- Joined
- Dec 24, 2016
- Messages
- 3,380
I understand most professional bladesmiths despise repurposing unknown steel and I whole heartedly agree if you are making blades to sell.
Sometimes I just have a tough time throwing away such good scrap iron. Case in point, here is a chopper blade from our sugarcane harvester. I’ve forged a integral hatchet and a couple knives. It BARELY MOVES under a hammer and seems to hold an edge well (with a small skinner I forged I’ve field dressed, skinned, and quartered 2 whitetail without needing to touch up the edge). They measure approximately 33”x4.5”x.25” and are single bevel. I have about 6 of these new that do not fit our current harvester and a couple hundred used that we scrap every year. I can cut a profile with a plasma cutter. I’m leaning towards trying a heavy machete like blade with a large fuller.
Give me some ideas if you have any, I’d like to try stock removal and see how the factory heat treatment holds up.

Next I have a take off set of Toyota forklift tines. Uprights are approximately 4.5”x2”x24” forks length 40” with a taper on half of the length.
Ive seen a bridge anvil made from forklift forks before. Another one of those things where I have them so I want to do something with them.

Sometimes I just have a tough time throwing away such good scrap iron. Case in point, here is a chopper blade from our sugarcane harvester. I’ve forged a integral hatchet and a couple knives. It BARELY MOVES under a hammer and seems to hold an edge well (with a small skinner I forged I’ve field dressed, skinned, and quartered 2 whitetail without needing to touch up the edge). They measure approximately 33”x4.5”x.25” and are single bevel. I have about 6 of these new that do not fit our current harvester and a couple hundred used that we scrap every year. I can cut a profile with a plasma cutter. I’m leaning towards trying a heavy machete like blade with a large fuller.
Give me some ideas if you have any, I’d like to try stock removal and see how the factory heat treatment holds up.

Next I have a take off set of Toyota forklift tines. Uprights are approximately 4.5”x2”x24” forks length 40” with a taper on half of the length.
Ive seen a bridge anvil made from forklift forks before. Another one of those things where I have them so I want to do something with them.
