forging bug....carving knife

[forginhill]

Sometimes I need a break from the carving. Can't have too many carving knives. Used some steel I scavenged about eleven years ago while visiting family across the country. It's a special little stash.

Forged to knife blank size...

 

[Mesquite]

That's teasing

 

[Robson Valley]

What's your thinking = something like a Mora #163 or something surface hafted like a Pacific Northwest native J-blade carving knife or maybe Mocotaugan?
Anyway, your striking accuracy is pretty dang good.

 

[forginhill]

More's a comin' Mesquite...

Robson....along the lines of Nic Westerman and Mora....

Got two blades out of this piece and marked where I want the bevels.



I filed in the bevels with three different grades of file.



Next some sanding, starting with 150 and working up to 600.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Looking good, can;t wait to see the finished items.

 

[redneck]

very impressive

 

[richardhomer]

Very nice mate

 

[forginhill]

Thanks, crosslandkelly, redneck, and richardhomer.

I've been experimenting with this tang method and have been very pleased with its strength. To me a tang needs to be strong enough but not too labor intensive. I'm always trying to find that happy medium. The one larger hole is for a pin. The smaller holes are for the epoxy to fill.



Everything is glued up...

 

[crosslandkelly]

Very nice.

 

[Totumpole]

Great looking little knife there! You trying to spread the forging bug? If so you are succeeding.

 

[Robson Valley]

Wow. Just wow.

 

[slowworm]

Very inspirational, tempted to have a go if I can sort out some form of forge. Although my stash of useful metal is only about 8 years old.

Dig you cut the blades out with a hacksaw? I assume there's no neat to heat treat as they've not been affected by heat after forging?

 

[Big G]

Very talented..

 

[bilmo-p5]

Sweet !

 

[redneck]

Absolutely love that .. really cracking carving knife

 

[forginhill]

Glad to hear you guys are feeling some fire too...

Slowworm, . On the heat treating....oops, I missed that.

So, with the first blade, I quenched it in pre-warmed canola oil and tempered it. I noticed a slight warp, which I tried to straighten. Bad idea.... However, it did give me a glimpse into the structure of the grain. I didn't like how coarse it was. This isn't any kind of fine steel, but I knew it could be better. I used that first blade (which I broke) to do a series of tests. I finally discovered that I got the finest grain structure with a brine quench rather than oil. So that's what I did with the second blade. The last two pics above are the blade after the heat treat. Below is a pic of the blade just before quenching. The Japanese coat their blades with clay before quenching in water. It makes for a more even cooling by preventing air bubbles from forming on the steel during the quench. I'm just playing around with all of this. Of course, a quality blade can be made much more simply.

 

[Robson Valley]

Rusty files, lawnmower blades and truck leaf springs are the trendy steel sources here.
The "shorty" pieces could still make good whittling blades?
I like reading about the experiments. Maybe not the result that you wanted or expected but useful info, anyway.
Thanks for the journey.

 

[Muddypaws]

Great looking knife! Also thanks for the useful information, which will be filed away for future reference, should I ever decide to have a go at hot metal bashing (I really want to now).

 

[forginhill]

Thanks, Robson and Muddypaws...

Finished her up. I've tried it on a spoon, and she seems pretty decent. Already itching to make another one... I think I'll use an old file for steel.

 

[Big G]

She's a little beauty!

It's time for her to earn her keep!