In progress pics: First forged peice, an integral

[Matt Shade]

I heat treated 3 knives today and was needing somethin to do while they were tempering so I decided to play with the forge a little bit.

I forged this out of a peice of 5/8" O1 drill rod. Don't have an anvil, I switched back and forth between the flat on my vice and a peice of small gauge railroad track. Took about an hour hammerin, then about an hour of grinding to get this far. Started out grinding with a 4" angle grinder, then switched over to my belt grinder.I was really proud of how close I got the profile to shape. The bevels were pretty clean of hammer marks too, but I hadn't forged it thin enough.
Its getting a convex grind. Blade is about 3/16" thick at the spine, and 1" wide. OAL is about 8" with about 4" of blade.

I've forged some cold chisels and punches, and lots of peices and parts for stuff I was welding. Also have done quite a few letter openers out of horseshoes for practice. This is my first knife though. Its my first integral also, and its been a long time since I did a convex grind too. Been a really fun afternoon aside from burning a hole in the back of my left hand

I need to anneal it and get the back of the bolster area filed out square and even. I let this thing air cool after forging but its still hard as the hinges on the gates of hell Broke part of the tang off being a bonehead and thinking I could straighten it a little bit without heating it again. So I'm gonna heat her up and leave her in the forge to cool overnight I suppose.

Planning on about 3 brass pins and some kind of wood scales. I just bought some padauk, cocobolo, and purpleheart. Can't pick what to use first

So whatya think?

 

[Chiro75]

Cool as a primitive knife!

 

[Mark Williams]

Yep,

0-1 will air harden on ya. Looks good Matt.

 

[Matt Shade]

Thanks guys, hoping to have a handle on it by the end of the day.

Yep,

0-1 will air harden on ya. Looks good Matt.

Yep, I never realized it would harden that bad though The grain structure in it is horribly coarse at this point, but air cooling hardened it enough to skate a file pretty well, and cobalt drill bits just spin.
I heated the forge up, then put the blade in till it was non magnetic, and shut the forge off and plugged the opening up with some extra kaowool. Hopin that softened it up some. Will find out here in a little bit after I feed the horses.

 

[Matt Shade]

Hadn't done the picture thing in stages before, thought it was cool when other guys did, so here's some more.
Movin right along. Finished tempering it and 3 other knives today. The others were hollow ground and I put a satin finish on em real quick this afternoon. Started rubbing this one out, its a pain in the ass but at least there's no plunge
Here's where it is now:

Think I'm gonna go with Padauk for the scales, be somethin else new to try on this.

 

[John Andrews]

Matt, that's really COOL!

 

[Matt Shade]

Hey thanks John!, missed this post the other day

Here it is finished. Gotta sharpen it and maybe make a sheath. Can't decide just what to do with it now that its done Not gonna sell it, but not sure if I wanna carry it, put it in the workbench with my carving tools, or just save it for show and tell.

Overall length is 8"
3.5" O1 blade, roundabout 5/32" thick at the spine, slightly convex grind
O1 bolsters
Handle is Padauk finished with danish oil
3 bronze pins

I'm really hating this scanner. It pretty much sucks for anything thats not perfectly flat I guess thats what they're made for though

So what do you think? Still look primitive?

 

[elvenbladesmith07]

that looks really cool matt! i love the filework you do too!