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How to Forge Steel for Making a Knife

Forging steel involves heating it to the point where it becomes malleable for shaping. This is especially important when forging knives, as the resultant steel must be very hard, but must be softened to form it to the desired shape. By alternating the application of hot and cold, you can change the malleability of steel, enabling you to shape it while soft, and harden it when finished, resulting in a hand-made knife that will keep an edge for years to come.

Things You'll Need

Old metal file
Forge
Tongs
Used motor oil
Grinding stone or angle grinder
Clamp
Fine grit file

Instructions

- 1
  Make a small campfire. Once it is burning well, throw the old file directly into the coals and allow it to become orange to red hot. Let the fire burn out completely without extinguishing the fire. The heating of steel, followed by slow cooling, helps soften the hard steel of files, which will help you when it comes to shaping the steel.
- 2
  Turn on your grinding stone and shape the cooled, softened metal file into the shape you wish your knife to be. While the metal is soft, it is best to remove and shape as much of the file as possible, including grinding down a rough edge on the blade. If you wish to later attach a wooden handle, you may also want to drill holes through the tang of the blade to attach securing pins.
- 3
  Ignite your forge, be it coke, coal or gas, and place the now-shaped file into it and allow it to heat to a red to yellow hue. Once this color has developed, remove the blade from the forge using a pair of tongs.
- 4
  Plunge the red-to-yellow hot knife into a bucket containing used motor oil, tip first, to cool it quickly. Fast-cooling hot metal helps harden the steel. Repeating this step can harden the steel further, but will also make it more brittle; experimenting with this process will allow you to determine the desired hardness.
- 5
  Clamp the knife to a fixed surface and hone the edge of the blade using a fine-grit file, lightly filing the blade in a circular motion to develop the desired amount of edge desired.
- 6
  Add a handle to the blade as you like, or wrap with a thin rope to provide grip when handling the knife.

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