wrought iron blade WIP

Metalhead0483 · May 20, 2016

coldsteelburns said:
Very cool! It's funny, I hadn't seen it for a while so I decided to watch that youtube video by Niels Provos on forging a "kabab barg" knife where he uses the same welding and tip forging techniques as shown here the other day.

That really is a beautiful piece of wrought iron! All the lines in it along with the perfectly straight lamination line to the carbon steel edge makes this look a lot like Japanese Suminigashi steel.

Beautiful job, it turned out very nicely. :thumbup:

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Actually Niels' channels has been very inspirational for me this past year. The kabab barg knife video was fun to watch, but the one where he makes a blade from his broken spear is my favorite.

Lieblad · May 20, 2016

Thatame.

Metalhead0483 · May 20, 2016

Lieblad said:
My understanding of medievel blades was a ribbon of steel along side a wider strip of iron.

Yep, that's the scarf weld that I'll be doing next. According to my research there are four primary methods that were used to weld edges on to blades based on original finds from the period. That is of course in addition to blades that were either solid steel, or solid iron.

TJ88 · May 21, 2016

That looks awesome. Nice work!

GHEzell · May 21, 2016

Nice to see someone going old school, with excellent results.

One thing I would suggest would be to have a bit of steel in your tang... Wrought iron bends very easily, the steel would give it a bit more strength, especially at the critical blade/tang junction.

Metalhead0483 · May 23, 2016

GHEzell said:
One thing I would suggest would be to have a bit of steel in your tang... Wrought iron bends very easily, the steel would give it a bit more strength, especially at the critical blade/tang junction.

I thought of that, but this one was more or less based on an existing knife, which had steel only on the blade edge (actually I don't think I've ever seen a period knife with the edge steel going into the tang come to think of it. It just wasn't done as far as I can tell)

I'm going to use this one myself for a while and see how it holds up. I left some beef in the tang, so long as I don't use it as a crow bar it should work out okay, but time and use will tell.

redeagle66 · May 23, 2016

I look forward to seeing your next versions. This past weekend a member of the local blacksmiths club was making a blank out of some salvaged wrought iron bar he acquired. I was able to get a piece just over a foot long and hope to try the same some day.

Metalhead0483 · May 24, 2016

redeagle66 said:
I look forward to seeing your next versions. This past weekend a member of the local blacksmiths club was making a blank out of some salvaged wrought iron bar he acquired. I was able to get a piece just over a foot long and hope to try the same some day.

Very cool! The iron you got, do you know what it's from? I've been playing with material from a couple different sources and am really surprised by the differences in working qualities between say, a tire rim and fence material as an example. Pretty interesting stuff wrought iron

By the way, what part of Florida you from? I spent quite a bit of time in central and southern FL.

redeagle66 · May 24, 2016

The piece was straight round bar, about 3/4", with little decoration. I think it was part of a fence or window bars. It was definitely not wagon wheel or chain link. This piece will be my first time working wrought iron so I can't comment on the differences. I didn't ask him where he got it but will find out at the next meetup.

I live in Fort Lauderdale but get around most of the central and southern part of the state for one thing or another during the year. I will be up in your neck of the woods in July. We've got family in Wasilla and will take some time off to visit the Kenai and Denali. I was thinking of doing the loop but just don't have the time to go up to Fairbanks this trip.

dmelton · May 24, 2016

Nice! I bought some of that eBay wrought iron for the exact same purpose, to make forge-welded knives with high carbon steel edges.

Metalhead0483 · May 25, 2016

redeagle66 said:
The piece was straight round bar, about 3/4", with little decoration. I think it was part of a fence or window bars. It was definitely not wagon wheel or chain link. This piece will be my first time working wrought iron so I can't comment on the differences. I didn't ask him where he got it but will find out at the next meetup.

I live in Fort Lauderdale but get around most of the central and southern part of the state for one thing or another during the year. I will be up in your neck of the woods in July. We've got family in Wasilla and will take some time off to visit the Kenai and Denali. I was thinking of doing the loop but just don't have the time to go up to Fairbanks this trip.

I've been primarily working with 5/8" round bar salvaged from 19th century windows in Virginia, but I've also got fence material in several sizes, and a section of wagon wheel given to me by a local smith. Fun stuff to work with, so long as you remember to work it HOT.

Fort Lauderdale huh? I graduated from South Broward back in '01. Can't say I miss it much down there...

If you're ever up this way let me know. We've got a pretty active bladesmith group up here. We meet at Mark Knapp's shop once a month. Good bunch of guys.

dmelton, I have some of that same stuff (that's the fence material I was talking about above) except I got some of his 3/4" stock. It's good material.