sense now...

I would recommend putting some shape into your tangs. Theyre very square and plain. Put in a finger groove, or a radius into the bottom of the tang (in reference to the pictures, that is) or both, even. It provides a much more comfortable grip. 

Other than that, looks good so far. 

Now you have done the fun part.  Ahead is the slogging along with grinding profiles and bevels and the mystery of proper heat treatment.  Enjoy the journey.  Looks like a good progression from first to last.

There is a good short video from Jason Knight, of Forged in Fire fame, circulating around the internet which has an excellent illustration of how to avoid fish lips.

On 11/2/2017 at 2:47 PM, jeremy k said:

What was the starting stock size that during forging you got the fish lips?

 

1080 Forging Steel 3/16 x 1.25 x 36

On 11/2/2017 at 2:41 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Good alloy; are you going to drill some large holes in the tangs to lighten them before you slab them? (Personal choice; some like heavy "handed" blades; others like them light.)

To be honest I am not sure.

 

On 11/2/2017 at 6:52 PM, Steve Sells said:

Fish lips are also a result of cold metal on the inside allowing only the hotter outside to move

Oh okay.

 

On 11/2/2017 at 8:02 PM, Will W. said:

Theyre not curmudgeons, theyre jedi! It all makes sense now...

I would recommend putting some shape into your tangs. Theyre very square and plain. Put in a finger groove, or a radius into the bottom of the tang (in reference to the pictures, that is) or both, even. It provides a much more comfortable grip. 

Other than that, looks good so far. 

They are very square. I do have a slight radius in the third one. I bought a cheap little 1" belt grinder so I could start cleaning them up more so then by hand. 

 

On 11/2/2017 at 8:42 PM, Latticino said:

Now you have done the fun part.  Ahead is the slogging along with grinding profiles and bevels and the mystery of proper heat treatment.  Enjoy the journey.  Looks like a good progression from first to last.

There is a good short video from Jason Knight, of Forged in Fire fame, circulating around the internet which has an excellent illustration of how to avoid fish lips.

Thank you. Yeah that looks like that will be the worst part by far. I will go check out that video. Here is a picture from this morning of my start at grinding. Right now only have 100 grit waiting on the other belts to come in today I hope.

Where did you get the fish lips? How were you forging to get them, that's a thin cross section to get fish lips unless it was on edge.

2 hours ago, jeremy k said:

Where did you get the fish lips? How were you forging to get them, that's a thin cross section to get fish lips unless it was on edge.

I was getting the fish lips at the tip. This would be the first knife. I grind it out. 

Also I have a another question I am planning on putting wood scales on these and if I want to use handle screws how do you determine how big I should get. Just add the 2 starting materials together or the finished sizes after grinding or a third option? To me going off of the starting sizes really doesn't help to much because of the grinding, which is the same for the 2nd option also.