Forging fun

[Lin Rhea]

Today Chris Montgomery (akaboomer) came over for some forging and bow shooting. We each forged a bowie. I went first and took a piece of W2 to shape and into a 7 1/2 inch blade. We stressed taking things to a close profile and thickness so we took our time. I believe this trains the eye and is the beginning of good forging habits.

 

 

 

 

Gotter done
 

[DANA HOLMAN]

That's nice Lin, sure wish I could spend a day with you
Dana

[Lin Rhea]

Now it's Chris's turn. He starts by taking the 5160 round bar to a rectangular flat bar. He got his feet wet on the power hammer.

 

Here he's forming the tip.
 

 

A sketch of the hammer marks for Chris to make in order to widen the blade.  He did good.
 

The finished forged blade. From his look, he must be happy with it.
 

[Bodork]

I couldn't think of a better way to spend the day!!

[Doug Campbell]

Don't look like you boys were sweatin near enough for Arkansas...   :D  

Good stuff!!      

[akaboomer]

I love when I get to forge with Lin. Its allways educational and fun. I am amazed each time a section of round stock is drawn out, they allways seem to be to small at the start only to end up with enough left over for another knife.

Working on the power hammer is too cool for words. What would take me an hour on the anvil is done in minutes.

Each time I visit Lin I come away with more knowledge and skill. Perhaps I will be able to forge a bowie on my own. I could not have done this one alone.

Can't wait to see the tongs finished.

Could not think of a better way to spend a HOT Arkansas day. Not to mention that Lin and Kay are such gracious hosts.

Chris

[coltar]

Looks like great time & nice job

[Lin Rhea]

Doug, I had to break out a new sweat band.

Chris and I concentrated on the three problem areas of forging a blade. The tip, the choil, and the ricasso/tang transition. Although we did use the power hammer some, we either went back to the hand held hammer or discussed what to do to prevent problems when using the hand hammer.

For instance it's common for the newer guys to get fishmouths when shaping the tip. Drive the corners inward first. Then we wanted to get the bar hot through and through so the middle of the bar is moving at the same rate the outside is. If not, we would be mushrooming the hot outside over and around the not so hot inside core of the bar. Hard blows go deep to move the middle. Once it's going our way, we can slow down and lighten up the blows till we need to move to the choil or to pinch down the tang.

Most new guys are reluctant to hit it as hard as they need to when they need to and THEN knowing when they are about to go too far. Chris and I worked on getting a good feel for the steel moving under the hammer and developing good forging habits. He done real good.

[Steve Nuckels]

Great thread!  Enjoy watching a blade take shape, forging is my favorite part of the process.  Nice work!

Lin, your anvil horn looks modified, did you alter it.  Most horns have a rounder profile, your has a steeper angle to the top surface!  I'm assuming that you use that like a bottom fuller!

Steve
--------
Potomac Forge

[Lin Rhea]

Steve, No, the horn is not modified. Its just shiny where I have been drawing the blade. I guess it's just the angle of the photo. I do indeed use it as a fuller of sorts to speed up the movement and add direction to the draw.

The only modification I have done to this anvil is to round the edge slightly on one side. It's a nice one.

[akaboomer]

Like Lin said we adressed several common forging issues. Two which have caused me issues at home.

The choil has been a problem for me from the beginning. Lin put the hows and whys in order for me. I now feel that I can get the choil pulled down much better. The knife I had sketched has a dramatically pulled down choil, so with my lack of understanding on how to get the desired result was out of my capabilities.

The transition from racasso to tang has been problematic aswell. Again, Lin put me on the right path. I have had issues getting the tang in the right position and proportion. Mine have been fullered to small, instead of the stronger more gradual taper. The first and third picture really shows the correct transition, proportionally and centered.

The how hard to swing the hammer and how far to go with it will be an issue that will get better with time. But I feel like I will have a shorter learning curve now.

Chris

[akaboomer]

By the way, folks, you should see Lin's new Tall Tines bow. He posted it in the Pow Wow. She is SMOOTH and FAST. A real pleasure to shoot!

Chris

[Lin Rhea]

One thing I noticed in the photos is that we dont show the tang drawn out. This might leave you with the impression that they are left short, but I wait till after the main blade is forged and straightened to stretch it on out. This keeps it from getting floppy while working on the blade. Here is a picture of it after we started drawing it out, but saw something about the blade that needed some attention. I held it by the ricasso so the tang wouldn't bend.