Early attempt at forging a blade, what am I doing wrong?

[Thr]

I've been messing around with making a few small things here and there since I'm still getting my feet wet, and, inevitably, I wanted to hammer out a few knives. Despite all the warnings I've heard of making knife-shaped objects, I'm a firm believer in there being no greater teacher than failure. Here's the one I've been working on and off on for the past couple of weeks.

 

One of the biggest annoyances I've had with forging out blade blanks is that when forging the edges to a rough shape, it inevitably causes more material to build up around the edges by some distance, leaving the center area of the flat thinner, enough such that it takes a very, very long time to grind out the flats to shape. This piece hasn't been fully ground out, and is in need of a bit of straightening, looking down the spine. Is there something I'm missing, and what else could I do to do better next time, or to fix this?

[Frosty]

Blade blanks are for stock removal, not forging. Unless of course someone out there is selling them now. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Thr.

The best advice I can give you is, Don't be in a hurry. There is so much to learn. When is it too hot? When is it too cold? When do you use the Big Hammer? When do you use the Big Hammer with very soft blows? When do you watch which way the material is wanting to move and pay attention to it? Why do you tighten up your shoulder and arm movement, when you should be relaxed? The perfect time to stop hammering is ONE Blow before you screw it up!!

There is not one answer!!  What works for one person, doesn't always work for another!! If you rough out the blade and cut the pointy end opposite of how you want to finish it. The Blade Shaped Object will end up extending the short side, into the long side with the pointy end. This way, you won't be trying to straighten a Banana after your Forging. Make this with Play-Doh and you will understand!!

A Day was too short to Make Rome. or Rome wasn't built in a Day. Walk light, Take Little Steps, Pay Attention what is happening before your Eyes. Make notes with shetches!!

Neil

[George N. M.]

I agree with what Frosty and Swedefiddle have said but I will add a couple of suggestions.  I assume that what you are saying is that you have too many "craters" or depressions in the part of the blade between the spine and the edge and it takes a lot of grinding/filing to get rid of them.  If that is the case, try to forge near the spine and the edge and don't have very many blows in between.  Then, once you are close to the end of forging use a flatter or a flat face hammer to reduce the "hill" that is between the edge and the spine.

Remember that the metal will move away from a blow in all directions (raidially) and allow for that.

Also, for some things a hammer with a flat face will work better than one with a domed face but you have to make sure that you are hitting so that the face is flat on the work when struck.  If you get an impact that leaves a C shaped mark you are "heeling" (the curve of the impact towards the handle) or "toeing" (the curve away from the handle).  Neither is good.  My favorite hammer is a 2# farrier's hammer with one domed face and one flat face.  I can switch between them with a flick of the wrist.

I agree that practice with modelling clay would help, maybe using a light, wooden hammer.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Thr]

My wording was wrong on this, I guess I shouldn't call this a blade blank so much as a work in progress -- I forged this from bar stock.

 

Thanks for all the advice; I think one of my greatest issues is my forge only bringing me up to a bright orange heat rather than a full-on yellow, causing my hammering to not move metal quite as well as I should in the drawing phase.

[Buzzkill]

The temperature at which you should forge is dependent on the specific alloy you are working with to some extent.  For instance, it would be a bad idea to forge O1 at a yellow heat.  Generally speaking though, orange heat is enough for a lot of simple steels.  When you get into the yellow territory you are at, or at least rapidly approaching, welding heat.

Also generally speaking, high carbon steels do not move as well under the hammer as mild steels.  Some alloys have a very narrow forging temperature range and seem to resist deformation by hammering to a significant degree.

[Hefty]

On 7/26/2024 at 12:41 PM, George N. M. said:

Also, for some things a hammer with a flat face will work better than one with a domed face but you have to make sure that you are hitting so that the face is flat on the work when struck.

Tying in with this, it sounds like you may be trying to "pull" the steel down into a bevel with your hammer strokes which can lead to this "cratering". This is a bad habit I'm still trying to break. So, the "do as I say, not as I do" instructions are:

When forging your bevel, try keeping your stock with the bevel along the edge of the anvil. This way you can angle your hammer blow, so the face of the hammer ends up striking the steel perpendicular to the bevel angle you are trying to achieve without running into the anvil face. This way you will (sort of) upset the steel into the bevel instead of drawing it out. Then you can flip the stock and move it to the other side of the anvil to do the other side. The only difference is now you have to increase the included angle of your hammer blow slightly because you'll have the first bevel lying on the anvil face, not a flat piece of stock. If you get this second angle right, the anvil face will also act a bit like a flatter for your first side as you work on the second side.

I hope that makes sense. It's always a lot harder to explain these things in words.

Cheers,

Jono.