How to Forge a Throwing Knife

Step 5 Grind it to Shape

There will awlaws be a need to grind a forged object. Lets face it, forging's hardly the most precise of procedures, anyway.
If you want to do it by hand, use a vice and a file. Have fun in your toils, I wish you well! Personally, I believe that tools are made to be used. That's why i'm using my bench grinder to take away all the excess steel. This beast bites deep and does it quickly. One moment's lack of attention could have you looking on the floor for your fingers or, even worse, could completely mess up your knife! porceed with caution. Once it's been ground to shape, you should set about removing the grind lines. THIS is where I recommend a file, and a fine one at that. Again, proceed carefully. After the file, I moved on to a coarse waterstone.
I know for a fact that the best way to proceed is to get most, if not all of the necessary shaping and grinding out of the way before heat-treating the steel, I mean, why make extra work for yourself?

Comments

[thoraxe]

make sure you dont hold the blade too long on the grinder or it will heat the steel and damage it. Make sure to dip it in water

[Austringer]

Since he's heat treating it later, it's still soft and overheating it here won't damage the final product. Over heating the final product will send you back to step six. Most steels when normalized (allowed to air cool) are reasonably soft. Some need to be annealed, which is usually done by burying the hot metal (dull red maybe) in sand or vermiculite to cool slowly enough to stay soft. A few will air harden so that once made hot you pretty much have to have a computer controlled oven to anneal them and one you're done forging them, they're hard. If you are working with the right alloy and have an electric oven you can skip the watching the colors run part of the tempering process by putting your hardened piece of steel in the electric oven, setting it to self clean, and making yourself a sandwich.

[stoobers]

I think thoraxe is right. I was taught by a machinist that when grinding a carbon or high speed steel, you can't reclaim the overheated areas. You had to grind them clean off. Some types are hardening are a one way trip! Once it turns purple, its gone for good.

[thoraxe]

oh, i didnt read dat part