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- Dec 27, 2013
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The jig is up: I haven't forged 500 rail spikes into knives, nor did I heat them up until a magnet won't stick and dunk them in the creek. Well, not exactly...
I can't even remember exactly where I got the 500 rail spike notion. It might have been here in Shop Talk, but I think it was an instance at the first knife show I attended, the 2014 OKCA show in Eugene, where I had a table displaying the fruits of my labors - a few crude knives and short swords, and a home-built compact power hammer that would swing a sledgehammer automatically. The S.A.M. Hammer was a big hit at the show, no pun intened.
At the show was a fellow who was irritated that the blades were made out of titanium alloy, and he told me so while outside smoking. After a bit of back and forth with this gruff individual, among other things, he said something to the effect of, "Go forge a few hundred rail spikes and maybe you'd learn how to make a real knife."
Was he wrong, in essence? I don't think so. I actually do believe that many a new blade maker, even one who doesn't intend to forge primarily, will benefit from this exercise.
It gives the blade maker many hours of direct observation and experience with heat and feeling what's happening to the steel as heat and work are applied to it. What happens to it and what it looks like when it's overheated, underheated, how to straighten it, how different thickness sections react to heat, how it reacts to different speeds of being heated, and intensity of heat sources, what damages the metal, etc. etc. He will gain heat control.
During the forging of the limited-size rail spikes, the blade maker will produce blade shapes that were unexpected or unplanned, will end up with different sorts of bevels and tapers, and will begin to form a motif. He will gain a better understanding of form and flow.
When heat treating the blades, with careful observation, the blade smith can get a good hands-on idea of the changes the steel undergoes as it's hardened and tempered. Nuances in how the steel is reacting , look for decalescense and recalescense, let his eyes see the steel as it undergoes transformations, and directly observe and test how the steel was effected with that blade, compared to the other blades. He will gain some control of steel phase changes.
In addition, even if not forging blades very often, forging steel is very useful for many other reasons, including knife guards, altering the dimensions of steel (such as upsetting to get a thicker piece of steel), efficiently making curves, making something round into something flat, etc. He gains basic forging skills.
I don't think it takes hundreds of rail spikes to gain these benefits, even a few dozen will give the mind a lot to work with. Of course everyone learns different things at different speeds.
All that said, obviously a heat treat oven is the way to go and gives so many more options for steels to use, great heat control, and will result in the most reliable, consistent blades. However, even with a state-of-the-art setup, I still think a blade maker has little to lose and something special to gain by messing about making blades the "analog" way, not the least of which is a greatly expanded palette of textures, shapes, and effects to draw upon while making blades - if it's desired. A lot of forging processes can quite efficiently shape steel in three dimensions, too.
Now, about my 500 rail spikes. What the fellow at the knife show didn't know, is that I'd done exactly what he was suggesting, in a way. I knew early on, way before I even knew of Bladeforum's existence and was so insular that I hadn't asked anybody anything, is that I needed to pick a ti alloy with the right characteristics (namely, hardenability) and focus on that one "control" alloy in order to master the metal for use as a sword. Observe everything, and zero-in on what it takes to turn it into a well-functioning long blade.
This is what was chosen: Ti 10Nb square bar stock, 9/16", and enough of it to get the job done...looks a lot like a sword-sized rail spike shank, wouldn't you say?
The hands-on, intuitive, observational approach, rather than pure theorizing which, ironically, is more abstract, was the only way to somewhat efficiently figure out how to make it work, along with a ton of research that mostly served to explain true observations after the fact. I treated it like a noob with a pile of rail spikes. With careful observation of what was affecting it during the process of turning it into a blade, and how (and LOTS of testing), eventually it was possible to turn that square bar stock into something like this:
Ultimately, I don't think it's a bad idea to smack some rail spikes around if you're new to blade-making, or have yet to forge steel. In fact I think it's a great idea.
I can't even remember exactly where I got the 500 rail spike notion. It might have been here in Shop Talk, but I think it was an instance at the first knife show I attended, the 2014 OKCA show in Eugene, where I had a table displaying the fruits of my labors - a few crude knives and short swords, and a home-built compact power hammer that would swing a sledgehammer automatically. The S.A.M. Hammer was a big hit at the show, no pun intened.
At the show was a fellow who was irritated that the blades were made out of titanium alloy, and he told me so while outside smoking. After a bit of back and forth with this gruff individual, among other things, he said something to the effect of, "Go forge a few hundred rail spikes and maybe you'd learn how to make a real knife."
Was he wrong, in essence? I don't think so. I actually do believe that many a new blade maker, even one who doesn't intend to forge primarily, will benefit from this exercise.
It gives the blade maker many hours of direct observation and experience with heat and feeling what's happening to the steel as heat and work are applied to it. What happens to it and what it looks like when it's overheated, underheated, how to straighten it, how different thickness sections react to heat, how it reacts to different speeds of being heated, and intensity of heat sources, what damages the metal, etc. etc. He will gain heat control.
During the forging of the limited-size rail spikes, the blade maker will produce blade shapes that were unexpected or unplanned, will end up with different sorts of bevels and tapers, and will begin to form a motif. He will gain a better understanding of form and flow.
When heat treating the blades, with careful observation, the blade smith can get a good hands-on idea of the changes the steel undergoes as it's hardened and tempered. Nuances in how the steel is reacting , look for decalescense and recalescense, let his eyes see the steel as it undergoes transformations, and directly observe and test how the steel was effected with that blade, compared to the other blades. He will gain some control of steel phase changes.
In addition, even if not forging blades very often, forging steel is very useful for many other reasons, including knife guards, altering the dimensions of steel (such as upsetting to get a thicker piece of steel), efficiently making curves, making something round into something flat, etc. He gains basic forging skills.
I don't think it takes hundreds of rail spikes to gain these benefits, even a few dozen will give the mind a lot to work with. Of course everyone learns different things at different speeds.
All that said, obviously a heat treat oven is the way to go and gives so many more options for steels to use, great heat control, and will result in the most reliable, consistent blades. However, even with a state-of-the-art setup, I still think a blade maker has little to lose and something special to gain by messing about making blades the "analog" way, not the least of which is a greatly expanded palette of textures, shapes, and effects to draw upon while making blades - if it's desired. A lot of forging processes can quite efficiently shape steel in three dimensions, too.
Now, about my 500 rail spikes. What the fellow at the knife show didn't know, is that I'd done exactly what he was suggesting, in a way. I knew early on, way before I even knew of Bladeforum's existence and was so insular that I hadn't asked anybody anything, is that I needed to pick a ti alloy with the right characteristics (namely, hardenability) and focus on that one "control" alloy in order to master the metal for use as a sword. Observe everything, and zero-in on what it takes to turn it into a well-functioning long blade.
This is what was chosen: Ti 10Nb square bar stock, 9/16", and enough of it to get the job done...looks a lot like a sword-sized rail spike shank, wouldn't you say?
The hands-on, intuitive, observational approach, rather than pure theorizing which, ironically, is more abstract, was the only way to somewhat efficiently figure out how to make it work, along with a ton of research that mostly served to explain true observations after the fact. I treated it like a noob with a pile of rail spikes. With careful observation of what was affecting it during the process of turning it into a blade, and how (and LOTS of testing), eventually it was possible to turn that square bar stock into something like this:
Ultimately, I don't think it's a bad idea to smack some rail spikes around if you're new to blade-making, or have yet to forge steel. In fact I think it's a great idea.
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