Harley is the instructor and owner of it. He has two kilns, one is coal open kiln, 2400 F degree, and propane gas kiln covered by ceramics, 1700 F degree.Coal kiln is so hot that steel may melt down, so we used gas kiln.
In my case, I chose large train rail nail (15 cm or 6inch) as the knife material. I made the big steel nail heat up till the color turning to shining yellow, then start hammering 30 seconds, then repeat heat up and hammering.
Photo of final shape is there. Left end is the material, large steel nail. Center is the forging made knife by me. Far right is Cooking Knife for dimension comparison. I did both Quenching into the oil and Annealing.
Furnished knife is excellent than I expected.
At the forging process, once I twisted the nail head 360 degree. So sophisticated handle shape came from this twist while nail head temperature was in 1700 F degree, with using vice and jig.
Knife producing consist of 1)one hour forging, 2)half hour forging finish incl. twisting,quenching,annealing and 3)lots of grindings, reshaping, dirt removing and polishing.
Grinding burst out 3 feet sparks most of process. I needed to be careful to grind the blade portion, but most of them, not so much sensitive works.
The material nail was full of red rust on my right hand, and the forged & ground knife of mine on my left hand is shining in silver color. This is eye opening experience.
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