Fist forged big knife

[peppen108]

14" over all. A speer point light chopper. Free hand grind and ad hoc design. Forged and finished in the garden. I have only made smal craft knives before so this was quite a leap. What do you think?

 

[Kalibr906]

Looks really nice. I certainly would use it without hesitation.

 

[Rick1-2]

looks good

 

[kuraki]

Very nice. Is your guard fit over a forged surface or did you clean that up? How is the guard attached?

Looks like a great utility knife design.

 

[BKT]

Looks good. Big knives are addicting!

 

[elementfe]

Fist forged....damn, that's hard core, I always use a hammer.

 

[SBuzek]

Fist forged....damn, that's hard core, I always use a hammer.

Beat me to it,was thinking the same thing.

 

[retired01]

that looks like a nice job done!

 

[peppen108]

Ha ha, well my English is pretty bad. I guess a forged blade is made in one of those huge power hammer with a knife shaped die. What is a blade that has been hammered to shape called?

 

[Bigfattyt]

Ha ha, well my English is pretty bad. I guess a forged blade is made in one of those huge power hammer with a knife shaped die. What is a blade that has been hammered to shape called?

Hand forged would be the term.







Don't worry about your English.

The knife looks great!

 

[Zuluninja]

good job :thumbup:

 

[peppen108]

@Kuraki

The guard is press fitted and glued. The blade is differentialy theat treated so the steel where the tiny slot is filed is normalised. I used black epoxy and knocked the guard in to place. When I glued the scales it got a bit messy so I accidentally put a clamp on the guard and cranked it to the max (300 pounds towards the but of the knife) and nothing broke ant that's without the main support of the scales. So it's on there.

 

[John A. Larsen]

Nice job! The three circle insert in the handle looks very Japanese. like an old Samurai insignia. John

 

[KUNTZI66]

Great looking, how did you make those pins?

 

[kuraki]

@Kuraki

The guard is press fitted and glued. The blade is differentialy theat treated so the steel where the tiny slot is filed is normalised. I used black epoxy and knocked the guard in to place. When I glued the scales it got a bit messy so I accidentally put a clamp on the guard and cranked it to the max (300 pounds towards the but of the knife) and nothing broke ant that's without the main support of the scales. So it's on there.

:thumbup: Good work.

 

[peppen108]

@John I first had a no nonsense spear point colonial Sheffield bowie fighting knife in mind. But the shapes turn out more elegant and organic. For another project I have been looking at hi-end wood working tools (brass, steel and wahlnut) from the west vs Japan (forge finished and organic shapes). Everything mashed together and this came out.

@Kuntzi The spring had a ca 13mm hole in it. So i just drilled through the blank and one scale before glueing on the other scale. Then drilled free hand through the existing hole into the other scale. Cut up brass round bar. Filled the hole with black epoxy and such the rods in it.

 

[peppen108]

I've done the first round of testing and the blade is holding up well. Found some drawing that might be of interest to people learning about basic bladesmithing like me. The orange outline is what came out of the forge. The ink scetch is the last drawing before I started the finishing of the knife. The finishing was guided by the feel of the emerging knife rather than the scetch.



This picture shows how much material was lost. My plan was to keep this to a minimum. Like 80% of the work at the anvil an 20% filing and grinding. One intresting thing is that the guard is aligned with the edge in the drawing but this was very unergonomic. Putting the the pressure on the knuckle-joint of the first finger. Aligning it with the back and giving it a slight tilt and curve made the hole difference.



My plan for the next knife is to do 85% of the shaping at the anvil.