INTRODUCTION
Professional bladesmiths create multi-thousand dollar blades using equipment that is worth even more. Altogether, all the equipment in a master bladesmith’s shop can reach nearly
$15,000. Most, if not all, beginning bladesmiths have nowhere near that much. Master smiths use huge power hammers, a huge hydraulic-powered machine that uses tons of force to smash metal into shape. These are normally operated by a foot lever, and hit the hot steel with a sound and frequency similar to an AK-47 at full blast. When they have to do hand forging, they use anvils that weigh anywhere from 100-200 pounds, and average at $700. To heat up the steel, they use forges (built by themselves normally) that can reach 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, and large belt grinders that cost on average at about five thousand bucks.
You’re probably reading this and getting pretty daunted by those numbers. But one thing to keep in mind, is that these machines and tools only make the job easier and faster. The reason these master smiths use these expensive pieces of equipment is because it’s their living. The faster you can make a blade, the faster you get money. With any one of these bladesmiths, you can give them a simple coal forge, a railroad track, a couple files, a cement block and a piece of cardboard (for sharpening) and a utility hammer, and they can still make a blade better than any knife you can pick up at Wal-Mart.
As a smith progresses, their knives gradually get better, and so they can sell more and more blades, which in turns means faster and better equipment. Some bladesmiths begin in their thirties and have enough money to get good and fast equipment. Others start young, and have rich parents that are willing to buy equipment for them. Almost all bladesmiths start at the bottom of the progression, with a railroad track for an anvil and a utility hammer. This book is for the smiths who are practically broke, just starting out, know practically nothing, but want to make a knife. This won't show you how to make a thousand dollar knife, but it will show you the basics and how to get the equipment you need to begin knifemaking.
SAFETY
I’m one of those people that always assumes “Oh, I’ll be fine. That’s not gonna happen” but there are still things that you MUST watch out for to avoid chopping a finger off or burning an eye out (honestly though, it would be pretty cool to be a blacksmith with an eye patch). So, here’s a little list of the essential safety things you’ll need, along with some warnings.
• Ear plugs. These are more of a long-term safety than protecting against immediate accidents, but you’ll thank me when you’re 60. Honestly, I wouldn’t really wear them if the sound of loud grinders and clanging hammers just plain hurt my ears. A while back, some friends were watching me forge and when I put the steel back to heat up, they asked how come I didn’t blink every time the hammer hit. It’s mostly the sound that makes one blink (body naturally assumes that something loud will have shrapnel, and it considers eyes to have priority), and watching where the hammer hits is essential to exact forging in order to correct a mis-placed blow. After a while of forcing yourself to wear earplugs, it becomes natural and I eventually hate forging without them. Get a packet of cheap earplugs and keep them around the shop.
• Face Visor. My dad bought me one of these a few years ago for my birthday, and I was fairly disappointed and thought I’d never use it. Boy was I wrong. Of all the bits and bobs in the workshop (other than the earplugs which I have on almost constantly), this is the tool I probably touch the most. It gets dirty and scratched up after a while, but I use it mainly during grinding and burning, because it blocks out much more irritation and dust than plain safety glasses.
Nothing is worse than getting a little bit of something in your eye when you’re holding a high- speed angle grinder with sparks shooting every which way. I keep it on a little hook in a handy place above my workbench. It has an adjustable headstrap, but eventually I just figgered out the best-fitting size and wrapped the strap in duct tape. Much more comfortable and I don’t have to
fool around with it coming undone all the time. It's especially handy because the cooling fan
inside the angle grinder often blows into my face and that gets very annoying.
•
o Disposable dust mask. I generally only use these when there’s a lot of smoke, or if
I’m using a high-speed tool to cut wood. There are many toxic varieties of wood, and you do
NOT want either fumes or dust to get into your lungs. Smoke in general (like when I’m
quenching or burning the tang into a wood handle) requires it, even when it's not toxic, because it
is pretty painful to breath smoke in, and you don't need anything to keep you from complete
concentration.
• Safety Glasses. These basically fill the role of the face visor, but you can see through
them easier, they’re less clunky, and you can put ‘em anywhere. However, they’re less
comfortable, you normally need two hands to put ‘em on, (that is a big factor right there, you’ll
soon find out) and they provide less protection. The main reason I prefer the face visor is because
the cooling fan on the angle grinder often blows into my face, which gets very annoying unless if
the visor blocks it.
• Work Gloves. I generally use these to hold hot things; they’re perfect for holding a blade
as I grind it. I don’t use them too much, but they’re handy in a panic.
While forging, I generally don’t wear much safety equipment, other than glasses
occasionally. Until you get very comfortable with holding hot steel and it is not likely to go
flying out of your hands, you don’t need much safety equipment. Of course, there is always hot scale. Scale is the thick oxygen layer that forms over the steel at high temperatures, and is what
makes the steel look black afterwards. During forging, it forms over the steel like lizard or snake
scales, and heavy blows from a hammer often make it fly off. During its flight, it normally cools
in the air, but sometimes it’s still hot and lands on bare skin. It stings a little, and makes you a
little angry sometimes, but falls off and cools quickly. It rarely shoots upwards, but it can do a bit
of damage to the eye. When starting out forging, wear gloves and eye protection until you feel
really confident that it will not go flying.
Drilling steel is where you really have to be careful. Drill bits are very brittle, and they, especially the thin ones, tend to snap easily. Drilling steel takes a long time, and sometimes one just pushes harder on the drill to speed things up. If you do do this (and unless you have a drill press, you definitely will), make sure that the pressure is not on just the handle of the drill, but above it, because it can bend the bit too far, it snaps, the drill shoots down at an angle, and you succeed in getting either the end of the drill bit embedded into your palm, or a nice deep gash from the point of the blade you’re drilling. I made the dumb choice once of hot drilling steel; heated up the tang of the steel and tried drilling it like that. Two mistakes there: one, that heat over-tempered and probably ruined the drill bit. Two, I drilled too much at an angle; the bit snapped, drill shot down, end of the drill bit flew to unknown parts of the garage, and my right-
hand finger was jammed onto the hot steel. The steel slid along my fingernail and burned the
flesh directly above it, making a yellow burn spot all over the end joint. I still have the scar, and
it took months to heal up. Funny thing is, the pain wasn’t too bad; my guess is the heat just
burned away the nerve endings, instead of just damaging them a little.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=d9fac4d133&view=att&th=143fe23dec9890a6&atti
d=0.1&disp=safe&realattid=a5b60368bff01ab5_0.1&zw
Another word of warning when drilling: Once the drill is just about or all the way through the steel, it tends to grab the steel and spin it around. This is very uncomfortable for any fingers unlucky enough to be in the way. Be sure to clamp down a blade before drilling.
Whenever you forge an unknown steel, or a piece of scrap, be SURE that it is not galvanized. The chemical layer, or galmanization on steel, is extremely dangerous when heated up to the point where it becomes a fume. I have heard many stories of people breathing in fumes from galvanized steel, the best-case scenario is hospital, the worst, grave. Do not risk heating up galvanized steel. If the steel has some sort of coating of something over it, and you still want to forge it, at the very least grind or file every bit of it off. Very many commercial products that keep steel from rusting, and even are fine for eating, become very dangerous when heated as they become fumes which are very easy to breathe in.
Remember, you are working with steel at over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, and angle grinders and other high-speed machines are more than capable of taking off a finger. Get in the habit of wearing safety equipment now, or it’ll be a lot harder later on. It'll seem like a pain for the first few days, then it'll become a habit and you'll do it without thinking about it.
WORKSHOP/SMITHY
All craftsmen need a place to work, the bladesmith especially. If you live in a city/closely packed houses, you will probably find it pretty hard finding a location, but hey, that’s part of the reason you’re reading this book. The most common place, professionals and beginners alike, is in the garage. The floor is usually cement, all the tools are kept in there, and you can just open the garage to give you some air. If you end up using a coal forge (which I strongly advise against: you’ll see why in chapter 5), you will definitely want, and need, a way to vent the smoke. Now, if you happen to live in a house that has a shed in the back, you will use that. Until equipment quantity and size pushes you out, a shed is the best choice. Why? Chances are, if you are a young smith, there’ll be siblings running around, and moms in general don’t like the idea of kids grabbing red hot steel with their hands (just my personal findings) A shed is small enough so you can “claim” it for your own shop, so no danger of other people getting in the way. Also its much easier to convince your parents to let you forge if, in the chance of a fire, the house has little possibility of going up in flames. The possibility of fire is very minute if you build the forge well, but all the same it makes parents feel a lot more comfortable. A large barn would work equally well to a shed, but doesn’t have the familiar “cosiness” of a small space. Also it's handy if you have everything within arm's reach.
The next best option would be a garage. Almost all garages have concrete floors, so less chance of fire there, and if your dad was/is the building type, there is a good chance he’s installed shelves and has a lot of tools there. If he’s got a workbench there too, great! Just keep in mind that if you place a propane forge on top of the workbench, you must make sure to figure out a way to hold the forge above the wood surface, and stop heat from escaping and burning it. If you make a solid fuel forge (coal or charcoal), it's best you build it on top of a sort of cart, so
you can keep the forge inside the garage and wheel it out to use it.
The last possibility would be an open-air shop. This could be difficult, especially in
accordance to rain. If you have to do an open-air, the best place is the backyard. When you plan
on the location, keep in mind you’ll have to move things around according to rain or snow. You
probably won’t have to worry about the cold, depending on the region, as forging gets very hot
after a while. Also, even though rain won't affect a coal forge very much while it's burning, the
rain can rust it out very quick, along with any other iron thing around.
Another factor that could be a problem is the Sleepy Neighbors Syndrome. This isn't a
universal thing; not every neighbor in the world will complain about forging noise, but some
people work at home and need to concentrate. You can take precautions and different things to
quiet the anvil, but it can still get pretty loud. Placing a large magnet on the side of your anvil
will quiet it considerably. One thing that helps is after you've practiced a bit, make a few small
knives as gifts for the neighbors. Make sure that the hobby will not create neighbor problems.
The trick to planning the location of the workshop is just to be mindful of these factors.
Safety- regarding wood floors, flammable workbench, etc.
Rain and Snow- make sure you have some way to shelter your precious tools from the elements. Sleepy Neighbor Syndrome- Find a place quiet enough that the neighbors, other house inhabitants etc. Don’t get bothered by the noise. Maybe you can buy them off with a knife.
Just as long as you keep in mind these things, you should be good to go!
ANVIL
The Anvil. This is said to be the only tool a blacksmith cannot make himself. All an Anvil is is a block of steel you place the workpiece on to hammer hot steel against. However, this does not mean that any old chunk of iron will work as an anvil. The better quality steel, the faster and cleaner you can go. The first anvil I used when starting out was the so-called “anvil” on the back of a vise. When I used it, the blows from my hammer affected the anvil way more than the red- hot steel I was pounding! It was frustrating, but it was the best I had. Or rather, the best I knew to have at the time. Within two weeks, the “anvil” had cracked in half. Thankfully the vise still worked for a clamp, but I’ve never used it for forging since. Only light work like peening is suitable for it. So then I began the anvil search, which almost all bladesmiths and blacksmiths have gone through. Finally, thanks to that forum I mentioned earlier, I got an answer:
Sledgehammer head. Yes it is small, but easy to find and very high quality steel. I borrowed the head off my dad’s sledgehammer (with his permission of course). Since then, I have actually found a real anvil, and though it is much better than the sledgehammer head, it cost a lot and there are many other things that will serve very well until you find a good anvil.
Anvil Choices
A real anvil that costs three hundred bucks is not your only option, obviously. The definition of an anvil is just some surface against which to give blows in forming something.
There are several options for make-do anvils. A rail road track section is probably the most common make-do anvil. It is both soft enough to bear the weight of tons of weight rolling over it without cracking, and hard enough not to wear or dent with use. If you live near a rail road, this should be fairly easy to find; sometimes there are old pieces that were too small for use cast over into the grass, or you could visit the dump, or if you are lucky enough to find out if and when the tracks will be repaired you could just ask the workers to cut you a small section.
Another option that I think is ingenious, is a sledgehammer head, as mentioned before. It has all of the requirements of a good anvil, has an eye in the center which is perfect to secure it, is heavy, and above all, easy to find. If it’s an old one you may want to use an angle grinder to flatten and smooth out the face so as to get cleaner strikes, but your choice.
Anything heavy and steel will work. If you have a local dump, go there, look around, pick up scraps of steel that could be good for knives, and hunt for an anvil. Remember to watch out for bad steels. To test for a good steel, bring a light hammer with you on your hunts. Once you find a possible anvil, lightly hold the handle in your palm (just enough to keep the head straight) and drop the head onto the anvil’s surface. If it’s a good anvil, the head will bounce up a couple times before resting on the face, if its a bad one it’ll only bounce once or not at all.
Securing
With any type of anvil, you’ll need a stump. This both raises the anvil to a comfortable hammering height as well as holds the anvil in place. Also if you were to put the anvil directly on a concrete floor, the direct contact could crack the concrete. The wood stump also shushes the sound of the anvil. Ideally, the stump should be anywhere from 2-3 feet tall, possibly taller if you are a tall person. Use boards of wood to tweak the height. To find the best height, stand erect with your hands by your side, holding the hammer at a 90 degree angle with your body. The best height is where the anvil is high enough to reach the level of the hammer head; too high and the blows are angled one way, too low and they are angled the other.
If you use a Rail road track, actual anvil, or something with a similar base, it’s best to secure it with straps or spikes. I now have a real anvil, and use a material strap to hold it in place.
To secure the four-cornered anvil with material straps, cut a small section of strap that is long enough to touch the stump on either side of the corner with about two centimeters of strap to spare on either side. Use long screws. On one side of the corner, use a long screw and firmly screw down one end of the strap next to the corner. Then, (this is a little trick I figured out)get a second screw and screw it through the other end of the strap, so the material is right up against the screw’s head. Once you’ve done this, put the point of the screw at an angle away from the corner, making sure the strap is taught. Then slowly screw down. The strap will not be long enough to reach the point where the screw is going into the wood, and as the screw goes in, it pulls the strap with it, tightening it. This keeps the corner in place.
For securing with spikes, you get to do some forging. This’ll be hard with the anvil easily moved around, but it shouldn’t take long. Get a piece of rebar long enough to bend around the corner with at least an inch to spare on either side, so as to be hammered into the wood. Forge or grind a point on both ends of the bar, and forge into a U-shape, wide enough so it can fit snugly around the corner. Then, simply place it over the corner and hammer into the wood.
Remember that when securing an anvil with four corners, you only really need to secure it at two corners opposite of each other to hold it still enough.
To secure the sledgehammer head, place it upright (I dug a little hole for it to fit snugly
into) on the stump and use a strap with the tightening method mentioned above to secure it; strap
going through the eye and held by screws on either side of the head.
Real Anvil
Your ultimate goal should be to find a real anvil: there is a large chance that you can get
one for free. Look in dumpyards, old properties, antique shops, and above all ASK ASK ASK.
Ask everyone you know, ask relatives you’ve only heard of once, and especially, ask the “good
‘ol boys”; the people who know everything and everyone in town. When I began my anvil
search, I found out that in the town I live there used to be a total of seven blacksmith shops, just
by asking around. Remember, be respectful and listen to their stories. When I finally found my
anvil, there was a long story from the owner how his grandfather was a professional blacksmith
in the area, eventually went out of business, and many other details about his family. Listen to
these stories because more often than not there will be leads there to more blacksmithing
equipment. Be respectful.
Now you’ve found an anvil. How do you know if it’s good? And how much are you willing to pay? To test the anvil, get a hammer and, just barely holding the handle, drop the head flat onto the anvil. What you’re looking for here is bounce. With a really good anvil the head will bounce 4-6 times before coming to a stop; a bad one will bounce once or not at all. This is the prime way to test the quality of an anvil. Don’t be scared away by “vintage” or “antique” anvils.
It’s a hunk of iron- quality does not deteriorate over time. In fact, the older the better, as there is a lot more mass-produced ASO (Anvil Shaped Object) nonsense around nowadays, which are made for decoration. A lot of anvils are cast, which would normally mean its gonna be bad quality, but have a high-quality steel plate forge-welded on the top. My anvil is like this, and this is in no way bad quality.
If you are going to pay money for an anvil, typically 70 pounds is the minimum weight for forging steel, but 100 is a lot better and is a good standard. The heavier the better, but also the more expensive. Always be aware that the standard price for anvils is $3-$4 a pound, and that can be quite pricey. Getting an old anvil from a dealer, a person who’s grandfather was a blacksmith, or an antique shop would run you more around $2-$3; if you manage to find one from some relatives or friends, you might have the luck to get it for free. Remember that eventually, if you want to keep pursuing the blacksmithing career, you’ll have to upgrade from the RR track or sledgehammer, and once you feel you are ready to do so, be ready to spend anywhere from 100-400 bucks on a good one. If or once you get an anvil, use an angle grinder or files to "sharpen" the edges, so they are no longer rounded. This makes it easier to bend steel over on.
HAMMER
Hammer is of course what you'll be doing most of the work with. I'll start out by saying not
to use a standard utility hammer, as it is very light and has small surface area on the head. There
are two basic hammers you'll need: heavy and light.
Heavy Hammer
This hammer should be around 2.5 pounds- heavier will strengthen you and do the work faster, but will be hard to be precise with. This hammer is meant for the main work, thinning out the bar, lengthening it, and forging it into the rough shape. Ideally this should be a cross peen hammer. A cross peen hammer has a wide, flat front that is normally either square or octagonal, and the back is thinned out into just a horizontal bar, that looks like a wedge. Most of the work would be done with the front, and the back is normally used to lengthen a bar; I’ll explain later how these techniques work in chapter 10.
Also, most blacksmiths like to round the face of the hammer with files; sharp edges will make deep indentations in the steel which are hard to get out. Rounded edges and flat face is best.
Light Hammer
This one is normally about 1.5 pounds, a light tool that will do all the detailed and precision work. I normally use this when I get near to the final shape of the blade, and need some flat precise strokes to even out the texture. This also does the straightening and drawing out of the tang. Ideally the light hammer should be a Ball Peen hammer; this is small, has a very slightly convex face, and almost always is round. The back of the hammer is a single round ball, use for indentations, and is used for punching in and shaping a sheet of metal to a concave shape. I have not had need of the ball much for hot blade work, but is handy for jewelry and will come in use if or when you make bosses for shields.
Hammers, both the ball peen and cross peen, are common, and you can find them almost anywhere. If you want to cut down time, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, or Lowe’s will sell them, but if you want to pay the least amount for the same thing, yard sales, antique shops, flea markets, or thrift shops will most likely have them for a cheap amount. Expect to pay $5-$20 for a good hammer. I got my cross peen from a flea market for $15, and the ball peen from a local antique shop for $5.
If possible, get a hammer with a wood handle. It’s comfortable, easily customized, and does not rub off black rubber onto your hand after a few hours of use. Besides, it makes you look like a much cooler blacksmith. Many many smiths love to carve and customize them.
SOLID FUEL FORGE
The forge is your heating source, essentially the heart and source of the blacksmith’s
power. My heart and source of power happens to be inside a paint can.
Almost every bladesmith I know has built his or her own forge. There are a few companies
which will make forges, but they are expensive and you are much better off building your own as
a beginner. This has the added advantage of you actually being able to fix it when it gets broken
or begins having problems. And there will be problems. The price of a good forge (if bought
from a company) will cost around anywhere from $200-$1200. Yes, if you buy a forge you will
get a little more heat for the same amount of propane, and will have no escaping unburned
propane, but for the price you are much better off making your own.
There are two basic types of forges, Coal (or charcoal) Forge, and Gas Forge. Most
professional smiths prefer the gas forge; propane is cheaper than blacksmith’s charcoal, propane
forges are smaller, they do not create smoke, and can immediately be turned on or off. Coal forges typically are larger; you can work on knife A while you wait for knife B to heat, and just feels and looks more amazing. Flames, burning coals, a calming but beautiful roar, and is the same technique smiths have used for thousands of years. Keep in mind though that coal forges
HAVE to be outside the shop, or at least must have a way to vent the smoke out. If you are confined to a roofed space, stick to the propane. Otherwise, it is your choice.
Coal Forge
A coal forge is typically made of three parts, a bowl, or container of some sort, fuel, which
is typically coal, charcoal, or something else that burns hot enough, and an air system, through
which air is pumped to make the fire hot enough. These are the two basic types of coal forges:
1.Bowl on a stand. This is a basic bowl, mainly made out of a thick piece of steel, with a
hole in the very center, and the whole thing is stood on a stand of some sort, strong enough to
hold up the weight of the bowl, and made out of something that will not catch fire or be damaged
by heat. The air is pumped up through the hole in the center, normally through a system of PVC
piping. The place where the air from the pipe is blown onto the coal I like to call the "hotspot".
This diagram from Wikipedia shows the basic essential parts of a bowl on stand forge:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Coal-forge-diagram.svg/630px-
Coal-forge-diagram.svg.png
2.In-ground forge. This is normally made of firebricks, which are stacked in a hole in the ground, or just on top of the ground, or just a simple pit dug out from the dirt, with a metal pipe
(with holes every few centimeters) at the bottom, connected to an air force of some sort. This is easier and more reliable than the bowl on a stand, but will be harder to modify as the need arises.
As aforementioned, there are three main parts to a coal forge: a bowl, an air system, and fuel.
Bowl. The bowl, depending on the type of coal forge you want to make, can be either steel or brick. Preferably if you use brick, get actual firebricks, so they do not crack. Cement will crack under heat very quickly, so won't do for very long. Also if it has any moisture in it, it has
the habit of exploding with little pieces of cement flying in your face. For about $20 you can get
6 firebricks at ace hardware. Clay bricks work just as well. Alternatively, just a hole in the
ground will work, but you must make sure that you don't get dirt or ashes actively clogging up
your air pipe.
For a bowl on a stand forge, you’ll need something made out of steel, that is thick enough not to overheat. The most common choice is a brake drum or wheel hub from an old car. This should not be too hard to find. If you’re not able to find one of these, just look around, see if you can find any scrap pieces of steel that look like they could fill these requirements. It is not an absolute requirement that it should be thick, but the thicker the steel, the longer it’ll last.
Air System. This is the only thing that will get the fire hot enough to work steel. Without
an air system your fire will only be hot enough to barbecue meat. The most commonly used air
source for beginners is a hair dryer. Many, many smiths use hair dryers, and a friend of mine was
fortunate enough to have a sister who dislikes pink. Really you do not need anything more
powerful than a hair dryer; recently while forging at my friend’s coal forge, we put it on the
“high” setting and accidentally started melting our steel.
Use pipes, metal or PVC will work, to transfer the air from the blower to the hotspot hole.
If you are using the in-ground forge method, you will either need a long pipe that runs under the
forge, with many holes in the top, or just a simple pipe that transfers the air horizontally into the
coal. These should be steel, as opposed to PVC, which would just melt. The first option would
give you the hottest and largest area of heat, but the latter would be easier to move around and customize as the need arose, as well as unclog the ash.
For a bowl-on the stand forge, the piping is much more complicated. Ideally, get a section of steel pipe, optional diameter, with a hole in the side in the center of the length of the pipe. To this hole attach another section of pipe; this one can be PVC as it will not be in contact with heat.
The opposite end of this pipe is where you are to attach the blower or bellows. Attach one end of the steel pipe to the hole in the center of the bowl, either by welding, screwing, or some other form. If possible, attach a screen of some sort atop the pipe, so as to let air flow through without coal falling down into it. If not, no big deal, just a little more work. The coals will fall down through the pipe underneath, where you can have some sort of container to catch it, or just a cover over the end to keep the air going into the forge instead of the bottom, and can be opened every once in a while to release some of the fallen coals. Look around on the internet, there's more than one way to skin a cat, or build a forge.
Fuel. You cannot have fire without air, or without fuel. As with the entire forge concept, there is no exact thing, just a few requirements that the substance has to “live up to”. It mainly has to be dense enough so as not to burn off to ash immediately, and so have to replaced every few seconds. High burning temperature is essential as well obviously, but this should not be too much of a worry as myself and a friend have melted steel by using plain old barbecue charcoal briquettes.
Good options, in order of best to worst, are coke (a type of super-refined coal that burns very long and very hot), charcoal, coal, nut shells and dense woods. Nut shells are good, though smoky, because of the natural oils which burn along with the shell, very hot. Manzanita, some oaks, and other dense woods work well because there is more wood per square inch (thus more atoms to be burned) than a lower density wood. High-quality blacksmith’s coal or charcoal or coke can be bought online, which you may choose to do later on but for now is pretty expensive and unnecessary.
Using the Coal Forge
Lighting up the forge is just like lighting a barbeque; start by piling up the fuel around the air vent, (put in a liberal amount; neither stuff up the whole bowl nor put too little to have to be supported immediately. A few handfuls should be enough) and light with a match or lighter.
Wait until the fuel is burning well before turning on the air supply. Then wait a little longer for the forge to get up to heat before putting in the working steel. It's about the right heat when they start to glow bright yellow-orange underneath. It’s a good idea to have a piece of rebar, steel rod, or spade so you can move the coal around as you wish. When you put in the piece, first turn off the air supply, put it in as close as you can to the air vent, then pile the coals on top and around it, then turn on the air supply and wait. When it’s up to heat (ideally an orangeish red is a good color; any lower could crack the steel), turn off the air supply, forge away, then return the steel to the fire when it has lost color and repeat. If you forge files, they will crack easier than other steel, so keep orange hot and put back in when it gets red. Be careful, depending how you build your forge you may accidentally melt or burn the steel. Burning the steel is where it gets so hot the iron atoms start binding with the oxygen from the air pipe, essentially reducing the still to rust.
GAS FORGE
The Gas forge is a forge that uses a burning gas, normally propane, to heat the steel for
forging. I use a propane forge, and find it cleaner and easier to use than a coal. And you don't get
the smell either. . As with the coal forge, there are just a few requirements to make a gas forge
work, combine them in which way fits your resources best. First of all, the only gas that you will,
or should, use, is propane. Acetylene or Oxyacetylene will work, but you are neither looking to
melt the steel nor spend hundreds of dollars to do it.
There is one essential thing that you will need for a propane forge; a torch with a hose
adapter for a propane tank. The biggest and hottest you can find. A plumber’s torch or weed
burner will both work very well, and depending how hot or big you want it, it can run you
anywhere from $20-$60. Until you upgrade much later on, I advise around the $30 mark. I use a
BernzOmatic TS 4000 and am able to get up to about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit with it, plenty of
heat for forging. I do not plan on upgrading for a long time. There is a good chance you’ll get
lucky and have your dad’s or grandad’s propane torch. It is possible to use the small $5 tanks
that they can screw directly on to, and indeed I did so for a while, but in the long run the little
tanks get used up fast and so does your money. It’s much more efficient to use a large barbecue
propane tank with a hose adapter for the torch. I use this and it took about 4 months of forging
nearly every day for 2-3 hours every day to run out, and you can replace the tank for just about twenty bucks.
The trick to getting to forging heat with a propane torch is not the size of the torch, but containing the heat that comes out of the torch. So of course you need a container for the forge.
Also another trick to keep in mind is angle the torch so the flame swirls up along the floor of the forge, so it spirals around in the center. This contains the heat very well. I went through many different designs that normally used firebricks in different formations to contain the heat; I think my current forge is model 6 or 7. This is a big time for experimenting and you’ll figure a lot of it out yourself. Keep in mind that if you use just bricks, the bricks will heat up along with the surface they are on, so keep in mind the fire hazard. Raising it above your workbench or the floor with a steel structure like a cart is best. Always make sure there is a fire extinguisher in easy reach.
One model of forge is a surface of firebricks, with more bricks stacked on top as well as a firebrick roof, with a small space to the side to accommodate for the torch nozzle, to form a fairly long square tube for an interior. Dimensions vary; the smaller the space the greater the heat, but the less room for steel and the higher chance of the oxygen getting cut out (no oxygen, no flame, no heat). Experiment with a brick forge model like this; it’ll take a bit of tuning and the main worry is to keep the surface the bricks are on from overheating and burning, but it will get steel hot enough to forge and heat treat.
Youtube has quite a few good tutorials on building forges. The type mainly depends on your resources. This is a list of forge types and links to the tutorials on youtube:
A. Pumice Firebrick Forge. This is where one or more blocks of pumice are carved and placed together to form a round tubular cavity and a hole in the side for the blowtorch. When carving keep in mind a pyramid-shaped tubular cavity with rounded corners is best. Amazon, ebay, and some jewelry suppliers will sell pumice blocks. Pumice is basically lava foam that has cooled, and can stand very intense heat. This youtube tutorial is pretty good, but I would suggest drilling a hole through the second block (so you can heat up longer blades) and just block off the
end with another brick when you do not need it open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMuCId2Uo6U Look around on youtube for other similar
videos. This is another good one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84PSz-VAg9U
B. Soup Can Forge. This was my 3rd or 4th model forge. This is basically a soup can
with a mix of plaster of paris and sand to form the inside. The whole forge is elevated either by
stacking on top of bricks, or with use of metal strips bolted to the can. You’ll need a soup or
coffee can, plaster of paris, beach sand (the finer the better, but not dust), two steel or aluminum
L-strips, and two bolts with nuts. Drill or punch three holes into the can, two for the bolts (if you
want to secure it that way; it can just be rested on top of firebricks) and one for the torch. Put the
bolt holes about one inch away from the torch hole on either side, both the can and the bolt holes
are to be place horizontally (the can layed on its side, and the bolt holes along the length of the
can). The torch hole, however, place a little higher than the bolt holes, so the angle of the torch
would point down at the bottom of the cavity, but angled enough so the flames would swirl up
along the cavity floor. Bolt the ends of the L-strips to the can. The opposite ends would be used to secure to wood or some other surface. Mix up a good amount of plaster of paris, but go for more of a wet clay texture than watery plaster. Mix up sand in it so it’s about two thirds plaster of paris and one third sand, the sand keeps the plaster from cracking under heat. Then generously coat the inside of the forge. Keep it at least in a centimeter thick coat. Taper the ends inward so that the center of the cavity is much larger than either of the two ends, partially “choked” on either end. Cover up the bolts, but leave the hole for the torch open. If possible, make the cavity a “rounded triangular” shape, an angle forming the roof of the forge. Let the mixture dry, screw to your surface, and let the torch run for about five minutes to cure the plaster before using the forge. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBVa2bw3r_k
C. Paint Can Forge. This is my current model, and I do not intend on moving on for quite a while. It is even hot enough to forge weld, but just barely. This one can cost you a bit, but will last you a long time and is near the top of the forges. Things you’ll need: A paint can,
Kaowool insulation, and Satanite. The kaowool is an insulator; it sorta looks like a fluffy woolen blanket. Cut out a good piece of it and roll it up inside the paint can, so the cavity is about 3-4 inches diameter. Cut a hole about 2-3 inches in diameter in the end of the can, and one or two holes in the side of the can for a torch(es). I am considering adding another torch now and am wishing I had put another hole when I first constructed it. Make the cavity about 2-3 inches wide, in a pyramid shape. Once this is done, mix up the satanite to a sour cream consistency and coat the Kaowool with a thin layer. Remember to keep one end closer to closing up than the other; the smaller end is where you will put in and out the blades, while the larger is to be covered with a firebrick. This can be reversed when you need to forge something large. Leave it to dry overnight, then put a second layer, and let dry. When test-firing, position it on the workbench or stand using firebricks, and have the torch pointing at an angle towards the floor in order to get the swirly flame motion. Turn on the torch for about ten minutes to cure the Satanite before use, then try forging with it. After a long while the Satanite can and will flake off, and you’ll need to replace it. I was lucky enough to get a bit of Satanite and Kaowool sent to me by another bladesmith, but you can buy them online for a good price, about twenty bucks for the Kaowool and ten for a five pound bag of satanite. This is the youtube tutorial I followed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn-qrgp9804 D. There are a lot of other forges, but most of the really good ones are generally patterned after the paint can forge, just using a different form of steel for the casing. Old propane tanks are a common choice, but need large burners, otherwise the heat will dissipate too quickly and/or take a long time to get up to heat. If you have access to a welder, you can get the ideal shape, funnel for the torch, and legs for a stand. I do not have a welder though, so cannot give much advice there.
Play around. Remember, as I’ve said before, there is no “right” way to make a forge. Just a few general concepts and guidelines that you bring together according to your resources.
GRINDER
After the forging, the blade must be ground to exact dimensions, and the bevels ground in.
There is a very distinct ladder of progressively better and faster tools, and you have to take the latter one rung at a time. This is the basic “grinder ladder”:
1.Files. This is the “old school” method of doing things. Most smiths who only do bladesmithing as a hobby and so do not need to worry about time constraints use files. You can get very exact and it is hard to make an unfixable mistake; you have plenty of time to notice what you're doing wrong. Clamp down the blade and start at the ricasso, push the file up, lift away from the surface of the steel, bring back down, and repeat. It’s tedious, but it works very well. After a lot of use, files will dull eventually, but when they do they can enter a new life as a knife blade. Yard sales, thrift stores, and of course appliance stores will have lots of files for very cheap. At yard sales, the average cost is a nickel. Horribly expensive right? Thrift stores, a few bucks, appliance or hardware stores, about ten bucks. Get a variety of types, in different roughness or grit. Keep in mind that rasps have randomly spaced individual teeth and are mainly for wood or other soft materials, and files are parallel ridges that take off material in exact amounts, and are used mainly for smoothing wood or for metals. Also remember that to stay sharp, files are extremely hard, and therefore brittle. So use files, not rasps.
2.Angle grinder. This is my current position on the ladder. I use my grandfather’s angle grinder with a variety of wheels. Though fast, it is very rough, and leaves a lot of scratches in the steel. I often follow up with files before moving to sandpaper. Along with using the usual cut-off
wheels, get a few of these wheels,
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=31102226 , "flap wheels", which can
be found in Ace Hardware, for about seven bucks apiece. Get one 40 grit wheel, and one 80.
After grinding the profile, clamp the blade down on a workbench and grind in the bevels with the
40 grit wheel. Then, (little trick I figured out) put the angle grinder itself in a vise, (clamped sideways on the workbench may work too) and switch to the 80 grit wheel. Turn it on (make sure you wear safety gloves, not only because of the risk of grinding skin, but the blade gets hot from the friction) and grind the blade like that, to the exact dimensions. This results in less pressure, and leaves less scratches in the steel. Little note on the sparks: when the shower of sparks come
flying from the steel, they are completely harmless. This is extremely small bits of steel that burn
from the friction as they are flung off. They are too small and burn too quickly to be any harm.
They will not catch anything on fire and do not hurt if sprayed on skin.
3.Belt Sander. Ok, ok, so they’re made for wood, but get the right belts and it’ll do well,
and much more straight and exact than an angle grinder. Chances are, you’ve already got one or
your dad/grandad/uncle has one. If you find an inexpensive one, by all means, get it. Even if its
not too good of quality, the motor at least is reusable. Experiment around with different grits.
4.Disc Sander. This one can be made yourself, look online, and once again, on youtube for
tutorials. I am considering making one of these myself once I can find a motor. Like the belt
sander, this is exact, and probably more so than the belt sander. The motor should be at least 1/2
horsepower. An inexpensive steel or aluminum disc can be found online, and can be directly attached to the motor. I have also heard of making your own wheel out of wood. Local hardware
stores, like Ace, have sandpaper discs that you just glue on with a weak glue, like Elmer’s. Just
peel it off when you wish to replace or change out.
5.Belt Grinder. This is the top of the ladder. Think of it as a combination of wheels,
normally three or four, along which an abrasive belt is threaded. The wheels can be changed out,
bigger, for larger grinds, smaller, for doing hollow-ground bevels. The belts are easily interchanged for lower or higher grit. Of course, for something so awesome as this, they are very expensive and run around one to two thousand dollars. A lot of smiths make their own, but more
for customization preferences, as the specific components are still quite expensive. I actually
have one in the makings, but need to buy a few more things for it.
For all of these choices, grinders are not something you will pay for once, then use it till
you upgrade. No, files, sandpaper, and grinding disks all wear out eventually and you’ll have to
buy new ones regularly. All of them are cheap though, so no worries. Main thing to keep in mind
during grinding is patience. It’ll take a long time using just files, but you must also go slow on
the grinders. Too fast, and you grind away too much before you realize it. Sometimes you can
save a knife like this, sometimes you have to suck it up and throw it away. When grinding, make
sure you stick to your previously drawn design, or it gets very complicated trying to figure out
what looks best on what.
Drilling. When the knife is secured to the handle, the strongest way is normally by a pin, inserted through the tang and the handle material. So, you’ll need to drill a hole. This requires a drill bit made for steel. If you have a drill press, that's best. An ordinary hand drill will work fine
though. Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, or Home Depot should sell the drill bits, look for the type made
for steel or metal. Figure out what sort of pins you’ll most likely be using, if you have a lot of
one type of wire or wood diameter, use a corresponding drill size. In this case, you should not
look for drill bits at yard sales or thrift stores. Do not buy used; they’ll most likely be dull and its
very frustrating when you pay money for something that is completely useless for your purpose.
Before drilling and grinding, it’s best to anneal the steel. This process can be skipped, but
not annealing makes the drilling take a lot longer and harder, and wears out the bits very quickly.
Annealing is the basic metallurgy of rearranging the atomic structure so it’s very even and soft, which makes grinding and drilling much easier. I’ll describe the process in the next chapter.
STEEL AND BASIC METALLURGY
Most of the metallurgy, carbon contents, and other such information you should learn from
master smiths and heat treaters, but this will give you enough information to heat treat knives
until you upgrade your equipment. This will be divided into three sections: Annealing,
Hardening, and Tempering. Keep in mind throughout this that the deciding factor in the steel’s
physical property is Carbon. In general, more carbon, harder yet more brittle steel. Carbon is the
element that affects really the properties in the steel.
Normalizing
This is only necessary if the blade has been forged, and not just ground into shape. The
blows from a hammer tend to knock around the atoms quite a lot, resulting in an enlarged “grain”
structure. The combination of hammer blows and heating causes the steel molecules to clump
into a bunch of grains, which are bonded to the grains around them. Unless by acid etching or
high-tech processes, the only way to see the grain structure is by breaking the steel. Look at these
photos:
The first one, you can see, has a jaggedy, large-grained structure, we can say about ten grains per square centimeter. There are bonds between grain to grain, which are the weak points in the structure. Thus why you can see the grains only when it has been broken; the steel separated at the weak points, between the grains, instead of the grains separating in half.
Now, keep in mind that there is a bond between every grain and the grain immediately touching it. Let’s just say that every grain in the steel is bonded with five others all around it. If you have ten grains per square centimeter, that’s ten grains times five bonds, meaning fifty total bonds, holding everything in place. But what if these grains were separated into a bunch of different grains, say now, thirty grains per square inch, but just as before they’re immediately touching/bonding with five other grains. There are now a total of 150 bonds, which is three times the strength as before.
So refining the grain size will result in a stronger, tougher blade. To do this, the steel must be heated to slightly above critical temperature (the point at which a magnet will no longer stick to the steel) and left to air cool until it has lost all color. Simple process, and very easy. The heat point allows the steel to be “reset” and the air cooling slowly shrinks the grains, resulting in smaller, more numerous grains.
Place the steel in your forge, and let it heat up. Heat up the whole piece, not just the blade, or the grain size difference at one single point will create a lot of stresses, making it easier to crack. Take it out and hold it in the air, letting it cool. Once all red color has disappeared, (put it under a shadow to see the red better) put back in the forge and repeat three or four times, to even everything out and shrink all the grains. Properly shrunk grains should look like this when broken:
Keep in mind that short of breaking the steel, you can’t really tell if the process worked, practice
on a few pieces of scrap; break in half beforehand, take note of the size, normalize thrice, break again and see if it worked. Once you figure out about what the steel looks like at the right temperature, it’ll become second nature to you and you can assume the rest of the blades you do afterwords have been successfully normalized, without having to check the steel with a magnet.
Annealing
Annealing is the process of softening the steel as much as possible, so as to be easier to grind, file, and drill. It is not completely necessary in the process of knifemaking, but makes everything much easier and faster.
The science behind annealing is simple, but is a fairly difficult process. To completely anneal, the steel must be heated to the temperature at which the atoms switch crystal structure, then cooled very slowly. Iron atoms naturally form cubic structures, with the carbon atoms
“floating” around the cubes. Usually, a few of the carbon atoms are trapped inside these cubes, which puts a lot of pressure and stress in the cubes. When the steel gains heat and reaches a certain temperature, the iron atoms switch formations into a larger, more spacious, type of cube, which no longer traps the carbon atoms between the iron ones. If the steel is cooled quickly, it locks in the carbon atoms and keeps even more of them trapped than before. If it is cooled slowly, the iron atoms start to go back to their original structure, but at a slow, even rate. The
carbon atoms are not suddenly trapped, but rather slowly squeezed out, and once the steel is
entirely cooled, the carbon is left outside of the cubes rather than in. No stress, no compression,
all soft and nice.
Of course, to do this you need to cool the steel slowly enough, over the course of about twelve hours. If left in open air, the air channels away the heat too quickly. You need a material that does not channel away heat so quickly, or at least keeps it trapped in for a long time. There is a material called Vermiculite, which you can find online, or even at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and other garden supply stores, that is ideal for slow cooling. Wood ashes and lime work well too.
Get a bucket of the stuff, and stick some red-hot pieces of steel in, in a circle around where you
intend to place the steel to be annealed. Heat the steel you want to anneal up to about red-orange
hot. You can tell you are at the right temperature (called critical) if you touch a magnet to it and
it does not stick. Once you’ve reached the right temperature, stick the steel in the Vermiculite, or
whatever you are using to anneal it. Put it in deep, and make sure that it is buried and covered, as
heat can channel up to the exposed surface of the steel and dissipate in air. Let it cool overnight.
Before heating it up, make a mark in it with a file. Next morning, when it has fully cooled, mark
it again with a file. If it is much easier, your annealing is successful.
Annealing is not necessary before forging; the beating with the hammer on it only squishes the
carbon atoms in with the iron formations, hardening the steel.
Hardening
Once the blade has been forged, ground, and sanded, it needs to be heat treated. The ideal knife is one that is soft enough not to snap or shatter under stress, yet hard enough so as not to dull under months of hard abuse.
To achieve this property, the steel needs to be hardened fully, then softened just a bit to get to the desired physical property.
To harden the steel, it must be heated to critical temperature, then cooled very quickly. As
mentioned before, heating to critical opens up the cubic formations of the iron atoms, placing the
carbon atoms inside these cubes. Then, when the steel is cooled, the cubes shrink with not
enough time for the carbon atoms to wander out, trapping the carbon atoms inside the cubes with
pressure. This puts a lot of stress over the whole steel, making the atomic structure rigid, but
brittle.
To cool the steel this quickly, you’ll need a liquid to quench the steel in. Water can be used,
but sometimes water cools the steel too quickly, creating a shock-cooling. The shock puts too much stress on the steel, and can crack it. You can tell if the steel cracked by a high-pitched
“ping” sound soon after quenching. If you hear that, it is completely normal to fall on your knees wailing dramatically.
Thankfully though, neither you nor your steel are required to go under that much stress. Oil cools down the steel slowly enough not to crack, but fast enough to be able to harden the steel.
Canola oil, vegetable oil, or even motor oil will work just fine. Canola oil and vegetable oil will go ransid eventually however, and motor oil stinks to most people. I personally don’t mind the smell, but before quenching be sure to let everyone around know that if they smell burned oil, there is not a fire. I’ve had my parents rush in more than once thinking there was a fire of some sort. This goes for any type of smoke or smell you might create.
Make SURE your oil is not cold. Many smiths like to heat up a scrap piece of steel and dip it in the oil to warm it up beforehand. Heat up your blade in the forge, if the hotspot is too small, move around the blade slowly until the whole thing is heated evenly. Take it out and test it against a magnet. If the magnet sticks, you’re not hot enough. If it does not stick, you’re there.
The blade tends to cool down during the time you test against the magnet, so put it back in the forge, let it get up to the same heat as before, then pull out the blade quickly and plunge it in the oil. Stir it around, otherwise it’ll just heat up the oil around it rather than cooling the steel. Wear a mask or keep your face away from the smoke; there’ll be a lot. Once the smoke has died down a bit, it should have hardened. Take it out and test the blade against a file. Stroke the file across the surface. If it slides across without hardly any resistance, congratulations, you’ve hardened your blade. If it bites in and makes a mark like regular steel, it has not fully hardened. Put it back in the forge and repeat the process.
A note about hot steel and oil: the oil will not “blow up” in flame like you see in the movies. In order to burn, substances need direct contact to oxygen. No oxygen, no flame. Also, only the oil that is in almost direct contact with the hot steel will be able to catch fire. So the only flame you’ll get, if even, is directly on the steel or a few tongues around it. “Where there’s smoke there’s fire” is NOT true in this case. And there will be a lot of smoke.
Keep in mind that now that the steel has been hardened, it is very similar in physical properties
to glass. It will not dent or dull, but you can snap a piece with your fingers very easily. Now it
needs to be slightly softened, to the point where it is hard enough not to dull, but soft enough not
to snap.
Tempering
Tempering is the process of softening the steel just enough to get the desired physical properties. Master smiths can make blades that are hard enough to chop through two 2x4’s, then chop through a 1-inch thick hemp rope with a single strike, and soft enough to bend to 90 degrees without snapping or cracking. Of course, these master smiths practice and research and test their blades all the time, trying to find the perfect hardness. Eventually you’ll need to go down that road yourself, but for now you can still get a quality-tempered blade without hard
research.
Typically, blades are hardened from around 350-450 degrees Fahrenheit. The iron atom
cubes open up in relation to temperature, at critical temperature is when they are fully opened up.
While the blade is tempering, the cubes open up just enough to let a few carbon atoms out,
releasing a bit of the stress, hardness, and brittleness. The blade is then cooled. The cooling rate
does not really matter, but it is normally air-cooled. The more heat applied, the softer the steel
gets.
A kitchen oven does very well, you can stick a thermometer next to the blade to get the exact temperature. For small blades, like pocket knives and skinning knives, which will not be put under a lot of stress, temper at around 350-370 degrees. Normal-sized blades, like general- use knives or hunting knives, which are used for a variety of work that require both toughness and sharpness, temper at around 370-400 degrees. Large blades: axes, swords, and machetes, or throwing knives, temper at around 400-420 degrees. Temperatures like these that are not under direct flame take a while to heat up, and require a long time under heat so it all heats up evenly, right to the core of the steel. Most smiths do tempering cycles, and this is what I advise: If you are doing a normal-sized blade, temper in the oven for 45 minutes at 370 degrees, take out and let air cool, then put back in for another 45 minutes 20 degrees lower than last. The second cycle takes care of any little cubes that the first cycle did not get.
Another way to temper is by torch. This is all-visual and no numbers or thermometers involved (I heard that cheer). When put under stress, the spine, or thickest part of the, blade is the part that holds up most against the stress. Normally the spine is the very back of the knife, opposite the cutting edge. Ideally, the spine would be very soft, and so be able to hold up under stress, and the edge remains hard, staying sharp. One way to do this is by heating just the spine with a blowtorch, leaving the edge alone.
Before I continue, I want to talk about a very cool trick. The more heat that is applied to steel, the softer it gets, but ALSO the more it oxidizes. At about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, a thin oxygen layer forms over the steel. This layer of oxygen is so thin it is transparent, but messes around with the light waves that bounce off the steel. As the heat and in turn, oxygen layer increases, the wavelengths of light change, entering your eye as different colors. At around 360-
370 degrees, the steel starts to have a light straw yellow color.
As the temperature increases, it goes from light straw, to dull straw yellow (400 F), brownish yellow (440), brown (500), brownish purple (520), extremely dark blue (540), blue
(590), lighter blue (650), almost silver blue (700), then begins to gray and turn black, and eventually glowing red.
So, being very careful with the blowtorch, heat up the spine, making sure to be very even.
Remember that because the tip is so thin, it gathers heat faster, so stay away and avoid touching the tip with the flame. Heat heat it up as much as possible, but remember, do NOT let the edge of the blade get any more than a straw yellow. Do this, and you will have over-heated and will have to re-harden the entire blade. If you try the torch way, remember, it’s gonna be very stressful and heats up faster than you would think; at first it seems like it already took a long time to get from plain silver to straw yellow, but once it starts to change color the heat of the steel increases very fast. It’ll take a few practice tries to get to the ideal temperature. It’ll be helpful to clamp the edge in a vise, which acts as a heat sink and sucks the heat away from the edge into the vise itself.
Watch this video, it'll give a pretty detailed explanation of the science behind all of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9K66mcTPU
Steel Testing
Later on, when your knives require the utmost quality in heat treating, you’ll need to order steel online, but for now, take what you can get. As I mentioned before, files are always one of the best ways to go. High carbon, nice thickness, and ease of forging. If you ever find yourself in a junkyard, look around, there are always interesting things that can be made into knives.
When you find potential knife material, think of that steel’s application, and what properties are essential in order to be used in that application. For example: files. Files need to be able to hold an edge. They should not dull after a lot of use, which knives also should not dull.
How about a large ball bearing? It needs to be hard enough not to deform under stress, but soft
enough not to crack either, which matches up well with a knife. Here’s a little list of things you
should look for in a junkyard:
• Files
• Old knife blades
• Saw blades
• Old hammers (make wonderful axes)
• Chisels
• Drill bits • Leaf springs, from cars. This especially works well and I still use these quite a lot.
• Springs
• Railroad Spikes. These generally do not have much carbon at all, but they have enough to
harden up decently. Make sure you only pick the ones that are stamped on the head “HC” (High
Carbon).
• Bolts
• Various machine bits
• Padlock shackles
You may be tempted to use rebar, but it is almost never high enough carbon and is often just a random mix of elements with a base element iron. If you find a piece of steel that looks like it could make a good blade, there are a few simple tests to find if it is high enough carbon to make a blade with.
Spark test. Believe it or not, iron does burn, its just hard to burn a chunk of iron because the heat sinks so quickly. As a quick experiment, try setting a match to a bit of steel wool and blow on it, and you’ll see what I mean. Higher carbon steel burns faster and brighter than low carbon steel. When ground with an angle grinder, little bits of steel fly off, but have generated heat from the friction, and therefore burn. The higher the carbon, the brighter, shorter, and more
“explody” the sparks look. Sometimes the sparks look almost white. Low-carbon steel will have
longer, duller, almost red sparks with no little “explosions” on the end.
Hardening test. In order to make a decent blade, steel will have to be able to harden, as we discussed a little while back. Just heat up the steel to critical temperature (as detailed before) and quench in oil. When you take it out, draw a file across it. If it digs in and files off metal (look closely, it can look like it’s taking off metal but its really just removing the softer scale) like any other low carbon or soft piece, it’s not high enough carbon for a blade. If the file just “skates” across the surface without digging in, you have found a high enough carbon piece.
Congratulations.
WORDS AND PHRASES
Annealing: Heating to critical and cooling at a slow rate over a few hours to soften the steel and make it easier to work.
Bevel This is the slope of the blade from the spine all the way to the cutting edge. "Grind in the
bevel". It is also known as the "secondary bevel"
Bolster Not as well known as a guard. This is a metal section flush with and attached to the
handle, right before it meets the ricasso.
Butt or buttcap Yes it sounds weird but it is a thing. The butt is the very back or bottom of the handle. The buttcap is a metal plate attached to the back, which is used to keep the blade from splitting or as a hard surface in case of need as a sort of mallet.
Choil: (pronounced "coil") Where the cutting edge ends near the handle.
Critical Temperature: the point of heat at which a magnet will no longer stick to the steel. You
wait until you have reached this temperature before quenching, annealing, or normalizing.
Cutting edge the absolute thinnest section of the blade, where the blade is sharpened and does the main cutting. Also known as the "primary bevel"
Fuller You won't want to make any of these early on, but the term is handy to know. This is the
groove in the spine of the blade, normally used to reduce weight but not durability.
Forge. This is both an act and an object. The forge is what you use to heat the steel for use,
either powered by gas or solid fuel like coal or charcoal. To forge means hammering on the steel
to shape it; "I forged it to shape" Grit: This is a system of measurement you'll have to get used to. This is measured by how many abrasive grains per square inch there is, this system is used in any abrasive tools, like angle grinders and sandpaper. Remember, the lower the number, the rougher the grind.
Guard Not on all knives, this is a metal finger guard that slips over the tang (or into a notch if it's full tang) just before the handle. This and a well-defined ricasso make an excellently designed blade.
Hardening: Quenching steel at critical temperature in water or oil, which hardens the steel making it almost impossible to dull but easy to break
Normalizing: Heating to above critical temperature and letting air cool, toughening the steel.
Pommel is more of a sword thing, but I'll include it anyway. This is a large, normally metal object directly attached to the butt, which acts as a counteract.
Quenching: Plunging hot steel in water or oil or some other liquid to cool it, often to harden the steel.
Ricasso Almost solely on stick-tang knives, this is basically a transitioning point between the handle and blade. This is a flat, square section, where almost all maker's marks are stamped.
Scales: or scale material, this is the handle material, normally wood or some synthetic material.
Scales are normally used in reference to a full tang knife.
Spine The thickest part of the blade along its length all the way to the tip. Normally in single- edged blades this is the very back, but in blades like daggers it is the center.
Stabilized This is a complicated treatment of wood, to make it last longer, split less easily, and absorb less water. Tang: The part of the blade that goes back into the handle, this can be either Stick tang, a flat thin stick going into the handle, or a Full tang, where the steel is shaped like the entire handle; with holes drilled so two halves of wood handle are attached to either side.
Tempering: Heating the blade up just enough to toughen hardened steel so it will not break.