First go

[Kev]

Picked up a forge finally and thought I’d give it a go. The point of the test was to make a knife shaped object, and give forging a shot for the first time. It’s just mild steel so not a real knife, but it was fun giving something new a whirl. I only ground it down to 36 grit, just to see what the forge marks were like to get out. No point in finishing it further.

 

[Owl]

It sure looks better than the first KSO I ever forged.

 

[Kev]

It sure looks better than the first KSO I ever forged.

Thank you. I think previous experience with stock removal helped a ton. More than anything I just wanted to try a couple things, and see what it meant to the final product.
I think I’ll try a “real” knife tomorrow.

 

[tmr]

Kev.....ask for some scrap bearings at your local machine shop and cut a slice thru the outer race....straighten and then forge the flats equal and flat and then proceed to forge a profile...then your tapers.....the forming of the bearing race into a flat bar is great forging experience that will give you a lot of practice in forming hot steel and it is a free medium.....if it dont turn out nothing lost......if it does turn out you can make a great knife out of the 52100 steel......lots of fun and a lot more forge training than starting with flat bar......coil springs from the scrap yard is another source of practice steel

 

[Chris Railey]

Good job Kev. You have good instincts leaving some extra at the tip. Have you dressed your hammer yet? (If not, send it to me and I will dress it for you or look at a youtube video) It will help a ton with hammer marks, though it does not look like you had a lot of them. Get or make yourself, a flatter. That will also help greatly with straightening overall and losing hammer marks unless you have a press. Then, no flatter needed. You are well on your way. Before long you will be forging pinches and bevels. Also, get or make some box jaw tongs. They are not expensive and make forging spine and belly soooo much easier. $35 from Blacksmith’s Depot. I cannot make them for that.

 

[FD Kingery]

Congratulations your well on your way to going down the rabbit hole... a better anvil, can I get or build a forging press and let's not forget the collection of hammers and all the tools and jigs you can make. Welcome to the dark side. We have cookies!

 

[Kev]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. It’s fun to do new things, and this can only expand my knife making repertoire.
The forge came with a hunk of 1075, and I purchased some 1084, that I’m going to start with. It seemed like a good place to start.
With both shoulders having been replaced I can already feel myself going down the power tool rabbit hole. But then again I was already pretty deep anyhow.