A little forging

[Raymond Richard]

The thing I enjoy most about knife making starts at the very beginning of the process. Hand forging. Taking a raw piece of steel and with just hand held hammers turning that piece of steel into a blade. Anyway I've been wanting to up date the forging page thats on my web site with something that makes sense instead of what is there now. I'll be using some of these pictures there.

Not much going on here yet. Got a stub tang forged first. I prefer forging the tang first. It makes holding onto the work easier plus I now have starting and stopping points. After I have the blade totally forged I will then forge the rest of the tang out.


A lot has gone on since the last photo and a loss of about an hours time. The blade is pretty much forged now but still needs shaping and straightening. Sometimes this is something that goes real fast and other times you can lose an hour in the process.


Got the blade straightened out and I just ran a normalizing cycle. Once this blade has cooled off its time to start grinding. Just hammer work till this point. A picture of my coat rack and the trash can bench in the background.


Here's the finished knife. 9 1/2" 5160 blade, Buggy wheel iron guard, blackwood and walrus cheek bone make up the rest. 15 1/2" overall and weighs 16oz.

[toddhill]

She's a beauty! You're on a roll!

Todd

[spaknives]

Very Very Nice Raymond!!
I realy admire your work. I realy like all the iron fittings and old wagon and buggy fitting you use. Very Cool!! Just Curious if you don't mind me asking, is this one for sale or already sold? Hope to see at Blade Show West, Shane

[Raymond Richard]

Originally Posted by spaknives

Very Very Nice Raymond!!
I realy admire your work. I realy like all the iron fittings and old wagon and buggy fitting you use. Very Cool!! Just Curious if you don't mind me asking, is this one for sale or already sold? Hope to see at Blade Show West, Shane

This one will be at the show unless it sells before then. Make sure you introduce yourself if you make it to the show.

[chiger]

Well....that clinches it Raymond. No pun intended. It was no fluke that you got that walrus bone peened without cracking the last time. It was a mastery of skill!

And I love seeing your pics of the process. Thanks for posting them. The knife is beautiful.

chiger,

[Gene Chapman]

Great Knife, like your safety shoes.

[Mike Turner]

Wow Ray that is nice

[Raymond Richard]

Originally Posted by Mike Turner

Wow Ray that is nice

Hey Mike, Where you been h##ing? Good to see you around.......

[Mike Turner]

Well Ray I posted some here not wanting to take over your thread


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