Howdy friends! Wyatt here. 

I'm an aspiring blacksmith wanting to learn some, so will be doing a large amount of reading here! I originally was gonna do stock removal, but with stock removal you can'y make the variety of tools I wanted to make, plus, I just love making stuff with my hands, so I knew I had to tinker around with some of it.

So far I was on another forum edit asking around, but it's guided mainly towards outdoor skills and such, and while there are some blacksmiths on there, I figured I'd find an actual blacksmithing forum to join.

- Wyatt

Welcome Wyatt, good to have you. 

Have you read the "Read this first" part of the forum? Many new people waltz right over that one.

I had read a little bit, need to go back. Thanks!

- Wyatt

velkommen‎!!!

Howdy from Oklahoma

Welcome  Wyatt

I have learned a lot here and have much more to learn when I get back to learning to forge.

I also am in central Tx . Central narrows it down some but texas is spread out.

I am just northwest of Austin

Look into the closest ABANA Affiliate(s) to you; you can learn a whole lot faster seeing stuff done and being able to ask questions directly!

Thank you Old Crew.

I'll look into that ThomasPowers.

- Wyatt

I know there is a Balcones Forge group near Austin; but I don't know if they are near you.

Welcome aboard Wyatt, glad to have you. Don't stop doing stock removal, the skills involved are required to finish a forged blade, forging produces the preform, you have to: grind, polish and dress it to produce a finished blade. No?

Frosty The Lucky.

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Don't stop doing stock removal, the skills involved are required to finish a forged blade, forging produces the preform, you have to: grind, polish and dress it to produce a finished blade.

I never even started it, hence the reason I was just gonna go for forging. The steels I have are stuff like 52100 and O1, so I believe I'll be able to use those.

Thanks!

- Wyatt

You have to learn stock removal techniques regardless and that learning curve doesn't interfere with learning to forge. Learning basic blacksmithing making knives increases the difficulty, decent blade steels let along 52100 have much more precise heat management requirements so you can end up putting in a lot of time and have a failed project because there were too many new things to figure out at once.

Make sense? 
Learning to use a belt grinder takes practice too, one slip can ruin a blade if it doesn't alter the profile considerably. Hence the old saying, "bladesmiths don't make mistake they make smaller blades."

You can learn everything you need for bladesmithing by learning the basics with mild steel and don't forget to note hammer marks and how much thickness you need to leave to clean them up on the belt grinder. 

Just saying.

Frosty The Lucky.

I know that, never said anything against that. I just wanted to say I never started. If I need to learn them for forging, I can and will. I guess what I call stock-removal is just cutting out the blade from a plate of steel. What you're talking about I'd consider just fit and finish. (Besides grinding the bevels. Kinda significant...) Might be wrong though. (Per usual.) 

I did look up the 51200, and definitely seems like it might be a bad steel to just start out with. I'll find some mild steel. Never realized you could use that. (Should've though, it's steel after all...)

Thanks!
-Wyatt

Wyatt: I'm only making suggestions, it's your shop, your way. There are just some things an old guy learned the hard way and I offer my mistakes for you to learn from. That way you can hopefully make some brand new mistakes for us to learn from. 

You're right about stock removal, it literally means removing steel till what's left is a knife. There are lots of methods from belt grinders to scrapers, files and hand stones. 

Don't worry about all that, you're doing fine keep at it and the skills will come.

Frosty The Lucky.

Howdy TEX!

On 3/4/2021 at 1:53 PM, Deimos said:

Have you read the "Read this first" part of the forum? Many new people waltz right over that one.

Hey I read it!

I SWEAR I did.

I still get in trouble

15 minutes ago, Apple Duck said:

I still get in trouble

We had a quiet vote on the side and you were elected to get in trouble now and then. 

Join the club buddy, everybody slips up and gets edited, warned even a phone call. You aren't in real trouble unless you do IT all the time or cop attitude when edited.

You're just fine, relax.

Frosty The Lucky.

23 minutes ago, Frosty said:

We had a quiet vote on the side and you were elected to get in trouble now and then. 

haha, now I do believe that!!

I hear you Frosty, and won't take it personal, as I do pay attention to the warnings. - I would rather get set straight from the start. This forum is the first and only forum that I have ever enrolled in, and have to admit the first admonishment kinda bummed me out, but hey, it's gotta be for the greater good, and I just need to be more careful and less ignorant.

Everybody's ignorant, only fools and the hopelessly stupid don't know it. We're all here to get less ignorant and heck I just like hanging out with blacksmiths. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Amen to that!

My wife says, I think I know it all and she is right. Just can't remember it when needed.

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

Wyatt: I'm only making suggestions, it's your shop, your way. There are just some things an old guy learned the hard way and I offer my mistakes for you to learn from.

No disrespect meant, sir. I've learned all my skills via my mistakes, and the occasional mistake from others. I'm here to learn, so I'll listen.

- Wyatt

I haven't noted any disrespect.

I meant to say I offer my mistakes for OTHERS to learn from. When I said you I meant it in the general "all y'all" way. 

I make mistakes all the time. I'm not intentionally snarky or sarcastic unless provoked. Things come across wrong though so just tell me if I do. I'm good with straight talk. 

I like your AVATAR, happy looking dog. Have I asked his/er name and forgotten? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you, Frosty. Her name is Rossi, named after Rossi firearms.

She's my newest woods budy. 

- Wyatt

Shoot; I've been moderated for a typo before.  Not a big thing; just resolve to do better.

I'm not a big fan of folks "practicing bladesmithing with mild steel---because you work mild steel differently than high carbon and so if you train on a more forgiving materials you have to unlearn all the bad practices to do well with the more difficult materials.  Also you don't get the chance to work on your heat treating.  A part of the learning curve is to break a lot of blades to see how the forging and heat treating of them affected their structure.  Breaking the beginning ones hurts less than breaking the ones when you start to get *good*.

All blades have *some* stock removal, even if it's just honing the edge.  The old neo-tribals tried to do less than 10% stock removal on their blades and some got really really good. Un fortunately some folks make a big thing about how a forged blade is superior to a stock removal blade never mentioning that you can make a ton of problems forging the blade if you are not really really good. You don't see them saying---"this would have had better grain structure than a stock removal blade but I overheated it and got grain growth and decarburization; so it's a lot worse than a well done stock removal blade."  (Particularly a problems with pattern welding where cold shuts and decarb can really hurt a blade even if it looks pretty!)

I generally like dogs more than most people I know, even my friends. You can tell how a dog feels, happy, sad, frightened ready to open the can of whoopin, whatever. Give Rossi an ear scritching for me please.

Just as a clarification, I wasn't talking about forging blades from mild steel, just learning to blacksmith with mild. 

Frosty The Lucky.