KV Hand Forged

06/27/2021

not much blacksmithing lately. But I’ll get back to it soon.

05/17/2021

All done with this beauty. Hand forged O1 tool steel. 3.25” blade with 3.25” handle, made from Alumilite resin and chestnut burl wood. 🔪

05/16/2021

Step 1. Forge and heat treat the knife. Step 2. Use a belt grinder to improve the geometry and profile of the knife. Step 3. Hand sanding, this can be anywhere from 220 grit like this knife to a mirror finish which can be as high as 3000 grit. This step takes a while. Step 4. Dry fit the handle, and assemble. Step 5. Finish the knife.

05/16/2021

05/08/2021

The Tanto is coming along nicely. Through 100 grit hand sanding, planning to go up to 1000, not a mirror, but smooth.

05/07/2021

In under 1 hour, I hand forged a small knife.

Last night, I recorded the entire process of forging a small knife. I started with a small scrap of O1 tool steel, leftover from a prior project. It was a bit of a personal challenge, and a bit of fun, combined, and I think you may find it interesting.

In this video you will see me spend a lot of time cranking my little hand-operated forge. You'll also watch as I screw up my order of operations, beginning with the blade instead of the handle, and along the way you'll get to see all the times I drop my work, all the bumbling and fumbling, and sometimes I'll even talk to the camera about why I am doing what I'm doing.

By the end of it, I have forged the whole thing, beveled the edges, punched holes in the handle for pins, done one thermal cycle (usually I do three, and they'd be longer cycles) and quenched in oil. The video ends when the knife goes in the tempering oven, because then I had to wait an hour.

I'll finish this knife and put up some pictures. In the mean time, while I'm working on other, more important projects, please enjoy this hour long, uncut video.

If you have questions, please ask, I'll do my best to answer your questions.

05/02/2021

Video update!

04/28/2021

Finished up this beastly EDC recently. Hand forged from O1 tool steel with red vulcanized paper liners, 100 year old red oak handle scales and steel pins. 5.5” blade, 10” overall length. 1/8” thick at the spine, 1.5” wide. The sheath is made from Kydex, with a Tek-Lok for a belt clip. 🔪

04/22/2021

Major progress on this project. Check out that handle! Still not finished, but the fire-blackened red Oak with red liners on a blackened blade is a great look in my opinion and I just had to share it! 🔪

04/18/2021

03/28/2021

Thanks for the sweet handle material. This little side-project came out nicely. Hey I’ll give it to you next time I see you.

03/24/2021

Fun project turning a railroad spike into a mini-hatchet. Took about 45 min to get it consolidated. Another 45 minutes to hammer in the fullers and shape the handle. Thoughts? Comments?