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First knife

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Hawkdancer:
Good start!  I am not any sort of forging expert, but you've made the first step!  You may be able to rig a hair dryer as a steady draft source to get a more even temperature!  What are you going to haft it with?
Hawkdancer

DC:
Like Bubby said. A lot/most files now are just case hardened. A little grinding and you're back to mild steel. Or whatever they use to case harden.

KHalverson:

--- Quote from: Deerhunter21 on December 06, 2020, 09:19:09 pm ---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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you didnt lose the heat  treat filing it..
if it feels soft and a sharp file cuts it easily it never got hard.
the forge scale was hard but the blade didnt harden
--- End quote ---

Woody roberts:
After forging I grind, file into shape. Leaving the edge about 1/32 thick. They are soft as butter at this stage and easy to work. It doesn’t take a lot of heat to get them just past non magnetic.
I normalize 3 times to prevent warping. If it warps when I quench I just put it back in the fire and straighten it out.
When using mystery metal I always quench in oil first. If it don’t take I just heat it back up and quench in water.

I get a little scale from multiple trips to normalize but it’s not very deep. A good file would have to be drawn back after quenching. It will be too brittle otherwise.

That’s pretty good for a first one. You always want to save your first one to compare your 10th one to.
While this road certainly has a learning curve it’s a pretty interesting trip.

Russ:
whew! it is hard!!! it was just gripping onto the old teeth! im working on the handle right now. i am no good at carving out spaces so im gonna need to use some epoxy and sawdust or superglue and sawdust to fill in the gaps. i dont know if i can get a pin into this tang though. might just have to scratch the metal up and rely on the epoxy. ill get some pics up tomorrow but i got it shaving sharp but the secondary bevel is pretty thick so it wont cut deep. maybe my angles just too thick... i dont know.

i took the tip that i sawed off that had all the cracks and broke it... yup, grain looks hard. and i am glad i took the tip off. so many cracks!!!

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