Drop Forged vs Ground Blades

[KRS1]

Is there any advantage to either one of these blade forming techniques other than cost effectiveness?

Which technique makes for a stronger blade or is drop forging limited to the malleability of different metals leaving grinding the only choice for a strong blade?

thanks

 

[hardheart]

no difference with current steel manufacturing, the impurities are not there that forging helped to remove in the past. Strength, grain structure, stresses, etc all depends on the thermal treatment of the steel, not forging vs grinding.

BTW, all steel is forged to some shape anyway when it comes from the mill.

 

[KRS1]

ok thanks i was wondering about that. I have some Cold Steels that have horrible striations from grinding the blade down.

 

[james terrio]

The only real advantage to drop-forging, hand-forging or power-hammer forging mono-steels is if you want to produce a knife with a pronounced integral guard of some sort, like many chef's knives. To do so by grinding down a thicker bar would entail a tremendous amount of waste.

BTW, all steel is forged to some shape anyway when it comes from the mill.

Yup. It's also true that forged knives are brought very close to their final shape, then also ground flat and smooth, to one degree or another. So in a way, all steel knives are both forged and ground.

...horrible striations from grinding the blade down.

That just means the factory ground them roughly to shape and didn't follow up with finer finishing steps.

 

[KRS1]

That just means the factory ground them roughly to shape and didn't follow up with finer finishing steps.

I wish Cold Steel would have finished up cleaner because these striations are stain traps, they dont handle any kind of sap very well.
My SOGS have none at all.

 

[james terrio]

It can surely be smoothed out if you have enough sandpaper and patience.

 

[KRS1]

I have time and patience, but I dont have the will after spending $100 for it.

I think for this price it should have been finished better, it really bugs me. If i dont clean it immediately after use it will start to rust in 2-3 days.