Any other blade Smiths?

anyone else on here dabble in bladesmithing or blacksmithing in general? I don’t believe I’ve found a thread on it so I figured I’d make one. I’m still a novice so any tips and tricks y’all can share is much appreciated

 

I am a hobby smith. I have made a few blades but mostly bottle openers, plant hooks and ornamental ironwork. You using coal or propane for a forge?

 

I use a single burner propane forge.

 

Yeah, the propane forge I built is only a single burner and I get enough heat out of it to make pattern welded steels and mokume billets. For bigger work I use coal because it burns hotter and for material over 1” thick I feel it gets a better “soaking” heat all the way through.

 

Yeah. I just use scrap metal that comes off machinery on the farm I’m not even sure of the carbon content of the metals I use it’s kind of hit or miss for me on my metal.

 

Any type of leaf spring is typically 5160 which is good quality steel for blades. Plow blades or cutting edges off a bucket (from a loader or excavator) are usually very high carbon and while hardenable, they can often develop cracks after forging and re-hardening due to the abuse that they see from use. The easiest way for a quick test of carbon content is to buzz it with a grinder or sanding belt. Fast, bright yellow erratic sparks are indicative of higher carbon. Or just heat it quick and quench it quick and do a file test.