- Joined
- May 23, 2016
- Messages
- 115
Good day everyone,
I'm a big fan of working on multiple knives in various stages of completion all the time. I have one Bowie getting the handle finished with blo for my father, and one Bowie going through tempering cycles for my father in law. These will both be Father's Day gifts. Also on Monday I finished rough forging a wakizashi that I'm not really in any rush to complete. All 3 are forged from 5160 which is the only type of steel that I have used so far.
I have had a 1/4" thick piece of 1095 for a while that I've been waiting to use. Also I thought I might like to make a knife that would be easier to carry during the summer months than the 17" Bowie I carry during the winter. I also had never forge welded before so I decided to try to weld some mild steel around the 1095 and forge the resulting billet into a summer knife for myself.
I forged a piece of mild angle into a jacket that would cover the 1095 on both sides and the spine, cleaned up the inside by hot filing and while it was still hot, stuck the 1095 inside, wrapped some wire around to hold it together, fluxed and put the whole mess back in the forge. For flux I used household borax laced with graphite to hopefully help control carbon migration.
I've read a lot on the subject of what colour to get the steel for welding. There's one video out there where a smith heats his steel until it starts sparking (which I'm Pretty sure is bad) before he hammers it together. What I actually did was watch the steel while it was heating until the mild jacket started to look wet on the surface. Hauled it out then, lightly tapped the edge of the 1095 into the mild jacket, re fluxed, re heated and tacked the sides together. Then the process was repeated 2 more times with light blows followed by another heat and then heavier blows. The billet was then allowed to cool.
Once cool I cut the ends off to check the welds.
Everything looks like it stuck perfectly, WOW! After everything I read, I really didn't expect it to be that easy!
I then did some rough forging, the knife is going to be a hidden tang. At this point I have the tang forged out, distal tapers forged in, and the preform done on the point. All that's left for fire forming is the bevels.
The handle on this one will be a piece of wild cherry I cut from my back yard a couple years ago and have had seasoning since. I usually do sculpted handles inspired by the knives of Nick Wheeler and Jason Knight but I'm not married to the idea. This knife will be carried iwb in a kydex sash sheath.
Guard will either be made from copper, railroad spike or I may try to make a piece of Damascus and form it from that.
The final dimensions should be:
Blade; 9" long, 1 3/4" wide, taper from 3/8" to 3/16" a little before the point.
Overall length will be 14".
So now my questions for you guys:
1) for heat treating should it treat it as if it were 1095? Heat treating will either be done in my old propane "forge master blacksmith" forge or my charcoal forge.
2) what are your thoughts on the guard? This will be a user knife and I'd like it as versitile as possible. I'm thinking oval or shallow "s" but I'm wondering if there's something that would be more comfortable to wear in this fashion.
3) handle shape? I'm thinking about doing the sculpted handle but keeping it thinner than usual ( usually I use 3/4" at the guard, taper out to 7/8" in the palm then curving in and flairing back out to 1" at the butt). Again I'm not married to this if there is a shape that is functional and wears more comfortably under the shirt.
I'd post pictures, but I can't figure out how.
Still can't believe how easy it was to weld and that everything seems to have held together through the forging. This knife will be a user, tested extensively by me and only me. One of its roles will be cutting branches and driftwood to throw for my dogs while in the woods or at the lake.
Any feed back will be much appreciated, please let me know what you think!
I'm a big fan of working on multiple knives in various stages of completion all the time. I have one Bowie getting the handle finished with blo for my father, and one Bowie going through tempering cycles for my father in law. These will both be Father's Day gifts. Also on Monday I finished rough forging a wakizashi that I'm not really in any rush to complete. All 3 are forged from 5160 which is the only type of steel that I have used so far.
I have had a 1/4" thick piece of 1095 for a while that I've been waiting to use. Also I thought I might like to make a knife that would be easier to carry during the summer months than the 17" Bowie I carry during the winter. I also had never forge welded before so I decided to try to weld some mild steel around the 1095 and forge the resulting billet into a summer knife for myself.
I forged a piece of mild angle into a jacket that would cover the 1095 on both sides and the spine, cleaned up the inside by hot filing and while it was still hot, stuck the 1095 inside, wrapped some wire around to hold it together, fluxed and put the whole mess back in the forge. For flux I used household borax laced with graphite to hopefully help control carbon migration.
I've read a lot on the subject of what colour to get the steel for welding. There's one video out there where a smith heats his steel until it starts sparking (which I'm Pretty sure is bad) before he hammers it together. What I actually did was watch the steel while it was heating until the mild jacket started to look wet on the surface. Hauled it out then, lightly tapped the edge of the 1095 into the mild jacket, re fluxed, re heated and tacked the sides together. Then the process was repeated 2 more times with light blows followed by another heat and then heavier blows. The billet was then allowed to cool.
Once cool I cut the ends off to check the welds.
Everything looks like it stuck perfectly, WOW! After everything I read, I really didn't expect it to be that easy!
I then did some rough forging, the knife is going to be a hidden tang. At this point I have the tang forged out, distal tapers forged in, and the preform done on the point. All that's left for fire forming is the bevels.
The handle on this one will be a piece of wild cherry I cut from my back yard a couple years ago and have had seasoning since. I usually do sculpted handles inspired by the knives of Nick Wheeler and Jason Knight but I'm not married to the idea. This knife will be carried iwb in a kydex sash sheath.
Guard will either be made from copper, railroad spike or I may try to make a piece of Damascus and form it from that.
The final dimensions should be:
Blade; 9" long, 1 3/4" wide, taper from 3/8" to 3/16" a little before the point.
Overall length will be 14".
So now my questions for you guys:
1) for heat treating should it treat it as if it were 1095? Heat treating will either be done in my old propane "forge master blacksmith" forge or my charcoal forge.
2) what are your thoughts on the guard? This will be a user knife and I'd like it as versitile as possible. I'm thinking oval or shallow "s" but I'm wondering if there's something that would be more comfortable to wear in this fashion.
3) handle shape? I'm thinking about doing the sculpted handle but keeping it thinner than usual ( usually I use 3/4" at the guard, taper out to 7/8" in the palm then curving in and flairing back out to 1" at the butt). Again I'm not married to this if there is a shape that is functional and wears more comfortably under the shirt.
I'd post pictures, but I can't figure out how.
Still can't believe how easy it was to weld and that everything seems to have held together through the forging. This knife will be a user, tested extensively by me and only me. One of its roles will be cutting branches and driftwood to throw for my dogs while in the woods or at the lake.
Any feed back will be much appreciated, please let me know what you think!
) just create an account for photobucket or some other image hosting website. Next, upload the pictures to your account there. Once they are uploaded, each picture will have a number of ways to link to it (about 4) with the links next to the picture. Click on the link listed as "IMG" and it will automatically copy it for you, then all ya gotta do is paste it here in your comment. 
I'm interested in seeing some of the other blades you described in your post as well. 
![ING]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fs1180.photobucket.com%2Fuser%2FGrenfellsbrutalforge%2Fmedia%2FMobile%2520Uploads%2Fimage_zps53oppsnh.jpeg%5B%2FING%5D&hash=c2ebb153bc4479fff84dcd996e06085d)
