Forging Knife Blades

Forging & Grinding knife blades out of old files - a photo essay. Come visit the Bladesmithing forums on PaleoPlanet.net

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• PaleoPlanet
• forging
• knives
• knife
• making
• blacksmith

[Biohazard1369]

whats the song?

great knives btw.

[Paleoaleo]

LOL...it's me trying to learn an old Celtic/Irish song called "she moved through the fair". There are some cool versions of it on youtube.  Mine is really bad!

[78cxander]

Files make excellent knives when heat treated properly.Rounding the shoulders down where the tang meets the blade would help prevent stress risers.Ive seen file knives flex 90 degrees and return to almost straight, weak they are not. While some blacksmiths do have cool beards they are not bladesmiths.There is a huge difference.If you are interested in making knives dont study under a blacksmith.Ive heard alot of misinformation come from the mouths of blacksmiths when it come to making knives.

[Paleoaleo]

Thanks for sticking up for file knives! I'm only a beginner and have lots to learn. There's lots to criticize about my knives (not rounding the shoulders of the tang for instance! Something I learned since these knives), and there's lots of reasons not to bother using files I suppose, but all I've ever read and been told...file steel is good steel (except for the case hardened junk). Tom

[upaulyo]

....Beautiful.. That was really cool, nice job

[kalevraa]

tomalophicon,

annealing means bringing the steel to its softest state by heating it to its critical temperature and cooling it at a very slow rate, which is specific to each steel. tempering and hardening are definitely NOT the same thing. hardening is heating to critical temperature and cooling in water, oil, or air (still or forced), depending on the steel. tempering means reheating the hardened steel to a much lower temperature to reduce brittleness and gain toughness.

[OEFvet1986]

@zanuha I do 2 runs at 440 degrees two hours each. I wanted to know how to do it with a propane torch though

[zanuha]

@OEFvet1986

No, really. Put the knife in an oven. Two runs 230 degrees celsius, 30 minutes each works for me.

[OEFvet1986]

@zanuha nevermind...

[zanuha]

@OEFvet1986

You put the damn thing in an oven.

[OEFvet1986]

thats really cool, im getting started making file knives myself. How do you temper the knife with the propane torch?

[onebigyooper]

thought i was da oly one who used files. da way people talk bout ot like' them it seems da excuse is always da same, to hard to sharpen. its true if you only bring them to a straw color temper they are hard to sharpen but da other side of that is they take that much longer to dull. when it comes to leaf springs i found da sad way if you dont temer them right after hardening they start to spontaniously form cracks.

[gwhayduketmrg]

Nice photo essay Love that puukko at the end.

In one of the photos you are heating up the blade with a torch. I'm assuming these photos are in order of process, what was going on in the torch shot? I'm also wondering what was happening in the shot with the blades in alligator clips.

[KnifemakingUnplugged]

Wow, what a awesome set up.

[blacksmither1]

i have never been able to get a handle on my knives

[teddy555tothe666]

nice :) reminds of scandinavian knives:)