Same style, different sizes

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
5,705
I was out in my shop last week working on a sheath and felt the need to do something else for awhile. Actually I felt like forging but I didn't want to do anything big. I went through my odd ball sizes of steel and ran across a piece of some Bruno 84 that was 3 1/2" long by 1/4". I figured why not and went ahead and forged the smallest blade in the picture. Guess it was a day or two later and I decided to do some more forging but wanted to add 1 1/2" to the next one. Samething happened the following day. Here I am now with 3 heat treated blades and the first hand rub being done. There's been more talk about forging blades the past few days so thought what the heck. I went ahead and took pictures of these blades along with the size of steel they started from. I prefer to forge using tongs and will always start forging the tang first. This gives me a true starting and stopping point. I start my tangs with approx. 1 1/2" of the bar. The remainder of the steel is used for the blade.
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For some reason the picture isn't loading properly for me right now (Hooray Interwebs!), but it's good to know that I'm not the only one that prefers to forge with tongs :)

-d
 
Those look good, Raymond! Out of curiosity, how close did you forge to final shape....i.e., how long did you spend at the grinder after forging prior to hand rubbing?

--nathan
 
silver_pilate said:
Those look good, Raymond! Out of curiosity, how close did you forge to final shape....i.e., how long did you spend at the grinder after forging prior to hand rubbing?

--nathan
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When I'm done forging the blades there are about 95% to finish shape. I may spend a half hour grinding before there ready to hand rub. Time isn't a major concern so the half hour is a guess. I do know its a lot less time than if I were to grind a blade from scratch. Maybe an hour or less to forge each blade.
 
Your point is well made Ray; also about the time. I think it would take (me) longer to grind one of those blades than it took you to forge and grind it.

And they're beautiful! Are you going to make similar handles also?
 
ddavelarsen said:
Your point is well made Ray; also about the time. I think it would take (me) longer to grind one of those blades than it took you to forge and grind it.

And they're beautiful! Are you going to make similar handles also?
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Dave, I'm going to outfit them all the same. I've got one more guard to slot and then its handle time. Most likely osage orange or curly maple.

Bruce, Kind of like the 3 Bears except baby bear came first....... :D
 
Ray,

Every time I see your name on a thread I get all excited... :) Your style is amazing.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I'm wondering what kind of grind you put on those. I can't tell if it's a flat or convex grind.

I really like the way your grinding complements your forging. The finished blades look like they were forged rather than ground. Very cool.

Josh
 
JoshEarl said:
Ray,

Every time I see your name on a thread I get all excited... :) Your style is amazing.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but I'm wondering what kind of grind you put on those. I can't tell if it's a flat or convex grind.

I really like the way your grinding complements your forging. The finished blades look like they were forged rather than ground. Very cool.

Josh
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Josh, All 3 of these blades have a flat convex grind. I did most the grind with a flat platen and then went over them with a soft platen. A well forged blade is difficult to hide.... :D
 
Nice TRIO Ray!

A matching set ---- you've got me drooling to see the fnished product... Please don't forget to post pics when done.
 
Thanks a bunch Raymond, I have this same size stock and will start forging it soon. The visual really helps me get a grasp on how much steel will make how much knife. I'm sure my knives will not be as close to final dimensions when I'm done forging so I will have to estimate getting less length out of my stock since I will be forging thicker. I like the idea of forging the tang first as well, I will have to try that. Good looking knives, make sure to show us the finished versions.
 
I got a call last night to go fishing today so I didn't get any knife work done today. It was a pretty interesting day on the river. We had one coho salmon on the boat shortly after our first trolling run. A couple bites came in the next few hours. Then the boat ran out of gas. Luckily there was enough gas in the line to get us to a safer part of the river. We called another one of our fishing buddies to come and rescue us. After Steve brought out the gas we fished a few more hours. I caught about a 10 pound coho salmon but since it was a native fish I had to release it.

Here's a couple pictures I took yesterday on the progress of the knives. Got the chunks of iron slotted for the guards and then got the handles pretty much shaped before I called it a night. Everything went real well except for the smaller knife. I had to make that handle 3 times before I got it right.

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Excellent Ray! I couldn't help noticing all the other blades in the background, looks like you have your work cut out for you. ;)

I have a couple questions. Are you going to stain that beautiful wood or leave it that great color? If you're going to stain it, what will you use and why? What finish do you use on your handles?

And this is something I've always wondered. What's your blade finishing process? I mean from as-forged to etched. I'm curious what grit your blades are when you HT them and when you etch. How much hand rubbing do you do?

:D

Hope that's enough questions for today. Thanks for sharing, this is a great project.
 
Dave, I'm not real crazy about the natural color of osage so I'll be changing that a little. Right now I'm not exactly sure how I want to finish the wood so I'll do some test pieces first. As for the blade finish before heat treat its normally left at 60 grit. After heat treat I'll first go over the blade with a used 60 grit, then to 80 and then 320. The first couple hand rubs I'll use oil and start with 220 and go down to 320 and stop at that until I get the fittings and handle finished. After that I'll hit the blades lightly with 320 and jump to 600. I will normally finish with 2000 grit.
 
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