noob question please be gentle

C

ctf58

Joined
Oct 13, 2015
Messages
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This might be extremely stupid. If you were to make a knife blank, or several and they screwed up somehow, warped, cracked or screwing it up putting an edge on the blade. My example would be using high carbon steel like 1095 for the beginner who will make mistakes.

Can the mistakes be reused to anything? Could you stack them and hammer forge. I have no clue about blacksmithing. just seems like a massive waste if there is nothing that can be done with the "opps". I just really got started into collecting old knives and learning to sharpen them correctly, but I also get consumed and have been reading and watching videos looking into the whole knife making art. I have searched to find the answer but either do not know the correct terminology or the question has not come up in the entire history of the internet.

Again sorry if this is stupid.

thanks

ctf58
 
There is a saying: "there's a 4 inch paring knife in every 8 inch Bowie"
Lot's of "oops" get repurposed into just as nice albeit shorter/thinner/different shaped knives. Granted it does depend on the exact screw up, the extent of the screw up and when in the process it occurs.
* If you haven't done so, look at all the stickies at the top of "shop talk"*

BTW 1084 is better starter steel. It's inexpensive and can be HT at home
 
But to actually answer your question, yes, if there is usable steel left over then use it for sure. Although if it's warped or cracked its presumably from quenching? You'll have to anneal the steel to soften it again to reshape it, assuming you're cutting and filing
 
This is why I used to not (still don't sometimes) drill any holes in the tang until I ground my bevels in. I used to always (still do sometimes) screw up my grinds when I was first learning to grind freehand. That way when I did screw up, I could sometimes grind the blade smaller and then grind the handle to match the blade. If there were already pin and epoxy holes drilled, they would end up getting ground into when shaping the tang and would show up all around the perimeter (spine) of it.

If the blade was beyond saving, I still had a good (holeless) piece of steel in the tang area that I could use when practicing forging. If it was big or thick enough stock I could sometimes forge a smaller blade out of the steel. I would also use the thinner pieces to practice forge welding with and could end up with enough material to forge a new blade out of some a san mai , using wrought iron, 1018 mild steel, 15n20 or w/e for the outer jacket. Sometimes I'd also forge a small(er) billet of damascus by cutting/grinding the tangs into same length and width and then cut some 15n20 or cut-offs from large bandsaw steel to the same size and use that in the billet, since I usually had some extra pieces of them laying around).

Anyway, just some food for thought. :)

~Paul
My YT Channel Lsubslimed
... (It's been quite a while since I've posted any new vids)
 
You may want to try what I did first starting out... Get the absolute cheapest steel you can find close to the size you'll be using, cut out dummy blanks and scribe your edge thickness and plunge lines. Get a bunch of belts and go to town! As you go, be sure to inspect each blade as closely as you can for flaws and work on not repeating your errors. Consider that steel and those belts as tuition for your knife grinding education.
 
That's well put Tex
I cut out a bunch of blanks in mild steel to practice grinds. Really helped
 
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