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I understand what they are saying in the pictures but, while what they show is accurate, I don't think that has much to do with knife making. A knife blade generally does not have a complex cross section, it is essentially a straight metal bar. While it is true about the grain being disturbed by the grinding and shaping of the bar stock into a blade by stock removal the grain adjusts and aligns itself during the heat treat process. The grain alters any time the steel is raised to a high enough temperature whether you hit it with a hammer or not.
In short, I think a fair number of knife makers these days would tell you that a properly heat treated stock removal knife will perform pretty much identically to an identical forged blade. Personally, I think that a forged blade made by someone who truly understands heat control will have a slight advantage over a comparable stock removal blade but that will be because the stock removal blade is more likely to be treated in an oven where the finesse I referred to cannot be easily accomplished. But then, that finesse isn't often accomplished by anyone forging either...not that they don't try. In short, the difference, if any, in the grain of a forged blade or a stock removal blade will be due to the heat treat process and not from the act of forging per se...
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