Have you even seen a knife's belly button?

You just got to know where to look.

I though I'd take you through what I do when I hand forge a knife and thought I do it like a WIP. All of the work that I'll be doing through these photo's was done with a 5 pound hammer, Godzilla, my 150 Trenton, and of course my propane forge. Also some tongs to.




I'm starting out with a piece of 1" round L-6 that is 4 1/2" long.

Out of that 4 1/2" I'll segregate 1" that will become the tang. Most the hammering I am doing now is with me striking Godzilla with the hammer. I'll take this knob and turn it into 2 knobs, and then into 3 and 4 knobs.





I have now hammered the tang round and will leave it this way till I'm further along in the forging process. I will add a flat end to it just so I can grip it better with the tongs.


This is where I stopped cause the propane bottle froze up and its a good place to take a break. I have flattened out the sides of the bar some now and indented where I want the back of the blade to stop. All lot of time will now be spent drawing out the bar. I'll be using Godzilla and the big hammer for most of that to.

Thanks Ray and look forward to this one. I HAVE to make me a Godzilla...That takes out hours of hammering..

Randy, You really do need a Godzilla. I sure couldn't do what I do without one.

I got to work on the stretching party. Still go more today. Right now the thickness of the blade is about 1/2". I'd like to get it down to 3/8". Right now there's about 6" of blade. By the time I get the barn thinned down and pre formed it will be around 8" or a little longer. Its going to be a good sized knife blade when its all done.

Old man feeding Godzilla. This tool really makes it possible for me to forge especially with these larger chunks of steel. Basically All I'm doing is indenting the steel with Godzilla. After I have that the whole length I'll then start hammering with my big straight peen hammer. The one that's around 5 pounds.


Just a few pictures along the way. This is the pretty boring part of the hand forging. Once I have the preform totally done things will start changing pretty fast. Kinda fast.

Nice Ray!

How do you clean out the belly button?

One said:

Nice Ray!

How do you clean out the belly button?

Click to expand...

On this model belly button the proper tool for cleaning it out is a magnet.

Here's the rest: Woke up with a sore hand and wrist but its a new year and I have plenty of time to recover.

I just finished the rough forging. I've still got a fair amount of tuning up on the blade but its pretty much there.

I stretched the steel out some more. Just need to smooth it off and start shaping the pre form.


This is the preform.


I'm going to be doing a double bevel blade so I'm only going to be forging halfway down the blade. Also all the hammer work I will be doing will be done with a rounded over cross peen hammer. It moves steel faster with less bending.


I did more forging on the bottom bevel in this photo.


I just started the top bevel. Can you see how it brought the tip down?


Here's the blade now after forging. I didn't measure the blade but I'd say its close to 9".


Nothing other than Godzilla and hammers have been used on the blade so far. I'll probably clean up the profile with the grinder next and then take a real good look at the blade before I go any further.

Very nice, I haven't thought of doing bevels with a cross peen. Far out, Thanks...

Very cool love godzilla, one of my favorite home builds ive seen, raymond you rock!

Godzilla is elegant. Great pics.

I did some more hammer work on the blade yesterday. While working on the blade I noticed a crack right behind what was going to be the bolster. Checked the crack out even better and it looked like it could be a problem so I cut the tang off where the crack was and forged a new tang from the bolster area. If you look at the first picture you can see the crack. I've been thinking back to what could have caused the crack and I think I determined what caused the crack. Shortly after I had forged the tang I had the piece of steel setting on the anvil and it decided to roll. When it rolled it landed in a water bucket. I'm pretty sure that's what caused the crack. At least the blade will work.

Here's a couple more detailed photo's of Godzilla and my 5 1/2 pound little giant. The big straight peen see's a lot of work. More so than the regular face. I use this hammer all the way to the preform. Then I start forging with smaller cross peen hammers. I also added a photo of the blade that I started this thread with after surgery. Its ready for heat treat as well as the blade underneath it. Just got the piece of steel forged into another blade and I'll add that later.

Mr Richard,
Love the WIP

if you dont mind me asking..would a rig like Godzilla be useful for drawing out a small billet of san mai?

and

What is Godzilla made from?
D

Leatherface said:

Mr Richard,
Love the WIP

if you dont mind me asking..would a rig like Godzilla be useful for drawing out a small billet of san mai?

and

What is Godzilla made from?
D

Click to expand...

Yes I'm sure Godzilla would be useful to draw out your billet. Its a handy tool. I sure wouldn't be able to do what I do without it. My first Godzilla was made out of piece of an old truck leaf spring. This one was made out of 5/8" X 2" 1065. The steel was not heat treated. I've been using this one for just over 2 years now and it will be good for several more years.

Thank you sir...I gotta make me one of those

err one clarification...you forge the bevels in with the pien of the hammer instead of the face?? I am really working on getting my bevels up to snuff

Leatherface said:

Thank you sir...I gotta make me one of those

err one clarification...you forge the bevels in with the pien of the hammer instead of the face?? I am really working on getting my bevels up to snuff

Click to expand...

Yes, I start the bevels with the cross peen. Just do one half of the blade each time to start. When you get the bevel even on one side turn the blade 180 degrees and hammer the seconded bevel. I'll normally do that 3 or 4 times with the cross peen. This will help establish the spine that should now be in the center of the blade. This is when you can start using the face of the hammer. It takes awhile to get use to but you'll start getting it. Just takes lots of practice.

Yar, I've been using my Godzilla quite a bit. Neat tool. Thanks.

Dave, Ray has a video that shows his beveling technique. It's from the hammerin we had here a couple years ago.

What kind of steel is godzilla made of?

Kevin1050 said:

What kind of steel is godzilla made of?

Click to expand...

It was made out of 5/8" X 2" 1065. The steel was not heat treated. I've been using this one for just over 2 years now and it will be good for several more years.

Raymond you got any of those vids left i might like one if there available.