Forging a Kitchen knife - step by step pictures

[JTknives]

First let me say I don't claim that my way is the best or that I even know what I'm doing. It's just what works for me and turns out a great knife.

Ok first I select the material. Ahh look what I found, some of dons W2 2.125" bar stock. I really like working with larger round stock as it allows me to move material where I want it.

Next I cut off a puck sized chunk, and fire up the forge.

Once the puck is heated up I pull it out and stick it in the press and give it a squeeze. I press it down to make an oval of sorts. Being that my press is real tiny and does not move fast I only use it to get the puck into a usable size. And have to attack the material in the most efficient way.

Here it is after the first pressing. As you can see it moved it quite a lot. I have forged these pucks by hand as well and would attack it the same way. Get it into an oval by using a large hammer. But I have a press and use that.

You can see in the last picture that it has now bulged out the sides. The next heat I press those bumps down. Then one last press on the first side because when you press the bumps the material bulges out the other sides. So just work both sides till you have a square-ish bar with rounded ends. Like you see below.

Now while the billet is heating back up I swap out the dies for the drawing dies as seen below. But this can also be done a few other ways. One way is using the cross peen on a hammer or the horn of the anvil or both used together. Yes it's steel but it can be moved just like clay, really hard clay.

Here it is after its first drawing cycle. Remember DONT work cold steel it will develop cracks and fractures which you might not see till your about done with the blade.

I just keep drawing it out by pressing the high ridges between the dies. I work one half of the bar till it's the thickness I want. Then I switch to smaller tongs and hold that side and draw out the other thick side. Keep drawing till you get something like this. This is where I stop using the press, it's all hammer work from this point on.

Here it is after I work it by hand with the hammer. I love the horn on anvils I can adjust how drastic the drawing is by where I place the steel on the horn. Being that the horn is tapered remember to flip you bar over or you will get a banana shape. Also work on controlling the hammer, you are not just beating the **** out of it. Your dancing with it and directing the material where you want it. Watch for the edges of your hammer as it will leave deep marks in the steel. I use the edges of my hammer as well to move it where I want but don't go crazy. I draw out the length just a little short of what I want as the profiling will lengthen it a good bit more. At this point I'm ready to start working the profile.

I always forge the tang first, this allows me to move the extra material towards the tip. Below you can see I'm just starting the finger groove. I use the cross peen and hammer down and towards the tip. It pushes the material towards the tip and creates a nice sweep. It will bulge out the sides, that's ok. Just take it slow and keep forging down the bulged sides and then rework the groove. also use the hammer face to blend the groove into the tang. If you go crazy on the groove it will bulge it so bad that when you flatten it back down you will create folds in the steel that will be very hard to remove.

Here it is finished, groove and tang are shaped. I also forged in the tang taper. Now onto the point we go.

I start with the edge side of the point and set that. Remember you might be hammering on onley one side but the anvil is hammering back on the other so plan out your moves so it gets moved where you want it.

Here I have finished the edge side, you can see it's a lot more drastic of a curve then I want. That will go away when I forge the spine back down.

I forge the spine of the point down creating that gentile sweep of the edge.

All this forging has bowed the spine so I lay the spine of the blade across the anvil and tap the finger groove with the cross peen of the hammer and it's all stright.

Next up is a stress releasing heat, just heat and let air cool.

Now it's off to the grinder to clean up the profile.

I soak it in vinegar for 24 hrs to remove the scale.

Then off to the disk grinder to remove the forged finish and clean up the distal and tang tapers.

Here is the taper on the tang

And here is the distal taper

While I was out there I found some wood for the scales which I also flattened on the disk grinder. I LOVE my 2x72 grinder but I will be the first to say I NEED my disk grinder. The belt grinder just does not do a good job in making things perfectly flat.

Well guys that's it for now, I will update as I finish up the knife and keep posting step pictures of the process.
I hope this was of some help to someone out there that might be considering picking up a hammer.

 

[Kentucky]

That's a good thread, thanks and keep it up :thumbup:

 

[NC Biker]

Yeah, I'll be watching, thanks for the post!

 

[MarkJeffrey]

I'm here! Good post

 

[Maelstrom78]

Thanks!

 

[Robert Erickson]

Thanks for putting this together!

 

[GibCurry]

Love it. ..thanks for great photos. Looking forward to seeing the next series of your progress.

 

[coldsteelburns]

Gotta love a good knifemaking WIP, especially when it starts off with bladesmithing . I hear ya on the disc grinder, I finally got myself a good 9" reversible VFD disc grinder from "Pheer Grinders" (yep, he sells those too, and for a great price I might add!) and it just makes knifemaking sooo much more pleasant, especially when you're forging your blades. I was able to recently pick up a "used" (but never really used) KMG workrest for a great price and now it's just a magical piece of equipment .

Thanks for sharing and keep it commin brother! :thumbup:

~Paul

---

My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been quite a while since I've posted any new vids)

 

[JTknives]

I am back with an update
Spent a good amount of time in the shop today and got a good amount of work done on this bad boy.

First thing first I needed to grind the edge bevels and as this is a kitchen knife the edge needed to come all the way back. But considering I wanted to extended the handle material as far as I could I wanted to angle the plunge cut. So I snag a sharpie and sketch out what I want.

Next up is setting up the grinder the the angle of the plunge cuts. On thick knives I do all this by hand and don't use this contraption but the plunges are so shallow that it's very easy to run them over and change the angle. But like I said I only use this to set them and then remove the guide as I find that guides and rest seam to cause more problems then they solve. This contraption is just a chunk of micarta clamped to the rest and angled so the plunge cut comes in at the angle I want every time. Then when one side is done I flip the blade around and eye ball the platten inline with the freshly cut plunge cut and adjust the micarta the other direction.

First pass is always steeper then the actual edge bevel. It helps to keep from striping grit off the belt and gives you a goal to grind to. But being that this blade is tapered I taper the grind out towards the tip to keep a consistent edge thickness.

Now slowly walk the edge bevel towards the spine. This really shows the distal taper as the grind line drops off as it gets to the tip. That's ok as I work on that separate.

Ok I know the point is bugging you so on to that next. I find that on tapered blades I work the body or belly of the blade first and then blend in the point. The point is already very thin so it does not need much material removed.

Now that the point is done it's time to bring it home with a smooth grind from plunge to tip. I like to grind all the way to the spine but I leave a little before heat treating and move it the rest of the way after.

I have been using 50grit belts up to this point and now need to step up the finish and get ready to heat treat. After 50 grit I use a gator A300, I know there are belts I could use before it but I find it works great for my purpose. The blade is thin already so want to remove just enough to get the finish I want. This is where I stop but some times I will go to a 160 or 100 gator belt.

Now where is the bucket of clay, oh there it is. Now I don't claim to be any good at hamons but I try. Only tip I can give you is try and make the clay the same shape on both sides. If the clay is not aligned then on these thin blades the steel will harden completely from the side that does not have clay. So if you have fingers that come down make sure you have matching fingers on the other side. I was not going for anything real crazy here, just wanted a wispy wavy hamon.

Let it COMPLETELY dry, that's my biggest fault. I try and rush the drying process which usually means the clay cracks and falls off. If you must dry it right now then gently heat it with a heat gun or quick passes in the forge and let dry. Also don't heat up the blade with the clay and then pull it out and let it air cool. This causes more cracks and clay failure. If some one has clay out there that sticks better then mine I would love to hear about it. Another side note, this is a good time to get your tempering oven heating up. You can see mine in the background in the previous picture coming to life. I don't use that oven for really long tempers. It's used for 30min tempers right after the quench, it's set adjusted to be at around 375°. I find if I can get at least a quick temper right away I can continue working on the knife and then that night do a 2hr temper in the big oven.
Here it is mostly dry, this time I used the heat gun to dry it. Just go slow and even you can induce a warp in the blade by uneven drying. Which will stick when quenched and you will have to straighten it.

Being that the heating, quenching and tempering is a quick process for me I did not get any pictures but if you have made it this far you should know how it's done. Right after the temper I hit the grinder with the 300 gator and look for the hamon. Ohhhh there it is I see it.

Now it's time to check straightness and tweet as needed, you would be surprised how much you can flex these clay coated blades. This blade had a slight bow which I straightened after the 30min temper. Had to flex it between 45-90 deg to get it to keep a set. I would really have my doubts flexing a fully hardened blade that far with only a 30min 375° temper. Ok back on track, I keep grinding the edge bevels with finer and finer grits up to a 45 grit gator. Looking good if I do say so.

I know this whole time your saying you forgot pin holes in the tang. Don't worry this is when I drill them. I don't heat treat the tang so is still can be drilled. So just that simple, 2 1/8" holes in the tang.

Now it's time to find the scales you picked out for this knife. I usually spend a good amount of time looking at the scales and trying to get the grain and figure to match the knife as best I can. Maybe it's pointless but it makes me feel better. I also inspect for any defects if the wood that might not get removed in shaping. I already sanded the tang sides of these scales flat the other day on the disk Sander. So thy are ready to go.

I use 2 little pin jigs to locate the tang. Thy are that little pin you see with the bent over end. I use 1/8" copper plated welding rod as its a very tit fit in a 1/8" drilled hole and a press fit in the wood. The jigs are made out of the same material.

When doing hidden pins you need everything to line up properly and tight. To do this I place the tang on the scale where I want it and use the tang to guide the drill into the wood. I go as deep as I can but don't go to deep or you will expose the pin when shaping the handle. Once the first hole is drilled I insert the pin into the hole locking the tang to that spot. Then use the other hole in the tang to locate the drill and drill the second hole. This process is repeated for the other scale, just remember to flip the blade over or you will end up with either 2 lefts or 2 right handle scales.

With both pins in its off to the bandsaw. Just use the band saw to remove the extra wood around the tang. I use to trace it out and then cut but this way I know exactly where the tang is because its trig hit there.

With both scales cut out your ready to make your temporary pins. I say temporary because I sand them down a tiny bit so thy are a little looser fit. When I say loose I mean thy still press into the wood but you don't have to pry the wood apart to get them apart. You will notice one is longer then the other. That's because it's a tapered tang and the tang is thicker around one hole then the other.

Next put the pins in one of the scales and slide the tang on. It should be a very nice perfect fit. You should not have to wiggle jiggle or hammer anything.

Now grab your other scale and push it on, it should also fit nicely with no slop.

This can be the tricky bit so take your time. Go to the grinder and bring the wood down just to the tang. The tapered tang is very thin on this knife so you could easily grind away part of the tang if you where not paying attention. I take a grind and look and grind and loot. Keep doing that till you just see a hint of a spark and stop. In the thicker areas you can not worry as much as the tang has a lot more material there and won't grind away as fast but still take your time. You can see in this picture just how thin the tang gets.

Next I bust out my little handy grinder and get the handles under belly. This can be done on a small wheel attachment on a 2x72 or even with sand paper wrapped around a rod.

Now I remove the blade from the scales and put the scales together with the pins. This locks the scales together and will allow you to work the front of them into the shape you want.

Here the front of the scales are rounded nicely and because thy where pined together thy match each other.

At this point I stamp the blade with my mark. I do this after the handle profiling so I know where I can stamp. Nothing sucks more then getting your scales on and realizing you covered up half of your stamp. On this blade there is not much room so I gave it a T for Todd. Normally I have a J.J.Todd stamp I use but it takes up a good chunk of room. So in this case it just gets a T.

On the other side it gets the steel type, W2. I figure if your making a knife to out last yourself it might be a good idea to label the steel.

Now it's time to start shaping the handle, being that every one has there own handle style it's your choice how you shape it. I use the 50grit belt on the grinder and just go at it. Just go slow and calculated, the material comes off a lot faster the it goes back on. I get it shaped very close to finished shape and profile on the grinder. Just pay attention to making each scale as close to the same as the other one as you can. Look at the scales from different angles and compare the arcs and contours. Your hands are a good judge as well. I'm constantly grinding and feeling and grinding and feeling. I know I'm not the customer but if I can feel a flaw then thy most likely will to.

That's it for right now, I will be back later with another update.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

While it isn't what I would ever call a santoku, it looks like a nice knife. Biggest issue is that the handle is far too low for good food cutting. It could only be used with the handle off the board for most cutting and chopping. Definitely not enough curve for a santoku.

Santoku:
http://www.zknives.com/knives/knimg...ives.com/knives/kitchen/tojiro/tojirost01.jpg

Blade is more of a gyuto:
http://www.zknives.com/knives/knimg...nives.com/knives/kitchen/watanabe/wtnbgy2.jpg

Just a short rant - I hate it when I hear santuko by a foodie on TV. It just tells me he/she knows nothing about the knife .... and the script writers for the show know even less.

 

[JTknives]

Yeah I see what your saying, I did not know what to call it as its kind of just a small general knife. Looked at pictures of kitchen knives and it seams like thy call just about anything a Santoku lol.
Changed the title to kitchen knife, thanks for the heads up.

 

[KUNTZI66]

Cant see any pics.