gimme a hint

Brennanscott

Brennanscott

Joined
Jul 8, 2010
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I'm a tradesman, very good with my hands and love to make stuff.

I made an anvil out of a piece of railroad tie that my grandfather owned to use for knife making.

Question: Can I just start a fire in my pit outside (maybe with some bellows) and heat up something like a Nicholson file enough to beat it into a blade?

I plane on putting up photos of my first knife (I actually used to make them out of saw blades via stock removal when I was young, but I want to get serious about this now. I have a little faith in myself.
 
yes, you certainly can. i use a wood/charcoal fire and a heat gun for air supply often. the forced air supply will be needed. even a hot fire in good wind could get hot enough, but you want to be able to control/direct your air [or manipulate your coal bed around the air source], and control the intensity.
 
To make a hot enough fire you are going to need a good fuel and lots of air. For fuel you could use homemade charcoal, or see if you can find some charcoal in the store that is whole pieces of wood and not the normal briquets. For air you may be able to use an old hairdryer (not your wife/girlfriend's!) and some black iron pipe with small holes drilled in the side.

You then need a forge. You could dig a trench in the ground, lay your black iron pipe in the bottom with your air holes facing up, and line it with a mixture of clay and straw. Make sure you do not cover up the holes. Let the lining dry very well or it will not handle the stress of the high temperatures you will be exposing it to.

You will probably need to rig up some kind of gate to allow you to control the amount of air the hairdryer blows into the forge. Too much air will make the fire oxidizing and destroy your steel fast.

A Nicholson file should work ok for a first knife, although a known steel (like 1084) would be more ideal.

You will find that your railroad anvil will do a lot of bouncing, which does not help your forging. Try to find a way to strap it down to a stump or something that is very heavy to minimize this problem.


Please note that you have a greater chance of enjoying yourself if you were to use the proper tools, the above are makeshift workarounds that I have heard people have had some success with. Good luck, and be sure to check out the stickies at the top of the forum for lots of good reading!
 
Man thanks alot guys. I was actually gonna use some fireplace bellows but I guess I'll go with the hair dryer.

What is the steel at Home depot or Lowe's? Just unknown crap?
 
The steel at Lowe's is low carbon structural steel, no good for knives. If your plan is to use scrap steel, find a leaf spring from an old car, but you would be better off getting 1080 or some other known steel so your heat treatment is not a mystery. 1080 would be best for your uber-basic setup because the heat treatment process for it is the simplest of all the knife steels, and is explained quite well up in the sticky section.

Matt
 
Matlock said:
The steel at Lowe's is low carbon structural steel, no good for knives. If your plan is to use scrap steel, find a leaf spring from an old car, but you would be better off getting 1080 or some other known steel so your heat treatment is not a mystery. 1080 would be best for your uber-basic setup because the heat treatment process for it is the simplest of all the knife steels, and is explained quite well up in the sticky section.

Matt
Click to expand...


Thanks Matt, I have a buddy that has a metal shop, I'll try to get some known steel through him. I picked up the book "Wayne Goddard's $50.00 Knife Shop" today to figure out a little more about the forge.

You guys are great for giving me this advice.
 
Might want to check out Mace Vitale. He is a JS in connecticut. He has a wealth of knowledge, skill, and is heck of a nice guy
 
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