First forged integral: Step-by-step work in progress pics. (40+ Pics, beware)

David Schott

David Schott

Joined
Sep 27, 2004
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This is my first forged integral. To be honest I havent done much forging, period. I am bit apprehensive posting a work in progress on a piece that i had no business attempting with my forging experience. I had purchased some W2 on the forums and wanted it for hamon work. My little arms underestimated the work of flattening it by hand in my basement shop.

Here is what I crashed through myself.

-Anvil is a 200# Peter Wright that I picked up last year.

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-Forge is a small dragon's breath forge built for my by Indian George. Burner is a venturi burner I built of an Ellis Knifeworks design. It has since been hooked up to a forced-air blower.
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Initial drawing was done with a sledge before moving to a smaller hammer.
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I then took the bar down to Idian George's place and I believe Louis was there as well. I don't have any pics but I used the press to put in the plunges a bit better and draw out the tang.

Here is after, initially cleaning it up pre- heat treat. All done on the KMG:
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Plunge getting there....a bit harder than a normal plunge. The final knife will have no actual plunge lines, and instead the pluge will be integral to the blade shape, curving from the main thickness to the cutting edge. All plunge work was done via small wheel attachment on the KMG, hand filing and smoothing.
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All cleaned up pre-HT. I took it down fine to look for cracks, and just for kicks:
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To Be Continued in next post.....
 
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This is a continuation. This is setting up for HT, clay coating, quenching....

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Applying a thin coat of satinite, which is let to dry:
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Went a little crazy...shoot for the moon, i suppose...
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Oven up to temp with blade in it...
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The clay applied acts as a thermal resist when quenching. On shallow hardening steels like W2, the clay will come right up to temp with the blade. When quenched, the clay does not allow areas below it to be quenched fast enough. As a result, that steel does not cool fast enough and does not harden. This causes dis-similar steel structures in the blade that will later be brough out via etching and polishing.

Just after quench, i scrubbed off clay. Its ugly but exciting as it holds the future of what the hamon will look like.
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Post Ht Cleanup. The knife much have all forge scale removed and be finish ground. This is when I do final touchups to the plunge and angles and put the final flat grind on the blade.:
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This is all at the hand sanding stage...
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Next post: Final sanding, etching, polish....
 
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Continued...

Blade was brought up to 800-1000 grit, then etched in ferric chloride for a few seconds. The ferric chloride eats away at hard and soft steel at different rates. As a result, the hard and soft steels become apparent. Its always better to etch less, polish more on these blades I have found. Etch was maybe ten seconds, then a lot of elbow grease and polishing brings out the shine and details of the hamon.

This is just after the etch:
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Blade was final polished, then glued up into handle. Handle drilling and shaping was missed for some reason in the pics. Handle is stabilized box elder burl with great grain and fine pattern:
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That tang was threaded onto a nut in a recess, then the buttcap pinned and glued in over it all and locked into epoxy.

Here are a few final pics:

I swear this one makes the blade look like its crooked, but its just the angle of the pic.
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I also made a damascus buttplate with a central hole. I drilled a hole in the tang and threaded through it a braided lanyard/sheath pullstring.
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Next post: Misc pics:
 
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Cool post ! Good looing blade. I'm not sure that I understand what you are talking about with the lanyard thing however ??
 
Wow! I don't think you can claim to have no business taking on a project like that. That is a fantastic looking knife, and great step by step pics. Almost makes me want to go try myself...... nah, I'm too scared!
Great job though, thanks for showing us how you did it.
 
First, love everything about the knife!

Second, as a newbie hack I always appreciate the time and effort taken by the pros to post these work in progress threads.
 
very cool! Do you use the small wheel with a platen shown in Nick Wheeler's Random Action Shots? It makes me want to build a forge and try it!
 
Hey thanks for the comments thus far!

Not sure if this one will go up for sale. Its spanned two years to get this one done and it has some sentimental value as my first integral and one of my first forged blades, but I probably could be convinced :)

As for the grinding, I used the small wheel to set the integral plunges, but combined that with careful normal grinding and hand smoothing to make the pluge flow into the blade. It was quite a difficult process matching curves since the final knife has no actual plunge line, just a flowing curve from ricasso to edge.

I still need to add a pin and to clean up the blade to handle joint, but it is really finishing out well.
 
Kicks butt. Nice shape and size. That Handle Burl is killer. Did I miss what type wood? Keep hammering instead of "cheating" with power and you will get some arms. LOL Jim
 
I added in some additional details to some of the steps. The handle is fully stabilized box elder burl. Works like plastic, polishes like glass. A few tiny checks need to be filled, but otherwise the block is spectacular with natural reds mixed in. I almost put an african blackwood handle, but decided on this block instead.

Let me know if there are any parts people want fleshed out in terms of details, and I can add them in.
 
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