Thread: Ran the forge this afternoon

A few weeks ago I decided to try to make a knife from an old file. The end result wasn't the prettiest of knives, but it definitely got sharp. So sharp, in fact, that I cut myself with it and had to get three stitches in the pad of my left thumb. That was just a trial run so that I could see if I could get the heat treatment done with a home-built forge. This afternoon I started working on another file knife, and I'm shooting for a far more refined result this time. After heating it in the forge, I buried it in some wood ash. I'll start grinding on it in the morning, and I'll post more pics once it's roughed in.

This is a pic of the file that I'm starting with. I did some grinding on it before putting it into the fire.


And here's two pics of my home-build forge while the charcoal was heating up