my first blade at my home forge | Show and Tell for the Bladesmiths | Forum

Lee Cordochorea said

Two thoughts...

First: Use the peen on your hammer and or the rounded edge on your anvil to control which way the metal moves. Think about how a rolling pin would change the shape of dough. Then think of anvil edges and hammer edges as rolling pins.

 

Second: A nice wide knife can indeed be forged from a round bar or by forging a square bar on the diamond. Some few folk find it easier than working with flat stock.  

Yes...an anvil is one of those other things I need to purchase.  Right now i have a piece of railroad track until I can afford a good 100lb anvil.

I did notice the "rolling pin" affect you were talking about tho.  🙂

I still need to get a vice, belt grinder, anvil, quench tank...and to build a shop to put it all in.

Oh...newbie question...what do you use for the oil in the quench tank?  Does it need to be heated or can I just put it into a wide PVC pipe that's sealed at the bottom?

Lee Cordochorea said
For railroad spikes, you can use pretty much anything from vegetable shorting to crank-case oil to expensive high-tech stuff. It's just a railroad spike. (You might even experiment with tap water on an RR spike at some point.)  

Ordered 5 gallons of canola oil...that should do the trick.  🙂

Thanks for your input Lee!

billyO said
Hi Toffer, and welcome.  A few things:

First, most RR spikes are not necessarily high enough carbon to harden when quenched.  If it is, warming the oil to about 130 helps the quench. 

Regarding using the PVC pipe, even if you don't heat the oil, think about how hot the blade is when you are quenching, very easy to melt the side of a plastic container.

Also, a good way to figure out how to move the steel is to play around with clay.

Have fun.  

Thanks for the advice billyO.  🙂