2 newly forged

weo · Sep 25, 2016

Hello all, hope the newly arrived autumn (or spring for those of you in the southern hemisphere) is treating everyone well. Got another day in the forge yesterday and pounded out these two new blades. The top one is from a billet of 88 layers of 1080/15N20 and the bottom one is from one of 352 layers of 1095/15N20. Didn't really have a pattern or plan on either as I'm still learning this craft and seeing how the steel moves under the hammer, which is why the shorter one ended up with a little bit of a drop point. Here they are after rough grinding:

and here they are after the heat treat and 3 one hour tempers at ~400 degrees:

Not sure how to finish the forged swell at the finger guard before etching, most likely a lot of hand sanding. Was thinking about leaving it as forged, but not sure how that will look after etching the rest of the blade. Any suggestions?
Comments and critiques are also welcome.
Have a great day.

coldsteelburns · Sep 25, 2016

I would just finish grinding the bevels ( a bit higher up ) and leave the flats of the blade and everything else with the forge finish. That is usually how "brut de forge" style knives (forged integral guards) are done anyway. Unless you want to completely clean up the integral finger guard by grinding it clean and smooth, I think it could look a bit odd just leaving that the only area untouched and everything else polished.

So yea, just bring your bevels higher up to show more of the pattern (and to refine the blade geometry for cutting) and give the bevels a good hand rubbed finish to at least 600 grit and then etch the entire thing. That's what I would you anyhow.

Show us some pics of what you come up with.

~Paul

My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)

JTknives · Sep 26, 2016

When I forge the "finger guard area" I do like you did but then I forge it down and spread out the material and then forge the notch back in. Keep doing this and eventually the steel will be where you want it and does not take to long. It helps to work it as you go and not go to full depth right away. Just set the notch and then forge flat then make it a little deeper and then flatten. Just keep working it till it's how you want it. If you let to much material bulge up in that area befor you flatten you can get a problem where it will fold over its self and create a weird area in the notch that has to be ground away.

weo · Sep 28, 2016

Well, apparently I made a couple of wall hangers. I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to my heat as I was forging, and post etch polish, I noticed 3 fractures in the steel in the handle. The blades did fine through the heat treat, so I can only assume it happened during the forging.

I may use the longer one as a kitchen/utility knife and avoid heavy use to see how the edge lasts.

Ghostman3 · Sep 29, 2016

So why do you think you had the fractures?

weo · Sep 29, 2016

Ghostman - most likely forging the finger guard area too cold. i looked up forging specs on L6, which I think is what the saw blades are made of, close to 15N20 correct me if I'm wrong, and forging should be done at 1800-2000 degrees, which is the yellow range and i most likely let it get into the oranges, because i forgot to pay attention.

weo · Nov 3, 2016

Hello all, I forgot to update this, but I discovered that the lines aren't cracks, but the result of etching while using a container that wasn't deep enough to dunk completely in the acid. I found this out by sanding it down and re-etching using a deeper container and no lines (sorry, but I haven't taken pictures yet, and didn't take pictures before putting handles on them)

JTknives · Nov 4, 2016

Saw blades are not L6, maybe once apon a time thy where some where but thy are 15n20 if you have the Uddeholm brand. Also grind thoes things flat, remove the swell from around the finger groove, it will do nothing but cause you problems when it comes time to put scales on the handle.

coldsteelburns · Nov 4, 2016

I'm pretty sure he was going for that "brute de forge" style with the flared finger guard, JT.

Weo, I think the the one of the bottom has the flare in about the correct area for attaching scales with less issues, although you might need to grind down some of the flare in the tang area before adding scales on the top blade. Just make sure you grind down at the same area on both sides (for symmetry) and that the scales butt up nicely against the back of the flare that you ground down.

Do a search for "brute de forge" knives by Joe Keeslar and Lon Humphrey and even Karl B Andersen, as they all have some great examples of this type of knife with scales attached to them. You can get a good idea of how the front of the scales fit up against the flared guard on many of them. Some of them are cut, or ground into as described above and some have the flared guard forward enough to not interfere with the scales. If this is a style you are interested in continuing to forge then I would suggest doing some research on how the pros forge them :thumbup: .

Let me know if you want me to share a few links to some great videos showing this style being forged and I'll post them here fo ya.

I personally do like the flow of the damascus pattern around the choil/ flared guard area on these ones, IMHO it is a neat look.

~Paul

My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)

weo · Nov 4, 2016

Thanks JT, but too late

. Not to worry though, the handles went on fine (on one of the knives, anyway), but I don't think I'll be doing many of these finger swells in the near future. I found out that I'm not skilled enough to make them look good. (btw - how's the cutlass coming?)

Took your advice, Paul, but didn't change the pattern much.

coldsteelburns · Nov 4, 2016

Looks good man! I'm glad you brought the bevels higher up the blade (for better geometry and cutting ability), nice work! I have always been a fan of brute de forge. :thumbup:

Also, just In case you happen to miss it, I posted a comment fr ya about a minute before you posted your pictures.

~Paul

My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been a few years since my last upload)

weo · Nov 4, 2016

Thanks Paul.
You and JT are correct about the other knife. I tried to shape the scales around the swell, and it looks absolutely terrible. I'd say I'll post a pic, but the knife is at my home/shop and not down here in Longview where I rent an apartment during the week, (and I blew out a chunk around a pin when shaping...AND I'm embarrassed at how it looks). I'm planning on grinding off the scales and re-doing it sometime in the near future. Maybe I'll post pics at that time....
~billyO

weo · Nov 5, 2016

I'm not worried about embarrassing myself, hopefully someone can learn from my missteps.
Here are pics of the terrible knife before removing the scales and grinding off the poorly designed swell.

weo · Nov 5, 2016

Well, here it is, scales removed, finger swells ground off and ready to re-etch and new handles, but it looks to me like the pin holes may need to be adjusted now, I'm thinking moving the front one forward a bit. Also, does the belly of the blade look a tad fat? Any opinions are welcome.
Thanks
~billyO