Friday, September 10, 2010

Forging *withOUT an anvil.

Not a good idea, let me tell you. I was trying to get by using a 20lb dumbell. Shit. Don't. Work. Like, at all. There's a reason people suggest 150lb anvils, and it's not just because they're better quality. Having that weight there to ensure your surface doesn't jump under the hammer is a Godsend.
Earlier today I tried hammering the steel. I was hoping I could give it a bit of a downward tilt, to later grind it into a kukri or something like that. Well, it didn't work out. Like, at all. There's a reason they hammer it as a square bar first, and then shape it. All I managed to do was bend the steel a little bit the way I wanted, and too much in ways I didn't. I tried to straighten it out and salvage it, but... I don't know how well that's working.
Once I'd figured it wasn't getting any straighter, I decided I might as well start to grinding on it and make something of it anyway. Here's what I'd come up with so far:











Tomorrow or tonight I'll be able to quench it. I need more propane- I'm not sure the tank I have right now has enough left in it. But after that, she's ready for a handle and all that.

Later tonight I should also get about 4 videos up, showing some of the progress of the knife. What would be really cool is if I had something I could do a timelapse with. I don't have a camera capable of that, unfortunately.


Edit: Videos are up!









16 comments:

  1. Why do those pics look like a FPS game lol

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  2. whoa thats crazy and cool. and they do look like pic from an fps game

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  3. i am so gonna do this!


    poopies n' smoochies!

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  4. that knife is looking badass. lol, i was totally gonna say the same thing Viperman said. Those pics look like you're about to slice up some bad dudes in a game

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  5. Wow, watching your learning process is really fascinating...

    http://grim-and-random.blogspot.com/

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  6. Haha, the knife is REALLY shiny in those first pictures.

    I actually play a survivial game that lets you smith things, and when you don't have an anvil, they use a quarry. Not sure how practical that would be for this day and age (or where to find one exactly) but if it's around you, maybe see if that works?

    Of course I know shit about these things when it comes to real life, so maybe I'm giving you the worst advice and have no idea what I'm talking about. :X

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  7. Oh man, I'd love to do a katana some day. Unfortunately, right now I simply don't have the money to make a forge long enough to accomodate that. At best, I could do a tanto or possibly a wakizashi.

    That's actually a really good idea, Tal. I have heard some people use granite for an anvil. In fact, some places that make headstones have large slabs from broken headstones that are polished on one side- that's the perfect surface for an anvil. Thanks for the idea again, I'd forgotten that was even an option!

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  8. That's weird, im using chrome and it looks ok, have you tried clearing the cache?, what browser do you use?

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  9. Yooooooo
    http://kadams133.blogspot.com/

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  10. I thought it was from a game at first, lulz.

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  11. First I thought...hey where's the vids I' was lookin for? But then there they were. You look like you're pretty good at this. Do you sell them or is this a hobby?

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