Scandinavian blade/ san mai Tutorial

[Trond]

I thought i might contribute to start this thread by showing how i make my three layer blades (excuse my english that is poor in teknical terms)

I start with a pice of soft Iron, heat it red, and wrapp it around a pice of carbon steel ca 1% carbon.
Heat the package white, and hammer it gently together so there is no air between the sandwich
then i put on Borax and heat it until there is one or two sparks ,hammer it firmly, not hard together, and the package is welded.
then i make it thinner to the point and to the edge.
When i am satisfied with the cone on the blade i cut the tip 45 degrees and shape the front of the blade.
I cut the package so that it is aprox. 10 cm long, and hammer out the tang this is also cone.
In the end i heat it white, brushes it with a steel brush, and hammer the entire blade with swift knocks.
Now the forging part is done.
I sand the blade on a belt grinder to the shape that i want, and do the bevel almoust finnished but saves 1 mm.
Now i heat treat the blade by heating it until it is cherry red, i use a magnet to decide when the temperature is right ( when the iron is not magnetic it is ready)
Then i cool the blade in hot sunflower oil (60 degrees)
when the blade is hardened, i heat it again to 260 degrees, the steel is then brass colloured.
Now I either sand it on the sides, or use a steel brush on a drill to take of the Glødeskall? I am not sure about the english word for that, but i brush of the black stuff on the sides of the blade.
Finnish the bevel on belt machine with 120 paper and pollish the edge.
The blade is now razor sharp and ready for use
Trond

[Kevin]

You make it sound so easy

Couple of questions...

What size iron and steel do you start with (thickness?).

Do you 'normalise' the steel at any point?

Do you do a full harden (quench) or just the edge?

Any pictures to show?

I think Glodeskall is 'scale' in English.

Kevin.

[Martyn]

Excellent stuff Trond dont suppose you have any photo's of the process?

[MrFlay]

Yes thanks very much for that, really interesting stuff.

Matt

[Kevin]

Any tips on how you start the fold on the iron?

Kevin.

[Otto]

I use an angel iron. They already come with the L shape and makes it easy to fold it.

[Trond]

You make it sound so easy

Couple of questions...

What size iron and steel do you start with (thickness?).

Do you 'normalise' the steel at any point?

Do you do a full harden (quench) or just the edge?

Any pictures to show?

I think Glodeskall is 'scale' in English.

Kevin.

I use 3 mm x 20mm steel.
If you have beene heating a lot and not hammered the steel hard, you have to do a normalising in the end of the forging prosess.
I do full harden, but only half the tang. (so it can be bent a litle when fitting it in to the handle)
As for the pictures, at this time i have only pictures of finnished blades, so you have to wait a few days, then i shall see if i can find time to take some pictures of the whole prosess.
Trond[IMG]

[Dave Barker]

Glødskalle, is forge scale trond.

I've seen steen make these blades with the air hammer. You guys are incredible to watch.

I've always wanted to make a knife completely. blade shaft and sheath, but have never found anyone who was willing to help for under 3000 norwegian. That is a lot of cash for one or two blades and I'd rather buy 10-20 for that ( or a few blinding damasc blades)... Maybe next time I'm near lindesnes....... Won't be for ages though.

[Otto]

You should try to contact your local knife club. I belong to Gjesdal Kniv oig Ljå Lag and they/we have a complete forg with power hammer, power cutter. We also have some old people :-) who KNOWS how to forge. They don't use a single extra hammer blow more than is nessecery. It looks so easy when they do it's amazing!
If you can't find i knife club try : http://www.norskkniv.no/main.htm

[Trond]

You know David, you are not payin 3000 for one or two blades, you are paying for the know-how, so that you can go home and make a small forge and start to make your own blades in hundreds,
so I think 3000 is not excpensive for that.
Also you have to consider that we are trying to make a living out of this, so if we are going to be theachers for future competitors, at least we have to get payd for this :-)
I am not saying that you can not come and visit me in my forge, I am not even saying that you have to pay for making a few blades, i am just trying to explain the logic.
As the hitman said, I kill for money, but you are my friend, so i kill you for nothing. LOL
Maybe we could have a smikurs in england, where we have a few elever (dont know the word for that) and it would not be that excpensive for each one.
Trond
Trond

[keith_beef]

..snip..
Now I either sand it on the sides, or use a steel brush on a drill to take of the Glødeskall? I am not sure about the english word for that, but i brush of the black stuff on the sides of the blade.
..snip..
Trond

Trond, I think your English is quite good. Easily good enough for us all to understand (and a lot better than my Norwegian).

I think that what you call Glødeskall is what we would call "scale". At a guess, the exact word-for-word translation would be "glow-scale".


.

[Dave Barker]

What I really want is to make about 5 blades and 5 blades only. With my name on them to be given to my family.

Trond dude, I have no need to invest in a forge o get quality blades, that is why I have you and steen to hand!!

As for the knife club Otto. Nothing In Kristiansund I'm afraid.

I've looked.

[Trond]

Dave My friend, you are welcome to Lindesnes to make your fammily blades.
Thanks Keith!
Trond

[Dave Barker]

I will take you up o that at some point Trond.. It'd be best if i managed to came to Kristiansand for a week with the wife and kids and took a day away.... I can at least dream..


Me make all my own blades...... no thanks, I've got to good suppliers and manage to find others if need be..

[Kevin]

Me make all my own blades...... no thanks, I've got to good suppliers and manage to find others if need be..

That is what you think now.....BUT, believe me....you will be bitten by the bug,.....its a drug.......there is no way that you would not want to make more knives ........you will start dreaming of new ideas and keep wanting to improve.....Five knives will not be enough....... You will want to make your own forge.....people will be asking you to make 'just one off' knives for them........then you will start selling a few to help pay for your hobby......it goes on and NEVER stops :p

Remember these words

Kevin.