First attempt! How am I doing?

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omnislash

Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Messages
19
http://imgur.com/FHRIikh

FHRIikh


Hi guys! I've been a (lurking) member here forever but this year I've made the jump to smithing. A little history: I'm thirty and I just became a father five months ago(awesome!) . I don't have a lot of tools or a shop to speak of, so this is kinda slow going. Also I've loved knives forever obviously.

I got myself a vertical forced air forge, a 4x4x5 anvil, a hammer, tongs, a Simonds file, some aldos 1084 and some basic safety items. Been researching and reading and watching videos whenever I can.

Despite not having an HT setup yet(need a toaster oven) I wanted to try pounding something out. I half expected to end up with a big heap of mangled metal, but I don't think I'm doing too terribly(?) . The blade might be too thin. Also doing full tang seems easiest with my lack of equipment, but I wanted to hear what you guys thought.

Also thank you guys for a terrific community with loads of information. I would have not thought bladesmithing to be possible without you guys.

edit--It's not done yet. I ran out of propane today. This is my third day at the forge at about 2hrs a day.
 
Right on man I hope you have great success or at least learn a lot from your first attempt at bladesmithing! Looks like you are off to a good start. I do not recommend using a toaster oven for tempering as they can get hot spots inside of them and over heat blades. The temperature settings are usually way off also. I use my conventional oven with a temperature gauge right next to the blades I'm tempering because the temp settings on my oven were 50 degrees off! So check your temperature before throwing a blade in there that caused you blood, sweat, and beers! Good luck!:D
 
Pretty good

Are you leaving your anvil outside ?

If you can keep it shiny clean and smooth, the blade will not take on that roughness from the anvil as much..

FHRIikh.jpg
 
I bring it in. You're looking at the rough sides in the picture. The rounded corners helped me shape the tang. The anvil has two smooth faces that the picture isn't showing
 
Good job!

I especially like that you left the tip round. This area is often over worked ( and sometimes burned) when making a point. I find it far better to leave it round and grind/file the final tip shape after the blade is forged.
Same for the tang transitions....well done.... Leave them a bit oversize and round now, grind/file to exactly placed shoulders later.
The only thing I might suggest is adding more taper to the tang, since that will save a bit of grinding/filing time later.

TIP:
Get a stiff steel wire brush, and every time you heat the blade, brush off before you start hammering. After forging that heat, brush off again before putting it back in the forge to heat up again. Wipe off the scale from the anvil face while the blade is heating. This will help keep the blade smoother and less pitted. It also prevents bits of scale from being forged deep into the blade and causing spots after HT.
Also, If your anvil or the hammer is rough, nicked, or pitted, the blade will take that surface appearance, too.
 
Good tips! I do need a wire brush. Yea I ran out of gas before I finished the tang.... Still needs a couple touchups-but honestly, handles in general are harder for me to envision. It seems easier to widen the tang and put a wrap on... But I would rather have actual handle scales... I think I just need to look at more handle tutorials.

Also, while the shape does look really good, I actually messed up a little. The top third of the spine(the "clip") is hammered thinner than the edge. Everything else has some good thickness. I think my first anvil was too light (1"steel plate) Also just getting a feel for the hammer.

Hopefully it's not too thin. It looks like I can hammer out a little more belly on the real edge... Which might even it out... Or if that fails I might have to cut the tip off into a "dao" shape
 
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