Posted: 9/11/2010 9:04:54 AM EDT
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This is one of the things I enjoy the most about survival and preparedness. Since it involves such a wide spectrum of skills and fields, there’s always something new and interesting to learn.
Visiting one of the local knife forums I found one of the top knife makers in the country offering a day class on knife making, so I signed up. I made a little general purpose knife. (some people would call it bushcraft knife :-) ) I have a few ideas for it and will post again once I finish it. 
FerFAL Forging 
The knife I forged Yesterday The steel used is 5160, hammer forged and with differential tempering. The edge reaches 58-59 Rc hardness with the tempering we did and the spine stays a bit softer, which makes it more resistant to abuse. The blade is short but thick, around 6mm, and I have a few ideas I’d like to try when doing the finishing touches. I have a lot of big knifes and I don’t have that many small fixed blades so with this I want one that, while small, I can just hammer it through a log to split it if needed. We’ll see how it works out and I’ll post pics when its done. IF you like gear, specially knives, you have to make your own at least once. I've made a couple before but this is the nicest, wtih a good steel. Pretty happy with it, met some interesting people and learned a couple new stories to share. Got to go now but I’ll post them later today. Have fun people, Go out and do stuff! FerFAL http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2010/09/forging-class-yesterday-part-i.html |
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Nice knife. A couple friends took me to a flint knapping expo/show last weekend and I was utterly amazed at the quality and sharpness of the arrowheads, knives and axes the people made.
That's one item I want to learn how to do, not just for knives, but for making gardening tools also post TSHTF. |
Thanks, working on it right now, this is so much fun
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Nice knife. A couple friends took me to a flint knapping expo/show last weekend and I was utterly amazed at the quality and sharpness of the arrowheads, knives and axes the people made. That's one item I want to learn how to do, not just for knives, but for making gardening tools also post TSHTF. You can forge pretty much anything you have in mind. There's still the dabate going on about forge vs stock removing. The difference is minimal and, theoretically speaking, geometry and heat treatment is what matters the most. What few people mention is that you can remove both impurities and (more common than what people think) cracks by forging. You also modifiy the direction of the steel grain with forging, something that you dont do with stock removing, and its always preffered to bend rather than cut the direction of the grain. About post SHTF, he told me that after the crisis few people had money for the expensive knives he made, but he still managed to put food on the table, trading a knife for 30 USD worth of meat at the neighborhood butcher every now and then. He told about a friend of his going on a trip, walking all arcross south America with his dog (must have been a cool trip!) He gave him several knife blades to finish as he went, just lacking the grip. When he came back he told him that the knives would often get him a dinner and night at someone's home, specially in Amazonas where people greatly appreacite a good knife. FerFAL |
Just showing how the knife is looking these days.
Can't remember the name of the wood but the damn thing seems harder than the steel. 
Two brass screws,cut and sanded, lots of epoxy too. I left some space on purpose below (full tang protrudes a bit there) to use the knife as a hammer, since it already has a nice weight to it. It could easily be hammered into a log without damage. Tests coming soon.
FerFAL |
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Neat. Practical skills are a must for long term survival.
We started playing around and built a home made forge in 07. It's ugly but it cost less than $50. and it works ;) I've made some screwdrivers, a pry bar and a really ugly knife. I call it the ShankMaster 4000. What material did you start with? Do you a before picture of the starting material? Might help folks to see what you started with. We haven't fired up the forge in a long time, gonna have to get back at it this fall. Was just starting to learn the basics. Practical skills are very important. |
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getting married on 11, Dec. hopefully not to long afterwards the then wife and i will be looking to buy a home. hopefuly at that point i'll be able to set my forges and anvils back up. i've been living in town in apartments for the last near decade and all my smithing gear is packed up at my parents house out in the county. i've had no place to set it up here...
aside from a nice garden, a small fish pond, some fruit trees and berry bushes, backyard chickens, my girl setting up and getting back into bees / apiaries, and ofcourse retrofitting whatever house we buy to be more green(PC sheopleflage term for adding solar, rain barrels, composter, extra insulation, painting the roof white, etc. to be more energy, but truthfully more self, sufficient), and retrofitting my truck to be a more capable BOV. i also hope to get back into blacksmithing... i know i'm rusty as crap and i was never a pro to start with, still it's a lot of fun and can provide a bit of extra income... K. |
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Neat. Practical skills are a must for long term survival. We started playing around and built a home made forge in 07. It's ugly but it cost less than $50. and it works ;) I've made some screwdrivers, a pry bar and a really ugly knife. I call it the ShankMaster 4000. What material did you start with? Do you a before picture of the starting material? Might help folks to see what you started with. We haven't fired up the forge in a long time, gonna have to get back at it this fall. Was just starting to learn the basics. Practical skills are very important. Hi Lowdown, I started with a small piece of 5160 steel, probably the best steel for a tough knife. D2 is easier to sharpen, but 5160 is a bit tougher and often used in swords and large knives that will be used for impact. This knife is clearly short (4“ blade) , but it is thick and I thought about the use for baton and hammer if need be, so I wanted that toughness. Sorry, no other pictures (should have thought of that), just the one where I”m already hammering the hot metal on the first post, making the tang. The original piece of steel was almost half the length, you stretch it a lot when you forge. After forging it to shape, I did a differential tempering with a torch, heating the edge, only tempering the edge and leaving the spine a bit softer. Quenched it in oil (30ºC) then put it in an electric oven for about 30 minutes. After that I went to a belt grinder for profiling, then started working it with sand paper, 100, 250, 400 and then polishing until I had a nice mirror finish. I dont like the mirror finish so much but it helps to avoid rusting in carbon steel. I had a very small piece of iron wood and that´s what I used. It a South American type of ironwood, very hard but cant´t remember the name right now. I cut the slabs and grind them flat. I have a small cube left,. like a large dice, for making a handle for a firesteel to go along with the knife. As I said, I simply used a couple brass screws and then cut them away with a grinder. I used a belt grinder once again to give the handle the shape I wanted, then again started with sandpaper until I had it polished. One little trick I learned from rifle stock finishing: Wet the polished wood a bit and the dry it over flame (careful not to burn the wood) when the wood dried the splinters come out and you once again feel a texture when you touch it. Put some sand paper to use then repeat. After a few times you´ll see that this operation brigs out the grain and beauty of the wood. I still need to keep working on it with wood oil but it is already nice and functional. Need to add a lanyard hole too. FerFAL |
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Neat. Practical skills are a must for long term survival. We started playing around and built a home made forge in 07. It's ugly but it cost less than $50. and it works ;) I've made some screwdrivers, a pry bar and a really ugly knife. I call it the ShankMaster 4000. What material did you start with? Do you a before picture of the starting material? Might help folks to see what you started with. We haven't fired up the forge in a long time, gonna have to get back at it this fall. Was just starting to learn the basics. Practical skills are very important. Hi Lowdown, I started with a small piece of 5160 steel, probably the best steel for a tough knife. D2 is easier to sharpen, but 5160 is a bit tougher and often used in swords and large knives that will be used for impact. This knife is clearly short (4“ blade) , but it is thick and I thought about the use for baton and hammer if need be, so I wanted that toughness. Sorry, no other pictures (should have thought of that), just the one where I”m already hammering the hot metal on the first post, making the tang. The original piece of steel was almost half the length, you stretch it a lot when you forge. After forging it to shape, I did a differential tempering with a torch, heating the edge, only tempering the edge and leaving the spine a bit softer. Quenched it in oil (30ºC) then put it in an electric oven for about 30 minutes. After that I went to a belt grinder for profiling, then started working it with sand paper, 100, 250, 400 and then polishing until I had a nice mirror finish. I dont like the mirror finish so much but it helps to avoid rusting in carbon steel. I had a very small piece of iron wood and that´s what I used. It a South American type of ironwood, very hard but cant´t remember the name right now. I cut the slabs and grind them flat. I have a small cube left,. like a large dice, for making a handle for a firesteel to go along with the knife. As I said, I simply used a couple brass screws and then cut them away with a grinder. I used a belt grinder once again to give the handle the shape I wanted, then again started with sandpaper until I had it polished. One little trick I learned from rifle stock finishing: Wet the polished wood a bit and the dry it over flame (careful not to burn the wood) when the wood dried the splinters come out and you once again feel a texture when you touch it. Put some sand paper to use then repeat. After a few times you´ll see that this operation brigs out the grain and beauty of the wood. I still need to keep working on it with wood oil but it is already nice and functional. Need to add a lanyard hole too. FerFAL Are you using wet/dry sandpaper for your finishing? If so, how far do you have to go to get the mirror finish? I am restoring a Schrade=Walden knife that was mine as a kid in the 1960's and would like to attain a mirror finish. I am still working at the 200 grit level, and trying to ge rid of some pitting and corrosion from when it was neglected. Fortunately, it is pretty superficiel. Thanks for any advice. |
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Quoted:
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Neat. Practical skills are a must for long term survival. We started playing around and built a home made forge in 07. It's ugly but it cost less than $50. and it works ;) I've made some screwdrivers, a pry bar and a really ugly knife. I call it the ShankMaster 4000. What material did you start with? Do you a before picture of the starting material? Might help folks to see what you started with. We haven't fired up the forge in a long time, gonna have to get back at it this fall. Was just starting to learn the basics. Practical skills are very important. Hi Lowdown, I started with a small piece of 5160 steel, probably the best steel for a tough knife. D2 is easier to sharpen, but 5160 is a bit tougher and often used in swords and large knives that will be used for impact. This knife is clearly short (4“ blade) , but it is thick and I thought about the use for baton and hammer if need be, so I wanted that toughness. Sorry, no other pictures (should have thought of that), just the one where I”m already hammering the hot metal on the first post, making the tang. The original piece of steel was almost half the length, you stretch it a lot when you forge. After forging it to shape, I did a differential tempering with a torch, heating the edge, only tempering the edge and leaving the spine a bit softer. Quenched it in oil (30ºC) then put it in an electric oven for about 30 minutes. After that I went to a belt grinder for profiling, then started working it with sand paper, 100, 250, 400 and then polishing until I had a nice mirror finish. I dont like the mirror finish so much but it helps to avoid rusting in carbon steel. I had a very small piece of iron wood and that´s what I used. It a South American type of ironwood, very hard but cant´t remember the name right now. I cut the slabs and grind them flat. I have a small cube left,. like a large dice, for making a handle for a firesteel to go along with the knife. As I said, I simply used a couple brass screws and then cut them away with a grinder. I used a belt grinder once again to give the handle the shape I wanted, then again started with sandpaper until I had it polished. One little trick I learned from rifle stock finishing: Wet the polished wood a bit and the dry it over flame (careful not to burn the wood) when the wood dried the splinters come out and you once again feel a texture when you touch it. Put some sand paper to use then repeat. After a few times you´ll see that this operation brigs out the grain and beauty of the wood. I still need to keep working on it with wood oil but it is already nice and functional. Need to add a lanyard hole too. FerFAL Are you using wet/dry sandpaper for your finishing? If so, how far do you have to go to get the mirror finish? I am restoring a Schrade=Walden knife that was mine as a kid in the 1960's and would like to attain a mirror finish. I am still working at the 200 grit level, and trying to ge rid of some pitting and corrosion from when it was neglected. Fortunately, it is pretty superficiel. Thanks for any advice. Sorry for missing it, hope you see my reply. What I do is use water to clean the blade then dry it and continue working with the sand paper. Work it with the 200 until you have no more scratches, then with 400. That gives you a nice satin finish but then polishing with some polishing paste and polish disc in the grinder leaves the mirror finish. Again, I dont like the mirror finish much, I prefer the satin finish, but the mirror one is better for corrosion resistance. FerFAL |