Forging success! Stick tang blade!

[Guy Thomas]

Well I didn't get to forge yesterday, I took the family blueberry picking and to a movie, but today I got to break out the forge! Thanks for the pointers! I only managed to forge and profile one blade, but I have another blade started. The steel is 1084 and the blade is 3 3/8" long, I made the tang overlong so I can extend it all the way through the handle and peen the end which is common for most Scandinavian knives. (Boy I really need to finish the spring fuller I have half made, I started the tang by using the handles of an old pair of tongs, you could use an extra pair of hands when doing that! )

 

[peter nap]

Beautiful Silent!!!!!! Now that's my kind of knife. Check Ebay for a wart hog tusk. That blades just screaming for one.

 

[Bruce Evans]

Aireight,Way to go...
I should have warned you that a third hand would jhelp.But now on that note,if you have a welder available just weld a piece of square steel that will fit in your hardy hole on the bottom of the spring fuller and that way you don't have to hold it.Or fix it so it can be clamped in a vice if you don't have a hardy hole.I am lucky in the fact that one hand holds the fullering tool and the other the tongs and I let the power hammer do the hitting for me when setting in a tang.
Again it looks great,and way to use what you had (tong handles) to get the desired results you wanted.
Bruce

 

[ddavelarsen]

Guy that's sweeeeeeet...! You have great control of your processes and a great eye for what a knife is all about. Can't wait to see this one finished!

Dave

 

[Guy Thomas]

Wart hog tusk, hmmm... I had thought to use walnut with a 1/2" or 3/4" section of cherry towards the front.(blade-walnut-brass sheet spacer-cherry-brass sheet spacer-walnut) I have some gold and red stabilized amboynia that would look great but I'm not sure I want to use that on the first knife of this style I make. I'll probably save the stabilized stuff for when I've got a better feel for making this style of handle and blade.

Bruce, I have some 1" mild steel stock somewhere in my shop but after spending 15 minutes looking for it I decided my time would be better spent forging with whatever was at hand! I still haven't found that stuff, how in the world do you misplace a two foot long by 1" square chunk of steel?

Thanks Dave! I will have this one ground (or filed, I haven't decided yet) and ready to heat treat this coming weekend along with your knife! I had to grind on the profile more than I wanted to but I came close to what I wanted. My problem is it's often weeks between forging sessions and I loose my feel for what I'm doing until half way through the blade.

 

[Bruce Evans]

Boy do I know that feeling.One of these days when you are looking for something else you will find it and say Now this is where you are,and fix the fullering tool.
Bruce