How I forge a clip using CruforgeV

Raymond Richard

Forum Owner & Moderator
One of the things I wanted to get while at Blade West was some new steel. I had called Chuck Bybee about a week before the show to ask him if he was bringing some 52100 to the show. He said he was getting some new steel as we talked and some of it was the 52100. Fast forward to the show, I run into Chuck and he hands me this piece of CruforgeV and gives me a free sample. I think Chuck would have made a good fisherman cause he sure got me to bite. The piece Chuck had given me was 2" wide and just under 6" long and about 3 hairs thicker than 1/4". A couple days ago I had the forge running so I could forge out some wagon wheel and I decided to find out how this new steel forged. I starting out wanting to upset this piece of steel to around 1 1/4" but after the first couple heats I decided upsetting this piece of steel would be more work than what it was worth so I ended up splitting the bar and made two bars that were close to 1" wide X 6". Yesterday I got the tang forged and quit because it was just to hot in the shop.

I'd got an email from Peter asking to come over. He was wanting talk about temperlines and how I forged in a clip. Anyway the shop was the right temperature this morning and went ahead and finished most the forging on this blade and took some pictures along the way.

When I'm doing a long clip like I pretty much normally do I like to start with my biggest hammer. It was a 6 pound sledge when I first got it but I have since ground a fat straight peen on one end. I'll start forging in the clip 1 1/2" from the back of the blade using this fat straight peen.
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This picture shows the preform I just made with the hammer. While I'm working on a preform like this I'm also stretching the blade and forging in the distal taper at the sametime.
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This picture shows how distorted the blade gets after making a couple pases using a cross peen to forge in the bevels.
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I'm working on the bevel in this photo.
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This picture shows what the forged blade looks like now. The piece of steel in the photo is the other half of the piece of steel Chuck had given me.
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This steel is really stiff under the hammer. It needs to be forged a lot hotter than what I normally forge and it says not to forge under 1500 degrees. Under 1500 degrees it will not move so don't waste your time after the bright glow is gone. It forges really clean. Just remember to forge it real hot.
 
Hey Ray...

I love it when you post tutorials and pictures of you forging.. But, in the future,if you could please photoshop out those knees, it would really help with my concentration!!! :) :) :) :) :) :)
 
Hey Ray...

I love it when you post tutorials and pictures of you forging.. But, in the future,if you could please photoshop out those knees, it would really help with my concentration!!! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Those knee's will be covered up completely in a couple weeks. Right not you'll just have to learn to live with them. :D
 
They do kinda remind me of my grandmother when she used to wear her short moo moo dresses!!!!!Jaw Drop
 
Raymond, sure miss seeing your work over at the other place. Quick question... what tool do you use to un-curve the curved blade? Light taps with the hammer, or what?
 
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