January 12, 200917 yr What is the best way to get rid of hammer and slag pitting on the blade when polishing after the initial forging? Because there is only so much I can take off with the file before I start eating away at the width of the blade and changing it's shape. What can you recommend?
January 12, 200917 yr Use a flaty faced hammer for the last coupla heats . Then sprinkle some water on the anvil while straightening the blade. It will blast the scale off.
January 12, 200917 yr Brush the piece with a wire brush before you start hammering. I have started to wet forge, an old japanese technique. Its very good, and really helps when its time to clean up. Good luck.
January 13, 200917 yr Ater you do this for a while you will get better at preventing the formation of scale in the first place. Also if you will leave the blade on the thick side when forging, you w not only will have room to clean, but also there will be a de-carb zone when you heat treat, that will need to be removed afterward as well. Edited January 13, 200917 yr by steve sells typo's again
January 13, 200917 yr Author cool, thanks...I just hate file work tho...Not having a proper workbench kind of makes it difficult.
January 15, 200917 yr on the last couple heats you forge the blade on, lightly go over the bevels and over the ricasso/tang/blade area with a very flat-faced hammer. save one heat after finish forging entirely dedicated to wirebrushing only. Get it to about orange and go to town on it with that wirebrush! Also, if you're having problems getting the blade a little too thin, try forging it slightly thicker so you can get all the pits out without making the blade too thin. The thickness increase should be very slight, as a properly forged blade shouldn't have very many pits, let alone deep ones.
February 27, 200917 yr For removing scale before hammering, I find scraping it off with one of my older "knives" that didn't turn out well enough to bother finishing works very well...I got the idea fromYouTube - Murray Carter forging a Japanese blade Part 2 Much quicker than a wire brush.
February 27, 200917 yr Keltoi, Do you know about draw filing? Makes file work a breeze although you still need a bit of elbow grease. this website has a great clamp for knifes, Sorry i dont know how to paste it so u can click on it. Worth checking out if your into blades.Custer Forge & Welding
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