What constitutes a 'forged' knife to you?

autogateman

autogateman

Rod Braud
Joined
Jan 6, 2017
Messages
180
I follow a guy on Instagram that makes stock removal 01 knives, puts a hammered finish on them hot, and then grinds the bevels. He is very successful and a master at social media marketing. He uses very descriptive words that would impress non knife people, but people that know about knives would roll their eyes at. He markets these knives as 'forged'. Is he wrong or right in your opinion? I just wouldn't feel right doing that unless I had either forged the blade to shape. What's your thoughts??

Thanks guys,
Rod
 
I wouldn't call them forged. To me, forging means the steel has been hot worked to some sort of shape. Obviously not all forging is the same, it's easier to forge from a straight flat bar of homogeneous steel rather than ball bearings or chains or wire or whatever, but it seems like you should at least hammer the rough shape of the knife and the primary bevels before you could call a knife 'forged.'
 
A knife which is forged from start to end. That is what constitutes forged. To me of course.
 
Maybe they're "hand forged" the way all my cheap "folly" China made bowies are! (I have a sickness, I admit it!)

It says so stamped on the ricasso, it must be true!
 
A guy got eliminated from the TV show 'Forged in Fire' because he did the same thing, stock removal with all grinds done prior to heat treat, the only thing that he heated the knife for was to treat it and to add a forged finish to it. The judges said that the show was called 'Forged in Fire' and what he did wasn't forging, and they booted him for it.

I wouldn't say that the TV show is the end-all in defining knife-making terminology, but I feel that in this example they got it right.
 
autogateman said:
What's crazy is that he sells an incredible amount of knives.
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I assume he offers them for much cheaper than a normal forged knife would go for, simply because he has less time invested in each blade?

But, in general Instagram knife-makers get away with a lot more shenanigans than anybody who sells on the forums would;
 
Forging, to me, means you forged in the bevels or at the least the profile. It gets difficult when it comes to people who forge their own billet of Timascus or Damascus and then use CNC to finish the rest like Rad Knives. While extremely impressive and modern, I wouldn't call them forged.

As for the maker you mentioned... just goes to show you how successful you can be with a design and marketing background.
 
"forged finish" ?

I'm sure forged vs stock removal has been argued here long before I became a member so I'm not going down that road.

I have zero issues buying a stock removal knife or a stock removal knife with a "forged finish" but I most certainly would have a problem buying a stock removal knife sold as a forged knife.
 
LCKT707 said:
Forging, to me, means you forged in the bevels or at the least the profile. It gets difficult when it comes to people who forge their own billet of Timascus or Damascus and then use CNC to finish the rest like Rad Knives. While extremely impressive and modern, I wouldn't call them forged.

As for the maker you mentioned... just goes to show you how successful you can be with a design and marketing background.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but what you say about stock removal from forged billets never occurred to me before. I guess with the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious it's the way to go for quickly producing small, pattern welded steel knives. Is this very common practice?
 
I would even be ok if were forged to thickness. His cheapest knife is 350$. It comes with a riveted leather sheath he describes as a 'hand pressed leather sheath'. He forms them in a kydex press and rivets them.
 
He's a liar. If you don't forge to basic shape, its not a forged blade. Some would say if you use a power hammer it's not completely "hand forged".
 
if you forge a piece of stock out flat or to thickness then grind it to shape it's still a forged knife.
But I think price makes a difference, forging flat or to thickness then grinding to shape saves time and cost making it the appropriate amount of forging for a knife that's going to be affordable ( I'm talking about rustic forged finish knives like smiths often sell for good prices at frontier fairs and such )
But if you're knives are expensive and you really tout the hand forged aspect the products should probably be forged with heat and hammers from start to finish.
 
spykez said:
I agree with you, but what you say about stock removal from forged billets never occurred to me before. I guess with the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious it's the way to go for quickly producing small, pattern welded steel knives. Is this very common practice?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. There are very little people doing it because most just snag a sweet billet from Vegas forge and go to town. But a select few with the machinery to do so, like RAD, are making their own billets and then using very modern methods to complete the knife. Definitely cool to see the two worlds meld together lol.
 
What constitutes a 'forged' knife to you?
Well I suppose if it looks like the real thing but they miss spell the name or other words on the knife . . . but other than that I'm down.

Kidding, I'm kidding.
 
the Instascam guy does not forge anything. Having a bar/billet , heating/hammering it to draw it to length, pounding it to form the shape and primary bevels, drilling handle holes and tempering etc. That's forging.
 
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