I got a start on this blade today, the leaf springs are from my 63 Ford f-100 that I lowered. I'm going to leave it alone until I get my grinder built but here it is so far. A few questions though.. I've noticed that some builders will heat treat at this stage (or maybe after first grind or so) , then finish grinding after HT dipping in water frequently. Thoughts on that? Also, after forging the blade I noticed an evvvver so slight curve to it, right where the blade and handle meet. Do I need to reheat in the forge and tap it out, or do it now, or.. ? It's minor but I'd like it straight. And does the blade look more scaley than it should? I really am just kind of winging this until I get it right. Thanks in advance!
Also, I should add, I want to leave the top half of the blade rough looking. So I used the rounded end of my ballpeen hammer to texture it a bit more
Lookin good so far! I can't help much with the forging part but for the grinding it is personal preference but depends a lot on the grinder you will be using. So far what I have found is that I prefer to get a rough bevel kind of what you have now and do the rest after heat treat. I found advantages and disadvantages both ways. Easier to remove material before heat treat but the more material left on the blade there is less chance of warpage and more likely to be able to grind out a slight bow after heat treat. That's my thought on it. See what others do ans say and you should be able to decide which way will work for you. Hope it helps.
Hey Mark, This steel should be in a annealed state if it came out of a forge and hasn't been quenched yet. It should straighten fairly easy. The scale looks normal far as I can tell. As far as grinding before or after HT, you're going to have experiment and find what works for you. I get my knives very close to finished before HT so there is very little to do after and no risk of overheating the blade. Thin blades are very easy to overheat. I've also had some fairly thick knives warp on me due to internal stresses, simply by material removal. Hope this helps you out.
