My First Forged Blade

murphda2

Super Moderator and KD Blade Show Boss
Well, I finally did it!!! I forged my very first blade while at Batson's Knife Symposium this weekend. Man, you guys that have been doing this forever make it look easy. I wish it were just 1/10th as easy as many of you make it look. My forearm was TIGHT after pounding on that steel.

It doesn't look pretty, but it does resemble a knife. With any luck, I'll finish this up and bring it with me to Blade. I have two weeks to work in the shop (if my training schedule doesn't get in the way), so I'll try to get busy on this tomorrow after work. Hopefully I can bring a little better shape to it with a little help from the grinder.

Here it is..........

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I was using a 4 lb and it took entirely too dang long (about an hour). I wore one glove on my left hand (to hold the steel) and ended up with two blisters on my right hand (one on thumb and one on outside bottom of the palm).

Appreciate the compliments guys. The only positive thing I can say about the blade right now is that it is pretty darn straight. I think it's pretty ugly right now, but I hope to make it a little bit better lookin.
 
Murph looks really nice, remember it is like an oyster. Looks ugly on the outside but when you crack it open it has something beautiful on the inside.
 
cool

looks like somebody got inspired this weekend. looks good bud, keep up the good work. it was a pleasure meeting you this weekend and maybe we"ll cross paths at the blade show. I don't know about you, but I thought this weekend was great.talk to ya soon, Danny
 
I think Murph is going to take over the game here soon:D

Lookin good, Dave. I will be getting your W? out this week.....And remember....Pics or it didnt happen!

Keep it up2thumbs

Chris
 
Thank you, Wayne. I was a little disappointed in it to begin with. I laid in bed awake for the biggest part of the night last night with my brain in overdrive thinking of everything I had seen over the weekend and everyone I met. Unfortunately, there are very few names I remember (I hate having a bad memory) but there are faces I'll never forget.

Long story short, my brain has dumped all of the names but absorbed alot of the information and now I'm getting all kinds of design ideas for this blade. I think I have it worked out, but I have to put it on paper in order to fully visualize it. I'll be working on the blade design today as I have the time and try to get some sketches posted of my intent before the day is over. I've decided that I screwed up when forging it and should have forged it as a narrow tang. That's too easy though, I'm gonna cut it down to a narrow tang.

Here are a few of pics of it after I let it sit in some vinegar and cleaned off most of the scale.

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Yep, it cleaned up nicely. It's your knife so you can do anything you want with it,,,but,,,, I like the full tang, and if you forged the Integral finger guard like Joe Keesler show us.....
 
Sketch of Design

I think I have come up with a design for this piece. I did my first sketch and was real happy with it. After walking away from the sketch and coming back a little later, I decided there were issues with it and went back to the drawing board.

I now have sketch #2 and feel quite a bit better with it. Who knows, I may decide to start all over again after I look at this again later tonight or in the morning. But, for now......here we are. I've also included what I believe will be the handle material for this piece.

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That is going to be awesome Murph! That drawing looks sweet, wish I had some artistic skills for drawing.
 
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