I blacksmithed a knife blade!!! Watch the process as I turn a piece of metal into a very useful tool! It turned out GREAT, and I am really proud of this blade!
Thank you! I would really love to show it with the wooden handle on it, and the knife completely finished, but I am sending this blade to a family member of mine. He is going to make the handle and keep the knife, so I probably won't get a chance to show the finished product, but I plan on making more knives soon where I can show the finished knives.
New to the channel. Really like your forge setup. The blade looks good. A few questions if you wouldn't mind. Are you self-taught, or have you trained under a smith? As you hammer control and fire tending are good. What steel did you make the blade from? as mild steel will not harden properly when heat treated. I would have you try to keep your thumb off the top of the hammer handle as much as possible. rather put it on the side, as thumb on top can lead to hand injures down the road. When doing the tip be careful of "FISHMOUTHING" the tip. as this can lead to a cold shut and cracks. Either round the two tips first when hot. or cut the tip at an angle over the hot cut. When punching use the Pritchel hole instead of the Hardie hole. it will deform less. also if it is a flat tipped punch" not a pointed one" punch from the first side on the flat of the anvil, then flip over and go over the pritchel, you should see a dark ring from this side. put your punch directly on top of the dark ring and as the steel is cooling down" about dull red. then punch it. it should shear out a little plug if done correctly. Annealing or softening can be done by heating to a very dull red, holding that color for about 2 minutes then putting the blade in wood ash or vermiculite to cool slowly "about 8 hours" then it will file very nice. Do As much filing of the blade while annealed. To heat treat. heat the steel to a bright red to a dull yellow. get a magnet. it should be non-magnetic at the right temp. then quench in water or different kinds of oil depending on steel type and speed of quench required. Careful the blade will be like glass at this point and a sharp metal file should just glide over the steel and not grab. to temper. rub with a red brick and water to shine up. then heat slowly over coals from the spine with edge up, moving the blade back and forth. careful not to overheat the tip. when the entire edge is between a straw or wheat color for smaller blades and between brown and just starting peacock purple for larger blades and small axes. blues are getting into the softness of springs and may not hold an edge well. Quickly quench in cold water. NOW it is a blade. By the way. i like your magical blade holder when you were punching the holes;) I hope some of this helps in some way or another. I hope you enjoy continuing on your smithing journey. I will be sure to check out some more videos of yours. I always enjoy younger folks practicing living history skills. You are our future.
Thank you! My dad and I built our blacksmith shop ourselves! I appreciate it! I am mostly self-taught, but I have learned quite a bit from books and RU-vid. Thank you! For this blade, I used high-carbon 1084 bar steel. Okay, I will remember that. Thank you so much for all of the advice! I am still a beginner, so I will take all the help and advice I can get. This helped A LOT and I will continue to reference this when blacksmithing. Thanks, it always helps to have a good magical blade holder ;) It all helped, and I truly appreciate it! Thank you so much! I will continue to share videos, and I'm glad you like them.
Dry nice job on shaping you knife and hammering it out I would like to maybe offer some advice on your quenching and or hardining practice if you would not file you knife itvwould be softer and quench for hardness then temper it and. Be careful when using water to be sure you don’t put a full blade in water if it is really hot u can tend to get smalll fractures that may not be evident right away
Thank you for the advice! I am still learning and appreciate the help! I will try that next time! We will gladly take any and all advice, so thank you!
Forgot. good sources of good knife steels are. Coil springs from cars, usually 5160 spring steel. Metal-NOT wood files 1095 or o-1 tool steel. Old mill style wood saw blades- The big 3-5ft ones 1084 or 1095 high carbon steel. Roler bearing races and larger ball bearings " over 3/4 of an inch" almost always 52100 very good steel. "ROCK SHAFTS" from tractors. 5160. John deer ones seem to be the best quality of these i have found. Ather good RU-vid channels for smithing. That works. Blackbear forge. DF in the shop. Alec steel- the earlier videos. Knife steel nerds. and Joey van der Steeg.
Thank you for all the advice! I have used both 1084 and 1095 high carbon steel for different projects, and will look into the other metals. I am on my way to check out those other channels right now!
