First forged knife

Hillbilly stalker

Senior Member
Looks good ! I know there has to be a lot of serious work into forging and building a custom knife. I like that one. (y)
 

wvdawg

Moderator
Staff member
Nice one for a first! Hang on to that one!
 

Anvil Head

Senior Member
Looks like you did a pretty good job for a first.
Each one gets a little easier. Like driving a tractor, gets easier to keep the plow line straight the more you cut. Just go to a hammer in and watch an accomplished bladesmith work a blade. Once the anvil is warmed up and the forge set the blades will shape up amazingly fast. I average between 6 - 10 blades in a 4 hour session (depending on sizes).
No biggie to take a bar of steel, push it against a belt sander and grind a blade winding up with a knife. But, you can only make a knife slightly smaller than the size of the chunk of steel you start with and are limited to style/design/dimension. You can take that same chunk of steel do a little hammer work and end up with 2-3 knife blades the same size, any shape or design, or one even larger without ever flipping the switch on a grinder.
I ground blades for around 20 years because I thought that's how you have to do it. I got bored to the point of almost quitting all together. Picked up my Dad's favorite smithing hammer and have been forging blades the last 25+ years. I am still amazed at what can be done with a little heat, a hammer and some imagination. It's an addiction for sure.
 

JustUs4All

Slow Mod
Staff member
I wish I could do stuff like that. Congratulations.
 

Anvil Head

Senior Member
"Man you can make a fortune in knives!" - Dixie Cutter

Only if you start with two fortunes and stop when half of them are gone.
 

Bigtimber

Senior Member
A HECK of a lot better than my first one. Something to be proud of...nice work.
 

John I. Shore

Senior Member
Good start, if you figure out how to make lots of $ making knives, please let us know, I haven’t figured it out yet!
 
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