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Hi y'all, I am really new. Like this is my first design and I haven't made it yet new. I accidentally bought 1095 instead of 1084 and I realize the issues there but Im going to work through it and then switch to 1084 from when this is used up. Any ways. Here is my knife design. The idea is sort of camp cooking knife as I want to make kitchen knives but not start at a full 10" chef knife. Please let me know what you think of the dimensions and what have you. Thanks in advance.

So I've upgraded my forge now I have a but more confidence however I pulled this design from a blacksmith on YouTube. In principle it works. My steel goes orange nicely however, the yellow part of my fire in as lower than the rim. Yet I see multiple blacksmiths use coal forges where they have a nice pile of fire on the top. Where am I going wrong? I'm having to Bury my steel int the coals to get it hot and so cannot heat the sections I need. (the attached forge does have coal in it now before someone says that is the problem) The second image is where I've had to expose the core to get any heat The last image is how it's meant to look but doesn't

Hey from the UK, first ever time lifting the hammer. I know it's the wrong steel but I just wanted to start basic. Went for a tanto shape and then hit the files. Work in progress hopefully better things to come

Hey from the UK. First ever attempt at this new hobby. Started a very basic coal forge with a hairdryer. I used rebar as my steel (I know its mild steel but I thought I'd start getting the basis first). Went for a tanto style and just got on the files. Work in progress

Hi, I'm new to bladesmithing, but I've got a fair amount of practice with wood. I just got the material for my first quench tube, an old Argon tank, and wondered if anyone had any ideas of what else I need to make it everything I need. I'll post pictures as I get things done. So fast I plan on cutting it open tomorrow and building a stand to hold and raise it. I'm not sure what I'll do for a living though. Also, if any of you live in DFW Texas the guy who supplied me with the tank said he'd love more business. Here's his most recent Craigslist, https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/bfs/d/irving-120-aluminium-and-steel/7046444072.html

Alright lads, I've been doing all the research my little brain can handle, and I figured asking here would be a good idea. So, I've been trying to understand what I can about safety regarding working with very toasty chunks of metal, and something that's popped up here and there is the issue of IR radiation and pale skinned people. It seems that it would be prudent to shield ones face from the heat/radiation of a warm forge, but I'm not sure what would offer sufficient protection short of a full welding mask. I'm not looking to cook my face and if any of you know any good solutions to protect my full face and eyes while still having awareness, I'd love to hear. My idea right now is perhaps a thick leather mask (like used in blizzards or skiing) combined with some decent IR goggles. Does this sound like it would work?

What do i need to know and have tool wise to start making sheaths. What are useful resources for beginners.

Hi there, So I've just started out knife making and I think I overheated the blade during heat treatment. It has left it with some pitting as you can see in the photos, I was wondering if I have damaged the steel significantly or whether it is still use able and just affects the finish? Thanks

Good afternoon, I am a beginner, no, I'm even worse than a beginner, I've never even put hammer to steel. (I've started putting hammer to aluminum though, so I'm not completely hopeless...I hope.) . Aaaaaanyway, I am DESPERATELY interested in learning how to smith (both blade and black) but at the same time, being a father of 6 and a husband, am a little gun shy to jumping in head first and dying. (Also, I'm still trying to bring my lovey wife around to the idea as a whole, so having some education under my belt would help) That said, I'm looking for beginner classes/an experienced smith who's willing to teach me the basics at the very least so I don't die first try. I live in Henderson but am willing to go anywhere in the Vegas valley to learn. I've found some classes in Tonopah, NV (highly recommended, but also 4 hours away), and there MIGHT be some starting in Vegas proper in the fall, but I'm ITCHING to start NOW! Thanks so much for your time/attention in this matter and your helpful suggestions. Really glad to have been accepted into this forum!

I've looking for effective amd productive excercises to improve my skills. Are there any?

Hello all, this is my first post around here. Ive been lurking for the last week or so and have been amazed by the quality of work that people are producing and also by the community spirit here. Ive been interested in woodwork for a while and have recently started making my own tools, here are a few examples, questions to follow! This is the first tool that I made, the blade is very simple and ground on both sides. I also love what happens to cherry when you finish it, this is sanded to 600 and treated with danish oil. This is my second attempt. I made the handle and lid from one piece of wood so that the grain matches up. I also used some leather to help hide the epoxy that I mounted the blade with. I ground this one like a chisel with just one bevel. This is my first tool with a specific job in mind. I have been doing inlay work recently and find it hard to clean out the recesses into which the inlay will fit. This tool cuts flat while the handle stands proud of your work. Thanks for taking the time to look at these! If you want any more photos or info check my blog. My current metal work set up is *very* buget! I am using O1 steel which im heating with a propane/butane mix torch. I have zero control over the temperature, im quenching when the whole blade is glowing a bright red/yellow color and im quenching with vegetable oil at ambient temperature. Im tempering at gas mark 2 (not going to pretend I know how hot my oven is, but hopefully 100-200C. From what I understand O1 steel needs to be soaked above the critical temperature for ~30mins to harden properly. How much performance am I losing from my steel by not soaking, and are there any steels that dont need to soak at critical temperature? Whats wrong with vegetable oil? Is it OK to use O1 for chisels with a thinner shaft, im worried that hardening up the shaft could make the tool more brittle and ideally I'd just harden the first few mm. Thanks to anyone that can help!

Hello, I am very new to knifemaking and bladesmithing and I am confused about hammering techniques and more specifically which side of the hammer to use for what. My hammer that I use is a 2lb engineer's hammer found at harbor freight that I modified into a rounding hammer on one side. I don't know if I made the "round" part well. I just ground off the edges until the face of one side of the hammer was dome-shaped. My understanding is that the rounding hammer is used to upset the metal in order to move it around quickly. This is because the force of the impact is concentrated into a smaller area when using a round hammer rather than a flat-faced hammer. So from this, I believe it wound be best to use the rounding hammer when forming the tang of the blade and forming the rough shape. Bevels are where I become confused. I'm not sure if I should use the rounding hammer or the flat side. Does anyone have a list of when/where to use the round and flat side of the hammer? Or is there another thread I can read?

So as a beginner with a very very cheap workshop, I don't really have the tools to make hidden tangs yet, as I don't have money or space for a drill press yet. Because of this I'm stuck to scales, which means I have to shape my tangs into what the handle will eventually look like. My issue is that my steel I use is thick and when I finish my blade and start my tang, the area for my tang is usually heavier, making the blade a bad balance. So I'm basically stuck with drawing out my tang to eventually have a flatter material. When I draw out my tang, how do I make sure that the metal for the tang stays through the midpoint of the knife so that when I eventually flatten the tang, part of it doesn't protrude either above or below the blade? I know this seems like kind of a stupid and obvious question, but it was an issue with one knife I made and I want to make sure I don't make this mistake again!

Hello, so I'm a beginner bladesmith, like few weeks a beginner and although there are a ton of helpful videos online to get me and my less than $500 shop in a spare space started, I still have some questions I can't seem to find answers for. One big issue I have is forging the tip. I know how to forge the shape but since when you "fold" the steel at the ends in and basically compress the metal, the spine at the tip, and even the blade, are much thicker and the rest of my metal. Obviously this makes sense but are there any ways to flatten that area out without making the tip wider or without just grinding it all away?

Hello, Recently, I have been trying to make my own tanto-style knife in the traditional form. Yesterday, I cut out the basic shape of the blade from 12" 1095 steel that is 1/4" thick. Then I refined the blank using an angle grinder and a 12" bastard file. Next, I marked my center line on the edge of the blank and proceeded to my rookie 4"x36" belt grinder. I started by grinding down to just above the thickness of the edge I want and then pulling that grind angle back until the bevel would touch the spine. At least, that was my plan when I ran out of grinder belts. Not wanting to give up, I headed over to my workbench and began to work with the 12" file. Man that is tiring work! Today, I finished (or at least I think) filing the bevels down to almost proper hira zukuri geometry. I also filed the spine of the blade to the pointed geometry it has. Some questions still remain though. How do I make sure that the convex geometry (the niku I think it's called) I filed is the same on both sides? Also, do you have any tips for the heat treat? I plan on doing a hamon (my first :D) and quenching the steel in some warm/hot canola oil. I know you experts might cringe at my rookie work, but I strongly support any criticism. If this turns out to be a failure it will most certainly be a learning experience. Thanks!

I quenched my first blade today. Sadly it picked up a very slight warp and, worse, I think it cracked. I heard a couple of "tiks" when I stuck it in the oil, and there appears to be a thin line about an inch long next to the spine. I've got it in the oven tempering now. I believe the problem was the blade was simply too thin. In any event, I plan to finish the blade regardless, as it will be a good learning experience. I hope to have better luck with my next blade. It's damascus that I made and much thicker than the first one. Here's the blade after quench:

I'm planning my first forge and I have a couple of burner questions. In a 2 burner forge, if I only run 1 burner for a small project will I have issues with heat coming up the dormant burner and causing damage? My other question is about the burners. I've noticed the biggest difference in burner design is the tube. I've seen all shapes, long, fat, skinny, vertical, horizontal, and ones that start vertical and bend to horizontal. What is best for a beginner?

Hi! I am planning to forge my first sword soon. I have never tried it before, and i have some questions about a good steel composition. We are going to make our own steel from pig iron, and i was wondering if anybody had a good recommendation for a beginner steel composition? I have read that 5160 steel is often being used. Will a 0.6% C be a good starting point, or are there any pitfalls i should worry about? And is the manganese and chrome that necessary, since its main objective is to make the steel stainless?

So im very green and new to the bladesmithing community. Im currently teaching myself with the aides of " The Complete Bladesmith" by Jim Hrisoulas (very helpful), this EXCELLENT FORUM, youtube (of course) and by trial and error. I wanted to just share a few items that I've forged. I haven't completely finished any pieces yet as I have been practicing forging blades. Ive done some grinding and filing and am now starting to focus on that as well as the heat treating process. So I've been trying to learn in stages (not sure if thats the best way to do it or not so I welcome the correction if thats the case). These two are the same knife. After a few throwaway railroad spike attempts i got this and then grinded the heck out of it with tiny harbor freight belt sander. Another railroad spike knife I was messing around with a piece of rebar and forged this I got very ambitious and tried my hand at damascus just to see if i could do it. With the help of a couple of volunteer strikers (poor man's power hammer) I came out with a somewhat successful piece and learned a lot. So I forged a mjolnir pendant. This is a knife I'm working on at the moment and filing alot. I will make my first attempts at heat treating with this blade. These are my most recent endeavors. Once again I may be getting ahead of myself but I started working on a short sword as well. Im learning slowly and my challenges right now are grinding/filing with uniformity ( which will be my biggest challenge with that short sword and welcome any tips that would be given). I also need to learn some techniques on grinding/filing with uniformity. Also if there are any tips on heat treating and also what sort of thickness I need to forge to. There's no way to adjust the environment of the forge I have that I can figure (I purchased a ck forge. if that rings any bells and know of any modifications that would be most helpful) and Im sure it shows in my work with all of the pitting of scale in the blades. I've been searching the forum as best I can, when I can but if there can be any quick tips given I'd greatly appreciate it. Ive only been at it for a few months so I need all of the help I can muster. I'm sure this will not be the last time I ask questions. Thank you very much! Also this is my setup...

Hey Y'all, Just finished my knife. I'm very pleased with the handle color. This was posted earlier as "saex-like knife" in design and critique, but now I'm done. I've used it to cut meat in the kitchen and I'm very pleased with the edge. The handle is maple(maybe, its storm damage wood) stained with prussian blue dye. I sealed that dye in with polyurenthane. It took a long time for it to dry because of the humidity, but it's finally done. Just needs a sheath, but that's for another day.

Hey Y'all, I just quenched this one an hour and a half to two hours ago! It has been oil quenched and I'm pleased with it. There is a little warpage on the spine. I heard that one could straighten a blade with a vice and pliers. Is this true? should I do this before or after tempering? Anyway I hope to clean it up more and put on its scales and let y'all see them. They'll be blue! I'm so freaking excited! Cheers!