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First knife

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Russ:
i made this knife out of a file. i finally got my forge up and running! its just charcoal briquettes but it got hot enough to burn and melt metal. yes.... i burned the metal. i also burned the tip of the knife but only a little. im gonna take the tip back to get rid of all of the cracks. I had to heat treat it 3 times to get a file skating across it. i dont remember any pings from the heat treat but i can barely file the metal down so i might need to get myself a long overdue belt sander and grinder. gonna make a hidden tang knife since the tang is so thin. all and all, i really enjoyed forging it and im proud of it since it was my first one!

Russ:
pics

slight warp in the tip but that will be removed when i remove the part of the tip with the cracks

KHalverson:
not bad for a 1st .
in time you will learn to judge where your fire is hottest,
ya can also stick a piece of black pipe or mild steel tubing in the fire and  stick the piece you are forging inside that to protect it.
mild steel will take more heat than high carbon and burns up at a higher temp.
DO NOT PUT ANYTHING GALVANIZED IN YOUR FORGE,
Its POISON.

bubby:
What Kevin said with one caveat, with any file or rasp always do a snap test on the tang before you even start. Just heat it to non magnetic and quench in warm oil, heat it up with a scrap piece of steel, after the quench put part of the tang in a vice and if it snapped off it got hard. You can also see the grain. If it just bends  heat it to non magnetic again and quench in warm water, if it won't snap off in a water quench it probably isn't a good choice for a cutting tool

Russ:
hmm. i think i lost the heat treat while filing it... i dont know... maybe heated it up too much while filing but honestly, if people can use a grinder and it stay hard its probably just that it wasnt great metal. ill probably just finish it, put an edge on it, and then just keep it as my first and move to the next. probably should have done what you said bubby. i was considering it while forging it but didnt.

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