Knife I made for a friend for Christmas

[Potato-Demon]

I was cleaning my workspace earlier this week and I found a piece of rebar under my anvil stand from my failed attempt at making tongs. I needed to get my friend a Christmas present and I know he likes knives so what happened next is obvious. Took about an hour or two (not counting the time in the oven for tempering) total of work to do. This is my third knife and I think it’s better than my first and failed second attempts. The reason the blade looks cracked is it wasn’t cleaned off completely in the photo. I wish I had an anvil with a hardy hole and some hardy tools; it would have made bending the handle much easier. The tip was purposely not worked much because I didn’t want to screw it up with barely any charcoal left and Home Hardware closed for Christmas. This wasn’t meant as a heavy-use item otherwise I’d have made it from one of the HUGE leaf springs I got for free. What do you think of it?

[Latticino]

First let me applaud you for making a present for your friend, I'm a big fan of home made gifts.  You have combined some of the basic smithing processes in your project (bending, forging flat and tapering), and that was a good exercise as well.  Your handle proportions appear to be ergonomic as well (though not necessarily in good relationship to the blade size, see below).  You have asked for our opinion, and as a beginner need to expect that constructive criticism may not always be positive.  If you can't take negative feedback, please ignore the following:

1. Rebar is typically not a very good choice of stock for making knives.  In my experience it rarely has enough carbon content to harden acceptably.  You would be better off with leaf or coil springs (often available free as cutoffs or discards from auto spring shops).  You don't say anything about your heat treatment process other than that you tempered the blade.  That is certainly a good step to finish with, but I question whether you were successful at overall heat treatment.
2. Both the visual and mass balance of your creation are heavily handle weighted.  I would suggest forging down the handle in some orientation (either in the plane of the blade or perpendicular to it) for future attempts.  You can also draw out the width of the blade using a crosspeen to get a both visually larger blade and more effective cutter.
3. If you plan on making knives, you would greatly benefit from taking a class from someone with experience in bladesmithing.  These days there are a lot of good classes available.
4. It is hard to tell anything else regarding distal tapering and beveling from your photo.  Most likely those will be good skills to work on for future projects.
5. The raw end of the rebar near the ricasso may make using the tool uncomfortable.  I'd make sure there are no sharp edges there before you give it to your friend.

Keep plugging though.  With a little more practice you should be able to turn out something like that in two or three heats (under 15 minutes).

[Jasent]

Do you have a hot cut?  With the huge leaf springs I’ve found it’s easier to hot cut a chunk off and draw that out for blades or punches.   Much easier to cut and work a chunk like that than dealing with a big spring.  1” x3”x3/8” is what mine end up after the cut.  I’m not a knife maker so mine are typically made in to punches, but could be drawn out and tapered for knives.  

[CrazyGoatLady]

I'm not a bladesmith, but you are getting good advice. I think it's great you made something with your own hands for a friend using what you have. No matter what you're doing, any time spent at the anvil is good time for skill building. Keep it up and maybe someday people will be paying you to make blades for them

[Frosty]

Tater: Latticino has already laid out good advice and the reasons so I won't get into a typical Frosty ramble.

In short: learn to forge first, there are more than enough things to learn to a muscle memory level without adding the finicky things high carbon steels demand of the smith. Once you've learned the basic processes to a proficient level, forging blades only REQUIRES you learn a different but specific to the steel heat management and heat treating. 

What you can do without it interfering with learning basic blacksmithing skill sets is grinding and finishing. Pre-cut knife blanks aren't terribly expensive and stock removal IS what makes blades, forging is the preform, grinding and polishing makes blades. Dressing them, guard, handle, fit and finish makes them beautiful and marketable. Make sense?

Lastly, rebar is good when in concrete or as tent pegs and such, It's certainly no good as a blade.

Keep at it, blacksmithing is a life long pursuit and fun as anything that won't get you arrested. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I have made some nice letter openers out of rebar. Unfortunately not many folks use snail mail but I have fun opening junk mail with mine.

[Potato-Demon]

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 8:27 AM, Latticino said:

First let me applaud you for making a present for your friend, I'm a big fan of home made gifts.  You have combined some of the basic smithing processes in your project (bending, forging flat and tapering), and that was a good exercise as well.  end.

Keep plugging though.  With a little more practice you should be able to turn out something like that in two or three heats (under 15 minutes).

I wouldn’t have used rebar if the knife I was making out of an old spring hadn’t cracked without enough charcoal to restart but enough for a quick one so this also meant I was super rushed. I’ll try to do better next time. I sharpened it before the heat treatment to reduce time spent filing but I believe I put some ok bevels on it but as you said, they’re hard to see. Man, do I need to buy a belt sander and bench grinder...

Edited December 28, 2019 by Mod30
trim excessive quote

[Randy Griffin]

I wouldn't spend a lot of money until you've been doing this for awhile. Start with the bare necessities and go from there. I use a 3 x 21 belt sander locked in my vise. It's slow but faster than a file. And it won't ruin a piece if you mess up.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Who was it that said "necessity is the mother of invention"?

[ThomasPowers]

I would like to dogpile on the suggestion of using coil spring to get started.  Take a cutting disk in an angle grinder and cut down 1 side (or two depending on spring size and knives sizes) and you have a bunch of O or ) pieces to forge all of the SAME ALLOY so as you learn what works it applies to the next one(s)!  Warm Vegetable oil quench should work well, (NEVER put it in water!)

I've been doing this a while now, 39 years, and I don't see why a hardy hole was needed.  I could form that shape on a cube of steel anvil with no horn or heel or hardy.  Perhaps this is why we suggest working on the basics first so you learn how the metal can be moved on material that is easier to work and harder to mess up.  (And things like bottle openers make good presents too!)