Hello! have you ever swung a hammer on hot steel? Prehaps you should work on your hammer strikes. Glancing blows move metal in the direction of the blow. Pretty much the "standard" Nessmuk shape is an upside down, drop point recurve, with an exagerrated belly. So to start,
1) Assuming we're workin round stock, heat the stock to a bright red. NO HIGHER!
2) Then use your heavy crosspien,(2-1/2 - 3lb) using the wedge side, strike the steel rapidly beggining about 3-4" from the bottom moving progressivly to the bottom. Flip over and repeat this untill you get to about 1/4" thick.
3) The shape will start to get a bannana shape to it, a little is ok, but if it starts getting too much, flip it so the arc is vertical and gently hammer it back to flat.
4) Once you have 4-5" of 1/4" flat stock to play with, shape the point then cut the bar so you have about an 3/4" long piece of round left attached to the flat. this will be the tang (Assuming you want a stick tang)
5) Square the 3/4" long round and begin drawing it into a long rat tail. once long enough flatten.
6) Back to the blade, to draw the exagerrated belly out a few simple glancing blows in the proper direction from the regular side of the crosspien will move the metal into place.
7) Bevels decide where you want the bevels and move to the front of your anvil, up by the horne you'll notice a small step, orient the knife so the edge of the step is directly underneith where you want your plunge. Now raise the spine about 1/2" off the anvil, but the edge still in contact and give it a good whack, and give it several whacks all the way out to the point. repeat lowering the 1/2" to 3/8" then the 3/8" to 1/4" so as to raise the plunge to about 3/4 up the blade, flip the blade and do the other side. after you finish give it a few straighting tweaks, normalize 3x each with a progressivly lower temp first to 50-75ºF above critical, then at critical, then 50-75ºF before critical, now let slow cool in the forge or in vermiculite to spheroidize anneal.
may not be perfect, your results may differ, but it's how I do it.
Jason
