Making them pointy

One problem I have when forging is drawing out the tip of the blade into a point. I try to get the point established early and draw out some taper, but I still tend to end up fairly blunt and rounded when I get to the final product. Any pointers you guys have for making a knife pointy. I want to work on a couple of capers and a pig sticker next.

You can pre-cut the tip and that will help. Or you can angle your hammer and upset the corner of the bar back into itself while hammering from the side to maintain your thickness, achieving essentially the same thing as cutting the point, but without loss of material. Watch out for cold shuts if you go that route.

I do it in the other order. I put the tapers into my preform bar first. Taper from where the guard or bolster will sit to the tip of the blade (in most cases), and taper from the same point but in the other direction for the tang (whether it will be full or through-tang. I don't make hidden tangs, but you would do the same).

After the tapering is done, cut a clip and form it into a point or grind the corners off of the preform with your handy-dandy belt sander. Then, forge the point. Cutting the clip or grinding the corners off helps to reduce the amount of material you are upsetting into itself and helps keep the point relatively thin. I still often find myself drawing the point out a little more to get the right taper when I grind and upset.

I started doing things in this order because of the same issue. With a lot of things, especially dropped and clipped points, it is easiest to cut an angled piece off of the tip of the preform, with the point in line with the what will be the blade edge when finished. Then, forge the edge so that the point rises to be in line with the spine. This extra foring in the area of the point helps keep it thin, too. Taper, cut the clip so the point is in line with edge, forge until point rises, draw whole thing or just spine portion out as needed.



have fun,
kc

I hammer for a while, then file, hammer, file...then beat it to submision!!...and then file that out....
and then do what Kevin and James say...except I don't have a grinder.......

jonathan creason said:

One problem I have when forging is drawing out the tip of the blade into a point. I try to get the point established early and draw out some taper, but I still tend to end up fairly blunt and rounded when I get to the final product. Any pointers you guys have for making a knife pointy. I want to work on a couple of capers and a pig sticker next.

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Jonathan, Can I ask you how long you've been hand forging? The only way I have been able to teach myself how to forge is by just keeping at it. Once you have the point established you still need to go back and work on the point as your blade forging progresses. Don't try and forge the blade all at once. Try bringing the whole blade up equally in steps.

Here's a little blade I forged Saturday using Godzilla to get the tang started. Hand held hammers after that. I started out with a 3" piece of high carbon steel buggy wheel. Here's 3 photos of the progression of the blade.

Thanks everyone!

Raymond, I've been forging right at a year now. I know that's a big part of my troubles, just not enough time with a hammer in my hand to learn much yet.

jonathan creason said:

Thanks everyone!

Raymond, I've been forging right at a year now. I know that's a big part of my troubles, just not enough time with a hammer in my hand to learn much yet.

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It was close to 3 years after I got into the knives that the forgings started to get better. The first time I tried forging a blade I'd told myself there is no way I'll learn it. It will come but it does take time to learn.

Another thing I like to do is keep several projects going. Lay one down and look at it for a while as you work on others.
I have a drawer under my table in the house full of unfinished ones..Getting one out and piddling with it while watching TV gets the juices cooking for the next time the fire is hot.....