blade bending while forging and general process question..

[farmrbrnboy]

When forging out the bevel/belly of bigger blades, WIP around 11", the distal end keeps bending up. I tried forging the blade with the opposite bend, but the distal end keeps bending up and I had to forge it back to straight after each heat with the belly/bevel and then address and twisting of the edge. Should I not have even worried about forging the blade with the opposite bend initially and just straighten as I go? My order of forging goes like this, hot cut bar to length, forge rough handle, forge down top of spine towards tip, draw both ends out, forge edge working from spine down to the edge, one side, flip and then the other side, work my way down to the tip, edge thicker than a nickle, dress up the edge to around dime-nickle thickness. BTW, I am using 1/4" x 1 1/2" 5160

Here is my first attempt at a zombie cutter, my 3rd blade forged, full convex grind. It's not cleaned up after HT, waiting on new belts

 

[Josh Dabney]

The tip of the blade curving upwards when forging in the bevels is a natural occurance and normal. Bladesmiths handle this in two ways generally. Some "preform" their blade before forging the bevels so as the tip rises it comes back up to where they want it to be. Others will straighten as they go.

I'm a straighten as I go guy but a good technique for the straightening helps to keep from mangling up the edge or spine.

To bring the tip back down I lay the blade edge down on the anvil and use a "thwacker" to hit the spine. A thwacker is whatever you've got to use as a hardwood hammer. Some have actual wooden mallets, some use baseball bats, and others a short section of a limb. Mine is a roughly 18" piece of an oak 2x4. The wood will move the steel without damaging the spine. The edge may get a little squirrly on ya but just forge it back straight.

Your forging process sounds good to me. I typically forge the blade first then the handle or tang but this is a "whatever works for ya" thing.

Good looking Zombie Chopper you've got there !

-Josh

 

[farmrbrnboy]

I'll go to the pawn shop and look for a cheap baseball bat to use as a thwacker. Update: the zombie chopper passed the edge test, rolled the whole edge on a 1/4" brass rod with no chipping or edge deformation, chopped through a 2x4 and it was still able to shave on the area that did all the chopping. I traded my zombie chopper for a set of truck leaf springs. They are approx 3/4" x 3" wide and the whole set weights around 80-90 pounds. That should keep me out of trouble for a while