Brut De Forge WIP / How to questions

J

JBaker

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Nov 11, 2010
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I've been looking around for Brut De Forge WIPs, but I haven't successfully been able to find any. If you know of some, I'd love to see them.
I'm also just curious on a couple points:
What is the method for finishing a brut de forge knife?
Is it cheaper and easier than finishing a regular hand sanded blade?
Are there any specific reasons for doing a brut de forge (other than cheaper/easier)?

Thanks!
 
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1220897-Brute-de-Forge-Full-Tang-WIP
here is a good wip for you.
and doing a good brute de forge is not easier than doing a hand sanded finish because you have to forge very close to finished and then take it to the grinder and then finish it. if you want to do a brute de forge all the way down the the edge then you have to forge down to like .010 and then heat treat and sharpen. for both of these it is important to you forge well because every thing needs to be right or nearly right because you cant just grind it off.
 
I don't know if you are actually forging your knife, or are doing stock removal and want a forged-ish texture. Here are a few pics of a knife I recently made. Not much in the way of WIP. The knife pictured was NOT forged, I just wanted to experiment with texturing the flats. All I did was draw the knife profile on the barstock, mark about i wanted the grind to come to, and beat the flats with a ball peen hammer. Then grind. If your steel is fully annealed, you wont have to smack it very hard to get texture. I've read some saying not to cold forge a blade, and other people saying they do it and haven't seen any negative results. Normalize several times before quenching. I did it cold. Make sure the ball peened hammer has a polished surface or it will put marks inside your divots. Of course, you could apply texture with a variety of different things. I sanded over the texture to round off the ridges, HT, went over the texture again with 500/1000 grit to polish the ridges and make the texture pop, then touch up the grinds and finish. I would never do this and try to pass it off as forged, just wanted to experiment. I hope this was in some way helpful! Good Luck.

IMG_20150131_145212548_zpsykis82al.jpg


IMG_20150301_132500042_HDR_zpsfour9lwg.jpg
 
Here are a couple youtube vids on forging "Brut De Forge" knives. Traditionally they have a flared integral finger guard forged in on them. Two guys off the top of my head who do them often and very well are Joe Keeslar and Lon Humphrey (who are in these vids). Another maker who I've seen some VERY cool ones made by is Karl B Andersen. :thumbup:


Joe Keeslar Forging Demo
[video=youtube;QT5c4-kGp-M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT5c4-kGp-M[/video]

Lon Humphrey Forging
[video=youtube;knGV4shZEmM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knGV4shZEmM&index=55&list=PLRXwH4gb88trIMqQUiKSOsDPSMFEMAGs6[/video]

Here's an example of one of Karl Andersens' Brut de Forge knives... He makes same damn cool ones :cool:
[video=youtube;EDKJYzU0leQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKJYzU0leQ[/video]

.......................................................................


As for the brute de forge knives without the integral guard: Just as JPA88 showed, using a hammer to texture the flats of the blade helps give it that "rough forged" look. It also gives the scale/color from heat treating a place to stay in and not rub off too easily if it's only a thin oxide layer.

Here's a pic my texture hammer.. just use an angle grinder and cut a bunch of cross hatched type lines...


And here is the result of using it at forging temps after forging the profile just a bit, but not the bevel (It's a "chisel ground" kiridashi). (But you can do it at forging temp without forging to shape etc., just make sure to normalize and anneal the steel afterwards.)


And a close up of the texture next to the clean satin bevel... I love the effect.. It's like a crystal stone in the rough with one section cut flat and polished, like the ones they sell in those rock shops.. :D




So yea, if you are doing only stock removal, after you have the general profile of the blade ground, either get it hot and hit it with the hammer, or do it while its cold and annealed. Grind your bevels after the texturing, and clean up only the bevel (not the flats) after heat treating it. I like doing it while at forging temp, after forging the blade profile , because you get a thicker layer of scale and just seems more "right." ;)

Help all or any of this helps :)

~Paul
My YT Channel Lsubslimed
 
Last edited:
Great info, thanks for the posts! Is the scale left on the blade polished at all? If so, how is that done?
Thanks!
 
JPA66 & Paul, very nice on both of those. I've thought about doing something similar on a knife, just for fun. It normally isn't my thing, but I really like the dichotomy of that 'dashi, rough but cleanly sanded bevels. Very nice.

Again, don't try to pass off something as forged that obviously isn't. Guys don't care if it's just for texture, but they will hate you if you lie and say it's forged just to find out differently later.
 
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