A Night at the Forge

Dad came up for another blackmithing class last night. It went very well! I decided to forgo the finishing of my tongs (as I can do these later) and started working on the classic beginners blacksmithing project of forging a railroad spike into a knife.

I got the basic forging done, hardened and tempered the blade and now have reached this stage...


(a before and after shot)

Now I can clean up the blade, do the final shaping and sharpen it to as close to a razor as I can! It's not jaw dropping great, but I'm pretty pleased with it for a first one! I'll be doing many more of these I think, as I had a ball doing this one!

Dad, in the meantime, completed his first tomahawk! He forge welded a piece of high carbon steel between a piece of mild steel that he had curved around, then tapered out the blade. Here it is just before we hardened it...



He's going to temper it next week, and our instructor had a piece of hickory that will make a fantastic handle. All in all a pretty impressive work! I think I may try one next week!

This blacksmithing thing is quite fun!

More later