Introduction: Really Simple Hand Forged Knife

A very simple knife forged on the Folding Chair Charcoal Forge we published earlier. Apologies for the relative dearth of images, did not manage to photograph every step, however should give an idea of what we did. The knife works very well, as the video of the tomato shows.

Step 1: Choose Your Metal and Fire Up Your Forge

We chose a round piece of steel for the knife and to test our forge. Following roughly half an hour of heating and hammering, we had a good shape and refined it further on a bench grinder.

Step 2: Refine and Make the Handle

We refined the knife further using an angle grinder with fine-grade sanding paper (around 80 and then 120). The handle was made using two piece of half doweling, with the inset cut to shape using a Dremel sanding tool.

Step 3: Drill, Glue and Rivet the Hand

Two holes were drilled into the inset, and two short pieces of brass cut for rivets. The pieces were assembled, glued and the rivets hammered to hold the form. It was then allowed to set for a couple of hours.

Step 4: Hand Forged Knife Versus Chilled Tomato

Trying out the knife on an unsuspecting tomato

Burn It! Contest

Participated in the
Burn It! Contest