Cudos to the Sumerians

Wow! I just got done making a knife (huge surprise, I know) but this time I did some honest to gally blacksmithing! I had read about railroad spike knives and have been hankering to do one for a long time. I had even acquired a railroad spike but alas, I had no anvil. Well one of my buddies hooked me up with an anvil on an extended borrow basis and I thought I would give it a whirl.


Well believe it or not Blacksmithing is hard! I know, I know those of you that know me are aware of the tremendous power I can muster in my little chicken arms and are probably thinking, "you mean hard for mere mortals, surely?" ....No hard for me too.


I do not know who it was who first thought to take a piece of hot metal and pound the crap out of it with a rock or something; but it is a good thing it was not me! I would have been like, "Hey Gilgamesh, you know that idea I had about pounding that hot metal with a big ass rock? Yah, it didn't work." Who knows, I could have set mankind back thousands of years!



Luckily when I started this project, I knew that it was possible in theory to shape hot metal with a big hammer. So I didn't let all my early doubts and draw backs phase me to bad. Still if any of you thought hot steel is kind of taffy like, well taffy like it aint! It is more like real tough hard supper, supper, supper hot stuff that you can flatten by just the tinniest of margins even with a humongous hammer and a mighty swing. Even this marginal malleability last only for about ten swings and then you have to throw it back on the forge again.


Well I think the old time forgers probably shaped there blades almost entirely with their hammers (suckers!) I have modern technology on my side luckily and as soon as I had a vaguely blade like shape (and when I say vaguely blade like, I mean it was longer that it was wide and thinner on one side then on the other) I pulled it of the anvil and angle grinded the crap out of it!!

Yessir, I bet that chunk of steel thought it was pretty tough until my buddy Ryobi taught him a thing or two. Well anyway here is the finished project for your review.



This shows it right out of a Temper cycle. The colors are an oxide that forms at heat. The colors can tell you how hot it got and approximately how hard it will be. This is "brownish purple" which means about 500 degrees and a rockwell hardness of about 60. They (various sources) say 62 is good for little knives but to brittle for big knives and for big ones you should shoot for 58. This knife being mediumish I shot for 60. Or rather it turned out about 60 and I was satisfied.



Here it is all cleaned up.

Here is a closer look at the handle.

And here it is with a better looking model. You would be surprised how expensive good looking models are for your merchandise. Luckily I am sleeping with his mother so I got him for some ice cream!