Forge Day Afternoon

N

nc_cooter

Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
574
Here's a pic of 3 I knocked out this afternoon.
forged.jpg


Hope to finish the grinding/sanding tomorrow and heat treat.
All comments welcome and thanks for looking.
 
Nice, man... I wish I could get more time to swing a hammer. I might manage to develop the skills you've obviously got!
 
Nicely shaped ..but I have a question. I understand that forgers try to get as close as possible to finished size and it looks that you did a very good job of it. Why forge? Is forging better than stock removal? Does the steel react differently to later stresses as it works it little life away? Not trying to be a smartass..just wondering if there is a reason why forging is a better road to a better knife other than the fact that it is just plain fun and you can start with all sorts of oddball shapes and sizes of rought stock?:confused:
 
There is no real difference, you can make a fine knife either way.

Forging is Fun:thumbup:Fred
 
Forging is fun, you can start with pretty much any reasonably sized and shaped piece of steel and you don't throw much of it away.....no bandsaw leftovers. AND you never have to spend that large cash on PG barstock.
 
NC Cooter, I really like the little one the best, though I like em all

John L, To me forging is the most fun part of making a knife, if you looked in my shop you would see that's true to me, I've 15 or 20 forged blades and only a couple of them are finished :D

If you were to make some sort of fantasy blade, you would probably use a lot less steel by forging instead of grinding.

All in all, you gain no perfomance from forging, once you go through HT process it doesn't matter if it were forged or ground to shape, as long as the HT was correct for the particular steel.
 
John L, here's my personal reasons. Forging/stock removal is not a matter of better. I do both, but mostly forging now. Until a little less than two years ago, all my blades were stock removal. I spent a lot of time learning the craft.
Forging just seemed to be a natural progression. It was another craft I wanted to learn. For me, forging allows a little more "artistic expression". How's that for $2 words from a 25 cent guy.:D
Just make knives anyway you can.
 
One point often overlooked in the Forge vs Grind debate it that when you learn to forge you learn a lot about how steel reacts and changes with heat. You understand more of the basics of HT because you have run steel successfully through many,many cycles . Things like annealing,normalizing, and stress relief become understood easier. You attain a "hands on" knowledge of red hot steel and handle HT and quenching with much less apprehension.

The knife won't know which way it was made........but you will!
Stacy
 
Forging allows you to work off pent up aggressions in a safe and controlled manner. Also, as stated a bunch of times here already, IT'S FUN!

My neighbor, who has no real interest in knives, still likes to come over and drink a beer or two while watching me turn a round roller into a knife shaped object. I don't think I've ever seen anyone more amazed by such a simple process.

Ickie
 
Thanks for all the replies.
My wife tends to get to the basics with her opinions. Her thoughts, " There you are, standing under a tin roofed shed, on a hot day, gas forge roaring, swinging a 3# hammer, soaked in sweat, while you could be in your air conditioned shop , grinding the same blade. You either love forging or you are totally NUTS! "
In my case, it's a toss up.
 
nc_cooter said:
Thanks for all the replies.
My wife tends to get to the basics with her opinions. Her thoughts, " There you are, standing under a tin roofed shed, on a hot day, gas forge roaring, swinging a 3# hammer, soaked in sweat, while you could be in your air conditioned shop , grinding the same blade. You either love forging or you are totally NUTS! "
In my case, it's a toss up.
Click to expand...

Wives. What do they know? If they were as smart as they think they are, they wouldn't have married us in the first place! :p

Ickie
 
Disagree

If they were half as smart as they think they are, they'd be forging their own knives right alongside us.

Me, I love to forge. Whoever first stated it, dude, you're so right... Forging ROCKS.

It's also a hell of a lot easier than stock removal for those of us who would have to do it with a hand drill, a hacksaw, and a bunch of files.
 
I wish that I had a style from my hammer and not from how I hold my pencil...
 
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