Tudor Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 I hope this will be appropriate. This was my first attempt at forging a knife. Obviously there is more work to be done plus the handle. The piece of steel is a 1 cm thick leaf spring steel. Feel free to give me whatever adive i might need. It will be highly appreciated . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Looks like some sharp hammer marks throughout, is your hammer dressed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tudor Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 Nope. It's just a regular hammer. I did not consider this being an issue. But for the future I will take care of this. Can I dress my own hammer using a grinder or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Yes. There are posts on hammer dressing on here. Might be easier using your regular browsers search enging and typing iforgeiron after. One thing I will mention here is go slow and don't overheat the hammer. You can cool in water when it starts getting hot to the touch. Are you going to draw file your blade flat after the rough grind? Looks like you are using a 4 1/2" grinder or similar to rough it out. Any deep grinds in roughing it out are harder to file out just like deep hammer marks take more to grind out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tudor Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 I used an angle grinder to grind the blade. And I don't know if I can grind it more than this because i'm afraid that i'm gonna make the blade too thin and that it might crack or something. I'll see what I can do more. I'm thinking of buying a bench grinder in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Hey, its your first attempt and not a bad profile if done right. Its a learning experience. Those deep hammer marks are a problem then if you'd have to make it too thin to get them out. Other then just dressing the hammer, work on hammer control. ( there are threads on that as well.) Not bad for your first attempt. Finish it out to what you are going to finish it To and keep it as a reminder of where you started. Work to makr each one better from there with research and taking that to the forge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tudor Posted July 30, 2018 Author Share Posted July 30, 2018 Thank you. I will definitely strive for better. Thanks for the advice aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Along with dressing your hammer, it looks to me like your anvil height may not be ideal. There are threads on here regarding anvil height as well. The short version is that you will leave more/deeper hammer marks on your work if the anvil height is wrong for you than you will if it is correct. After hammer dressing and anvil height are dealt with then hammer technique may be something you'd want to read up on a bit. On the other hand you did bang out a general knife shape, so that's a step in the right direction. You may find that the tang is a bit wide for comfort once handle slabs (scales) have been installed. If your blade is still over 3/16 of an inch (or about 4.5mm) thick you could afford to lose some thickness to clean it up. If you are going to get a grinder, and you can afford it or build it, a belt grinder is much better suited to knife making than a bench grinder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Welcome aboard Tudor, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many f the Iforge gang live within visiting distance. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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