Hey from PA

[DMCreations]

Hey everyone!  I'm nestled in the hills of western Pennsylvania.  Been a lurker for quite some time.  Not sure if I really belong here but I've learned an immense amount from this forum and can't express how valuable the knowledge I've gained here has been.  I don't forge, per se.  Currently a stock removal maker for the last three years or so, coming from a woodworking background.  As a departure from furniture making, I started out putting handles on Mora knives about 6 years ago, then bought a metal cutting bandsaw and a grinder and a bunch of steel, then built a blown forge, then another.  I've made close to 100 knives at this point, and with the help of Larrin Thomas' book along with clarifications from people on this forum and from the sellers/manufacturers I purchase my steel from, I've become pretty familiar/comfortable with 10xx steels and 80crv2.  I've also learned countless techniques and methods for so many aspects of the process I can't even begin to list them all. I truly would be years behind the level I am now without the information I've gotten here.

When I have the space and time, I'll be acquiring an anvil and then I can really say I belong here.  

So, thanks to all here who share their expertise.  I don't always have a lot to say but I like to learn from the questions of others.  I look forward to continuing my journey.

Some of my work.  Forgive poor pictures.  

[George N. M.]

Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming.  Glad that you have de-lurked.

Very nice work.  You certainly have the finish part of knife making down pat.

Actually, an anvil is about the one of the easiest tools to acquire since any old hunk of steel will work, a bull dozer track shoe or weight, a piece of railroad track mounted on end, or just about anything else.  They are all "real" anvils if you hit hot steel on them.  Modern London or various European shaped anvils are a fairly new thing in the history of the craft coming into use around the 18th century.  Before that smiths did marvelous work on "block" anvils which are still in use by smiths in many parts of the world.

You will find that shaping a blade out of hot steel is, IMO, more rewarding than stock removal and, again IMO, easier.  You will wonder why you didn't start doing it that way long ago.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[DMCreations]

Thanks for your kind words, George!  There's a workshop in Johnstown (about 20 min. from me) that offers forging classes.  I'm eager to give it the try..just need to make the time and break out of my comfort zone.  

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad you delurked. From here it looks like you have the most difficult part of blame making squarely in your comfort zone. You can NOT make a metal knife without stock removal. Even copper age blades were finish ground on a stone. Heck, even late neolithic blades were ground, of course stone tools are definitive examples of stock removal.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[DMCreations]

Never really thought of it that way, but of course you're right.  BTW, Frosty, I read and reread many of your posts/ comments on forge design and I'm very happy with my subsequent build.  Can't say I followed the advice exactly, sometimes we are beholden to the materials we have, and I purchased my fan and burner from Atlas--will do a burner build if I go for a third forge--but your information and direction to sources helped me to create very efficient forge with relatively even heat distribution and temperature control.  

[Frosty]

What do you MEAN you didn't follow my directions exactly ! ? ! ? <GASP>

I dropped in to see what you'd said and noticed a typo in my above post, unless I'm prescient and didn't know it. I did NOT mean to compliment your "Blame" making.  I intended to say Blade making of course. Of course spell check ignored a good word so I can't even blame this stupid AI driven thinky machine I'm using. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark Mountains.

There is an old saying that goes something like this. For a good blade you must win, first forge thick and then grind thin. So you have the last part down perfectly.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus