Forging

[Raymond Richard]

The thing I enjoy most about knife making starts at the very beginning of the process. Hand forging. Taking a raw piece of steel and with just hand held hammers turning that piece of steel into a blade. Anyway I've been wanting to up date the forging page thats on my web site with something that makes sense instead of what is there now. I'll be using some of these pictures there.

Not much going on here yet. Got a stub tang forged first. I prefer forging the tang first. It makes holding onto the work easier plus I now have starting and stopping points. After I have the blade totally forged I will then forge the rest of the tang out.

A lot has gone on since the last photo and a loss of about an hours time. The blade is pretty much forged now but still needs shaping and straightening. Sometimes this is something that goes real fast and other times you can lose an hour in the process.

Got the blade straightened out and I just ran a normalizing cycle. Once this blade has cooled off its time to start grinding. Just hammer work till this point. A picture of my coat rack and the trash can bench in the background.

Here's the finished knife. 9 1/2" 5160 blade, Buggy wheel iron guard, blackwood and walrus cheek bone make up the rest. 15 1/2" overall and weighs 16oz.

 

[ryan9977]

looks wicked as usual....a definate style all your own.....ryan

 

[butchesforge]

Nice blade Raymond:thumbup:,but I can't believe you forge in sandals,or did you just take the pic that way.That scale is HOT and will stick to you---Regards Butch

 

[Raymond Richard]

Nice blade Raymond:thumbup:,but I can't believe you forge in sandals,or did you just take the pic that way.That scale is HOT and will stick to you---Regards Butch

This time of year I like to let my feet breath. I do do the slag dance from time to time. Still got all my toes.

 

[Bigfattyt]

I was going to comment on the bare tootsies as well. Brave man. Slag dance indeed. I once learned the hard way to wear closed toe shoes ( sturdy leather boots at the 4th of July fireworks time, after an angry firework got lodged in my flip flops and burned my tootsies something fierce). I can imagine a hot piece of steel giving you are real nasty burn too. Not to mention dropping a blade, or hammer on the toe.

 

[Lorien]

The knife and the pictorial documentary is awesome, but I too am fascinated by your choice of footwear That's effing awesome!

 

[John White]

Raymond,

See how you forge in that clip. That's what's called "forged to shape", truely! Good job.

John

 

[Raymond Richard]

Raymond,

See how you forge in that clip. That's what's called "forged to shape", truely! Good job.

John

Good eye! Thats something I started doing about 4 months ago. Use to just grind them in. It makes for more time at the forge. Not sure if I really gain anything by forging them in since I still need to go back and grind. Just makes it a little more interesting.

 

[HTMD]

:thumbup: This is good stuff!

 

[Doug C]

Another beauty.
I really like forged as close to shape as can be had,and this is a good example of that.
The walrus bone contrasts nicely with the blackwood.
Your work is almost instantly recognizable and I've never read or heard anybody say anything but positive comments about it.

Keep up the great work,Ray.

Doug

 

[nikoknife48]

Way to stick it ! Everything works together on this one.

 

[xaman]

Another AWESOME knife Ray!


Thanks for taking the time to post the process pics :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Great handle. I like the walrus cheekbone. The knife as a whole looks superb.

 

[joeshredd]

Hey Ray,
Gravel floor so ya don't have to sweep? Cool!!!!
Really looking forward to seeing you , your stuff and maybe your forging demo again in Portland!