Knife And Cleaver Forging Guide

Used in

• Chapter 3 The Knife

The rows that check it

• 12 confirmed
• 4 amended
• 1 dropped
• 5 marked for safety

• I9 dropped Safety An undamped anvil takes the smith's hearing within a few years; silicone bed, chain, earmuffs regardless
• K1 confirmed Safety The oil quench flares at the surface every time; the can is steel, tall, 5 litres or more, lidded, no water near; leave the blade in, lid on, never water on burning oil
• K4 confirmed Safety Dust from natural stones and linings is respirable silica; wet work only
• K5 amended Safety Carbon monoxide at the forge and zinc fume from galvanised steel apply here as before; zinc vaporises above 400 °C
• K6 confirmed Safety Never quench a file, spring or blade in water
• K10 confirmed Stone edges ground for thirty thousand years; the motion is the same
• K14 confirmed The change at 730 to 760 °C for plain carbon steel; the shadow of decalescence; the magnet lets go at about the same heat
• K15 confirmed Quench must pass 600 to 550 °C in about a second (the nose); martensite skates a file; only about 0.6 % carbon in solution before lath gives way to plate; hotter is not better
• K16 confirmed Temper 200 °C two hours twice; light straw 200 °C at 60 HRC; bronze 240 a warning; 230 to 315 the brittle trough (TME); 345 and up grey-blue spring temper for axes, hoes and forks
• K17 confirmed 1084 is 0.80 to 0.84 % carbon, hardens in fast oil from a plain forge with no soak; leaf spring 5160 about 0.6 % C with chromium, deeper hardening, slow oil, cracks in fast; file …
• K21 confirmed Bevel forging curves the blade backward; edge left 1 mm ("a coin") before the quench or it ripples (bacon edge); pre-curve the tip upward in the last heat
• K23 confirmed Harden 1084 at 800 to 815 °C, 5160 at 830; point first; fast quench oil for 1084, canola at 50 °C for 5160; move up and down, never sideways; vapour jacket
• K24 amended Scale and decarburisation: a thin edge can lose its carbon a millimetre deep; muffle pipe with charcoal inside; or grind the skin off after the quench
• K25 amended CATRA at Sheffield: a cheap stainless at a thin angle outcut two famous alloys ground thicker; "geometry washes out the chemistry"; a toothy edge bites fibrous material better
• K26 confirmed Chef's knife: spine 2 to 2.5 mm, 1.0 to 1.1 mm at 10 mm, 0.1 to 0.2 mm behind the edge, 15 to 17° a side, slight convex with a shoulder 15 mm up; cleaver: 3.0 to 4.7 mm spine, 0.5 …
• K27 confirmed Brandenburg sandstone Findlinge as 600 to 1,000 grit whetstones; water balance; chef's knife on to 3,000 grit, cleaver left toothy
• K41 amended Rixdorfer Schmiede on the Richardplatz working since the 1600s and teaching; a smithy in a Pankow courtyard; a self-run metal shop in Treptow; a hook by evening, a knife by the …

In the Index

Iron and steel Tools and their making The kitchen and its dishes Berlin and Brandenburg