First Solo Forge: count the mistakes

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danhowl

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Aug 22, 2017
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I'm a complete novice to knife forging and probably the type of hobbyist scorned around here: Forged In Fire follower. I attended two weekend workshops at SheWeld in Brooklyn NY where I finished two knives under supervision there. Now I'm hooked.

This was my first attempt solo with my new small forge from Mathewson Metals off of eBay. Am fortunate to have already had a large workspace. Took me a few weeks to assemble all of the various parts to get going. Currently using a 13" piece of railroad rail as anvil.

Tons of mistakes in this one. 6" blade with only 3.5" handle is a bit too small for my hand. I started with 1095 bar. I think I quit forging too soon (overly excited) because it came out to almost 3/16" on the spine. Quenched in olive oil. File tested fine. Tempered in oven 400 x 2hrs. to approx wheat color. Reduced the mass of the blade w/ angle grinder.

I basically just need to learn grinder technique. This one came out with more of a hatchet/axe grind. It's a bit of an orphan, not quite a cooking knife but an odd shape for a camp knife. Cocobolo handle sanded to 800 and brass pins. Nothing other than the oil on my hands to finish the wood, but will get some wax on it.

FirstForge_DSC3994.jpg

FirstForge_DSC4026.jpg
FirstForge_DSC4013.jpg


Too many mistakes to count, but it was fun and will at least cut an onion or open a box. Am looking forward to my next attempts. I made denim micarta scales which I am excited to see on a knife. Then I am getting some nice burl scraps from my furniture-maker brother gratis, but it didn't want to waste one on my first solo attempt.
 
What the hell...
Seems you had fun anyway.

Fwiw, back when smithing paid a good share of my bills, I sold hundreds of of knives not too dissimilar. The buckskin & flintlock play actors wet their breeches for tools roughly constructed what fit their persona timeframe & style.
 
Did you use a hand held drill? It looks like one hole got real out of line and you had to redrill it. A tip i used was to drill one hole on one scale, stick a pin in and drill the other hole, repeat until all holes are drilled for one scale. Then keep all but one pin in, hold the other scale and drill it through the already drilled scale. As you drill each hole keep moving the pins around. Holding the stock in a vise helps because you can look at it from all sides and make sure you're going in fairly straight.

Also, to keep the wood from splintering out so bad when the drill bit goes through the other side, clamp some scrap wood to that side. So as the drill bit exits your scale it immediately enters something else. Again if you have a vise it's not too hard to clamp it fairly tight. Just make sure you protect your scales from getting gouged up!
 
Randy3000 said:
Did you use a hand held drill? It looks like one hole got real out of line and you had to redrill it. A tip i used was to drill one hole on one scale, stick a pin in and drill the other hole, repeat until all holes are drilled for one scale. Then keep all but one pin in, hold the other scale and drill it through the already drilled scale. As you drill each hole keep moving the pins around. Holding the stock in a vise helps because you can look at it from all sides and make sure you're going in fairly straight.

Also, to keep the wood from splintering out so bad when the drill bit goes through the other side, clamp some scrap wood to that side. So as the drill bit exits your scale it immediately enters something else. Again if you have a vise it's not too hard to clamp it fairly tight. Just make sure you protect your scales from getting gouged up!
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Correct on the hand drill. The pin angles were off. I didn't re-drill, I put pressure on the pin and forced it. I believe that is what chipped the wood. I will take the advice about drilling scales next to scrap wood, thanks. I also found out after I had done it, that I now have access to a drill press in the same building which should improve my future accuracy.
 
Lieblad said:
What the hell...
Seems you had fun anyway.

Fwiw, back when smithing paid a good share of my bills, I sold hundreds of of knives not too dissimilar. The buckskin & flintlock play actors wet their breeches for tools roughly constructed what fit their persona timeframe & style.
Click to expand...

Yes, fun was the object. And on that level it was a success.

I acutely realize that I have much to learn and many challenges to tackle. I actually like the roughly hewn aspects of hand forged knives and will strive to keep them in as refine some of the essential aspects like grind, balance. I hope that I can keep an honest aesthetic as I gain more skills.

submitted with respect.
 
Drill presses are awesome. If your handle scales are not an even thickness throughout (such as when using antler) a trick i use is to clamp the scale to the tang and then clamp your blade to an elevated platform. I usually take a 2x4 and lay some flat metal stock on top and then clamp the blade to all that and the drill press table. The metal keeps the blade from sinking in unevenly into the wood. In this way your blade is parallel to the table and is elevated enough so the scale isn't touching the table. Then i put something between the scale and the table and shim it so it's supported. Then drill away!
 
should I try to re-grind to get more of a flat grind or leave it as is and move on to new projects?
 
Leave it as is, that is your starting point. I often consider doing some improvements to my first blade, mainly the handle, but I leave it as is because that was my starting point.
 
On your next one remember the addage:
Forge to shape, grind to finish.

This means to forge to get a basic shape, and then grind in the final shape and features. The round blade edge could have been re-shaped after forging to be more usable.

Overall, it was a success ... you made a knife, you had fun, you want to do more.
 
Here are my second and third out of the forge.
Blackwood_DSC4058.jpg

African Blackwood (brown stains because I've actually been using it in the kitchen)

Denim_DSC4057.jpg

home made denim micarta
 
How thick is the handle on the blackwood knife? And is it hard to sand? Looks like you started to work on it and then stopped early, but maybe it's thinner than it looks? I have absolutely no idea what tools you have, but if you're using all hand tools a good rasp or even a half round file should be able to shape hardwoods without excessive effort. I remember my first knife i thought i could hand sand it and after about 8 hours i thought it felt good and called it done. No when i look at it the thing is hideously blocky lol. Funny how your perspective changes over time.
 
Blackwood was not hard to sand. In fact I very much like the richness and feel of the handle and would consider using it in the future. In the short term I have been given enough tiger oak and walnut, cherry and redwood burl scales for my next 30 knives from my brother who designed and makes fine furniture professionally. It will probably be a while before I get back to Blackwood.

The darkness of the wood does not show the contour. Possibly some would find it thick and blocky. It is actually within a millimeter of the thickness of a Gerber kitchen knife that I frequently use as a guide but that one has a considerably thinner tang. I shaped it to my hand and to the tang. The denim handle is about the same thickness with a thinner tang. Maybe I will gravitate to more sculptural handles in the future. For this one, the tang is so thick that a delicate handle scale would not be balanced, IMO.
 
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What hammer are you using. I'm seeing a lot of hammer marks and not the good kind. Round the edges of your hammer and work on hammer control so your not leaving those big gouges in the steels surface. How thick is the metal befor you start forging?
 
JTknives said:
What hammer are you using. I'm seeing a lot of hammer marks and not the good kind. Round the edges of your hammer and work on hammer control so your not leaving those big gouges in the steels surface. How thick is the metal befor you start forging?
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will do that. I am using a 2 lb Stanley Blacksmith hammer which is probably what is leaving the marks. Also have a 24 oz ball peen. I believe the starting thickness is 1/4". I will work on my hammer control and modify the larger hammer and look into other types of hammers.
 
Still going with the mistakes and lessons. I attended the Ashokan Knife Seminar last weekend (Saturday only) and got some good advice on forging from Sam Salvati and picked up some tips from Kevin Cashen's grinding demo. I tried to take that information back to the forge and I feel like I've made progress. This is a result from after the seminar. Please don't blame those experts for any of my mistakes. Here is a small cook/paring knife with my first attempt at a flat grind from a piece of 1084 bought from the back of Aldo's truck with a tiger oak handle. I did a forced patina in regular vinegar. Lots still to learn. Still having fun.


OakPatina_DSC4137.jpg
 
Hammer control looks lots better. Keep up the good work. This actually looks forged not just a chunk of steel that was beat to death with a hammer.
 
Thanks, I worked on the faces of all of my hammers after your comment and learning more about it at Ashoken.
 
That is better, but still looks like there is a lot of forge scale on it. When done forging, soak the blade in a sodium bi-sulfate ( Ph down) solution overnight. Rinse off the next day and scrub the blade with a wire brush. Wash blade off well and you are ready to grind. All that black scaly stuff will come off.

TIP:
When doing the scales, drill the holes to match the blade tang, Place the scales together and stick the pins through the holes ( off the blade). Tape the scales together. Now, sand and finish the front end where the scales will meet the ricasso. This will give you matched and finishes fronts when the scales are assembled and the rest of the handle ground and shaped. It is best to slightly round and curve the front, as this looks and works better.
 
I soak my forged blades in vinager and it works really nicely. I give it an over night soak and in the morning it comes right off with a wire brush.
 
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