Very First Forging Attempt: Please Critique

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dlfuson05

Joined
Aug 27, 2018
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Hello! I literally JUST started forging steel and made my first, what I hope will be, knife tonight. I've been making knives for a while now via stock removal, but wanted to try actually forging blades. The photo below was the result of tonight's work. Since I'm just learning I started with an old pry bar so as not to ruin any of my good steel. I think this stuff should be HC steel, but who knows. This was just for practice anyway. I'm just looking for critique here because I want to get better at this for sure. Let me know what you think, or if there's anything your much more practiced eyes can see that I may have done wrong. I'll appreciate any feedback!

Thanks!

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I’m by no means an expert, there are other folks on here who can give you better pointers for sure. One thing to look out for, practice getting clean hits with the flat face of the hammer. There are some spots there where the edge of the hammer dug in. From experience, it’s a lot of metal to grind off the rest of the surface to get to the bottom of those. That can also be a matter of anvil height. Too low increases the chance you don’t hit flat. If it does happen, better to flatten back out with the hammer than the grinder in my opinion.

Looks like you put in some distal taper which is good, but it doesn’t look like you forged in bevels (maybe just can’t see in the pic). You want to put in the point upside down, then forge in the bevels. The bevels will stretch the edge more than the spine, lifting the tip back up to where it should be.
 
Here's the bottom line. I don't forge, I admire anyone who does. You will be your own worst critic, and you alone will know what you are satisfied with. I think it looks great. Ya the hammer dug in in a couple of spots. You learn as you go, like with anything.
 
One big advantage to forging is all the material you save when you forge out the tang. Right now your tang is a big round bar.
 
JTknives said:
One big advantage to forging is all the material you save when you forge out the tang. Right now your tang is a big round bar.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This was the whole reason I wanted to start forging. That and I wanted to see if I could do it at all. I didn't get to the tang last night because my little forge is only 5" deep so I'll have to cut this piece from the bar so I can spin it around backwards and heat that side. Awesome input though! Thanks!
 
I’ve only forget a dozen or so knives so my experience is still very limited. Heat and hammer control are key fundamentals you must master. Your anvil and hammer face must be kept clean and your swing must be controlled. The deep dings were caused by improper contact with your hammer, for now you should concentrate on hitting squarely with the hammer face. Your tip and edge are quite thin at this point and you have quite a bit of grinding to do, so you will eat away a good bit of your thinner sections. Try your best to always keep your work flat, centered, and straight.

Practice Practice Practice
Be honest and don’t cheat yourself, if you are serious about forging seek out smiths in your area and try to get some one on one instruction.
 
3fifty7 said:
I’ve only forget a dozen or so knives so my experience is still very limited. Heat and hammer control are key fundamentals you must master. Your anvil and hammer face must be kept clean and your swing must be controlled. The deep dings were caused by improper contact with your hammer, for now you should concentrate on hitting squarely with the hammer face. Your tip and edge are quite thin at this point and you have quite a bit of grinding to do, so you will eat away a good bit of your thinner sections. Try your best to always keep your work flat, centered, and straight.

Practice Practice Practice
Be honest and don’t cheat yourself, if you are serious about forging seek out smiths in your area and try to get some one on one instruction.
Click to expand...

To my knowledge there aren't any around here. I am trying to get in tough with a guy in the next town over whom I know makes knives, but I don't know if he forges them from stock. Awesome advice though! Basically keep it flat and clean and SLOW DOWN. I started with a 2# sledge but wasn't really getting it to move the way I wanted so I switch to a small ball peen which may be where I went wrong. The flat head of that hammer is really small but I had better control with it. Perhaps something in between?
 
A 2lb is generaly a very good all around weight, if you need more control choke up on the handle a little and stare ONLY where you want to strike.
Starting with odd shaped stock isn’t the easiest either. If that’s all you have practice forging it into square stock, a round spear taper, and a square spear taper until you get the feel of how it will move.
Forging a knife from flat stock will help ease you into things. I’m searching for a video that gives you some decent basics.
 
First of all, hammer control. This comes with practice. The blade isn't straight. Use a lighter hammer at a dull red heat for straightening.

Use higher heat and hard blows for moving metal. Use lower heats and lighter blows for planishing and smoothing out lumps. I would also recommend taking a basic blacksmithing class which will drastically shorten your learning curve.

Take note of whether there's a specific corner of your hammer you're digging into the metal. This might just be a technique issue, or it could be anvil height. You may also want to crown your hammer more to soften the corners.

Just a couple things to think about.
 
This is how I do it. This might help you. I used just a hand hammer in this video and it did not take to long.
 
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