Does any survivalist forge their own knives and tools? My background is in machining and i am looking into the realm of forging. Where to begin? Are there any books you suggest? The internet seems to be "too much" infomation and just like every other subjectc alot of contridicting infomation.
I have been making knives for years but am only now getting into the forging part. Like you I am a machinist and so have in the past made my knives by shaping metal mechanically from files, big saw blades or from bought blades that I finished and put handles on. My intent with my little forge is to make a few small knives from railroad spikes and maybe combination wrenches. I also want to make some adzes from old ball peen hammer heads, a few steel strikers and a couple of smaller honing steels. I picked up a small paint can propane forge that will run on propane. I also have the makings for a coal fired forge from the brake drum off a truck. My stuff will all have to be small because I have osteoarthritis and my shoulder won't stand for a lot of heavy beating.
Wow Texdanm, You got me to remembering...mentally running down ancient trails ...so to speak. Years ago I obtained a knife and a scraper made from olde thick hacksaw blades. While not works of art so to speak...they are very very functional and the blades make for a very hard metal......excellent knife blade material and also an excellent scraper which I keep in my tool box.....for just such scraping uses. This kind of hacksaw blade is difficult to find today....but were quite common in the olde days. Thanks for reminding me Tex. Watcherchris
I made a special butcher knife many years ago out of a great big power hacksaw blade. I made it specifically to split chickens. My church had a BBQ chicken sale twice a year and I would split a couple hundred chickens in half. This thing has a carbide edge and took me FOREVER to sharpen. The good news is that several thousand chickens later it is still razor sharp and never needs sharpening. It was really nice making knives at that machine shop. We had access to everything. furnaces, power hammers and a great surface grinder with a magnetic table that made smoothing out rasps and files easy after annealing them. One of the best little skinners that I ever made was made from a piece of a big Rex 95 cutoff tool. Good times! I made knives for all the bosses and so they pretty much let me make them anytime I wanted to.
I've forged a few knives. I mostly BUY custom forged knives and swords like the one on my avatar. It's a 1095 Carbon Steel claymore. 45 inches total. Made by Battling Blades. they're a really good company for the price. I got most of my info from watching Forged in Fire on the History channel.
Thats what has been sparking my fire..... i have always wanted to forge, now watching forged in fire really get me wanting to go for it
