Forging Exercise...Blue Collar Hunters

[tippit]

I rarely forge a blade from long bar stock as I tend to cut a piece off and forge with tongs.  Usually I decided what the blade will look like as I'm forging...but I thought I'd try four pieces of bar stock 4", 5", 6", and 7" to see what they would come out as.  They were all forged to shape & length with minimal shaping and not any cutting down in the length.

Interesting in that they all came out with pretty much the same proportion & progression in shape & length.  They are all rough ground, quenched, and tempered ready for final edge & hand finish of the blade.  I find that I now take my rough grind to almost finished edge before quenching without any problems with warping.  Thanks to help from some great bladesmiths, my initial grinding has improved so much that it takes me about 15 minutes to grind out a blade.  Most of my time is in forging & straighting..tippit

AOL are 6 1/2", 7 1/2", 8 1/2", 9 3/4"

From top down...

#1 & #3...52100
#2...old file
#4...1084

 

 

[Ray Hammond]

Those look great Jeff!

[srtben]

Those all have such fantastic/natural flow.
These would look great with some dyed curly maple.
Can't wait to see what you do with them!

[tippit]

Just finished the blade on the little one but no time to handle any of these as Whip & I will be chasing whitetails in Kansas next week. Hopefully it will come back Used!  Orange para-cord should keep it from getting lose in the leaves...tippit

 

[amar911]

Those look terrific, Jeff.

Allan

[GRINCH]

Really like the looks of those blades,very nice work Jeff.