Hand forging to shape

[Raymond Richard]

The older I get I find fewer and fewer things that excite me. Being a simple bladesmith for the last 13 years there's times I find myself bored to death until the forging bug bites and the last few months its had its teeth in me pretty deep. Saturday we had a beautiful day here in the northwest and it was 65 degrees in the shop. PERFECT time to light up the forge and the normally stiff oldman felt some flexability that hasn't been around for awhile. I've been messing around with a lot of saw steel and most of it is 3/16" or thinner so I've been doing a lot of forging with preforms but happened to think back to a time where I bumped up some thinner stock by hammering on a wider piece of steel to make it thicker up to a 1/4" or more. I remembered I had some 3/16 W-2 and I found a piece that had gone threw the shop fire. I cut off two 5" pieces off a bar of 1 3/4 X 3/16. Welded handles on them and started forging. First thing I did was bump them up till they were around 1 1/4 X 1/4 X 6 1/2 and then I forged the two blades. The piece of steel in the photo is what both blades started out as. The longer blade is 7" and the shorter blade is 6". Nothing other than hand held hammers has touched either blade yet. Anyway I thought I'd go ahead and post this since there might be someone interested in what you can do with a hammer in time.

 

[J.Marsillo]

There is a difference in what you can do with a hammer and time and what "normal" people can do Nice progression pics Ray :thumbup: I think all the pics and threads like this one are starting to sink into my thick skull

 

[deker]

Isn't it nice to take a small piece of steel and make a knife ot of it? One of my mentors and I have a running joke/contest making blades from small hunks of steel. One of the favorites is starting with a piece of 3/4"-7/8" coil spring about an inch long. Usually those turn into necker sized "blacksmith" knives.

Lookin' good Ray. I can't wait to see how you finish them off!

-d

 

[GHDerby]

Nicely drawn out...Good hamer control. You working with coal, char or gas?

 

[Raymond Richard]

Nicely drawn out...Good hamer control. You working with coal, char or gas?

I made a smaller version of my stove pipe forge out of 6" by 12" long piece of stove pipe. I use a "T Rex propane burner".

deker, Turning a small piece of useless steel into a knife blade is one I always enjoy doing. Scott (icky) came over a couple weeks ago with a box full of bearings. He had a few that were barrel shaped about 1 3/4" X an 1 3/8 in the middle. Icky was my striker and between the two of us we got it down to 7/8 by 3" before my striker ran out of gas. He also had some 3/4" round bearings. Between the two of us we were able to forge about a 2 1/2" blade with a 3" tang. Stuff like that still amazes me from something that small.

Joe, I put this post here for you.....

 

[scottickes]

Ran out of gas is exactly what happened. We started with a 12 lb. sledge hammer. When I couldn't swing it with control anymore, we switched to an 8 lb. sledge. I learned quite a bit watching Ray turn the 3/4" ball into a little utility knife. Ray graciously allowed me to keep the little knife, and I'm turning it into a little kitchen utility for my wife. I've never made a knife for my wife yet, but I look forward to finishing this one off. I look forward to seeing the 52100 creations that will likely be coming out of Ray's shop in the future! Many thanks to Ray for being such a hospitable and gracious host.

 

[Nowicki]

Nicely done. I enjoy forgeing to shape....usually 90/95%. My dad gave me a piece ot steel he said was the last piece he had left of his boat....3"long...3/8" round stock....Can you make a knife out of this for me??? I gave it to him for his birthday. Feels good to be able to do stuff like this.