.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Forging Class Yesterday (Part I )




This is one of the things I enjoy the most about survival and preparedness. Since it involves such a wide spectrum of skills and fields, there’s always something new and interesting to learn.
Visiting one of the local knife forums I found one of the top knife makers in the country offering a day class on knife making, so I signed up.

I made a little general purpose knife. (some people would call it bushcraft knife :-)  ) I have a few ideas for it and will post again once I finish it.
Me forging  
The knife I made Yesterday
The steel used is 5160, hammer forged and with differential tempering. The edge reaches 58-59 Rc hardness with the tempering we did and the spine stays a bit softer, which makes it more resistant to abuse.
Pretty happy with it, met some interesting people and learned a couple new stories to share.
Got to go now but I’ll post them later today. Have fun people, Go out and do stuff!

FerFAL

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is extremely cool. Nice knife!!

You could do a part time business making custom knives, I know folks doing that.

Steve

Bones said...

There's a handy book called "country wisdom and know-how" where they talk about using a chunk of railroad rail as an emergency anvil. Bet you could use a chunk of steel I beam, too. Not sure how you would cut it down to size, though.

Anonymous said...

regarding railroad steel:
locally, there's a scrap yard
where 'cut' rails cost $5 per
foot (11 lbs.). used anvils cost
around $2 per pound...the new ones
with good steel are $5 per pound.
railroad rails get you more for
your money.

Anonymous said...

Good for you, brother. Time well spent. "Doing" is what it's all about.

Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg