The second important thing is knowing the correct hardening temperature. For me it is very important to find AC1. This is the point where high carbon steel changes from a perlite structure to a fully autensitic grain structure. The bonus of hardening at the AC1 temperature is that the steel is at the smallest grain size, which will then enable the cutting edge to be the sharpest you can get. AC2 is the point where the steel looses its magnetic capability - you judge this by touching the blade with a magnet whilst heating: the moment the magnet does not stick you have reached AC2. The problem with AC2 is that the grain size is larger than at AC1. You still have a fully autensitic blade, but through my own cutting tests I find AC1 is the ultimate temperature to quench at for edge-holding.

All my blades are hammered from round bar. I have a large stock of 45mm and 35mm round 1:1545. I like working from round bar as I feel the added time spent hammering the round bar to a flat hexagonal structure helps in the grain reduction and eradication of inclusions in a milled bar.

This is where I differ from most of the smiths I met. Most of them use a prerolled section of 6mm thick by 45-50mm wide. The knife is cut from this bar to make how ever long a blade they want to make. A good deal of the smiths I watched and talked to start making the blade from the point to the tang. This is a much easier method to forge a blade as you can see the blade appear from point to tang and all you have to do is cut it of when you get to the right size. This is the normal way most smiths make their blades. I DO NOT DO IT THIS WAY! I take a piece of round bar and hammer it to a flat piece of about 6mm by 50mm. As you can see below.

The heat sources I use whilst making the blade can vary. I use charcoal, standard coal and a propane gas forge at different times in the forging process. You can use charcoal and I do, but only occassionaly these days as it costs a lot of money and you use a lot of it in the forging process.

Next I hammer in a notch at one end this will become the hidden tang as well as facilitating an area for me to grip with my tongs whilst forging as you can see on this next picture.

Depending on the different processes involved in hammering the blade I use a combination of three hammers. These are the three main forging hammers I use in big, medium and small.

As you can see they are totally different to nearly all the hammers used by bladesmiths. I find the standard blacksmith hammers are far too heavy and cumbersome for precision angle allignment on blades. I got the idea for using this kind of hammer from a archeological escavation.The hammers they were using in the Dark Ages were the same shape as the ones I now use as you can see on the picture of these hammerheads from a funeral site of a 10th century Norwegian bladesmith.

I believe this allows me to set an angle more precisely and work in smaller areas more accurately than with a normal blacksmith's hammer.

There are two more hammers I use. One with a rounded head for hammering the ricasso area and the other with a slightly rounded head for final planishing of the blade. The other one is a raw hide mallet, I use for flattening and rounding the blade when I am hammering the cutting edge.

The next step in the process is to take the flat notched bar and hammer it so it is 6mm at the ricasso and 4mm at the point. I also taper the blade from the side from the ricasso to the point, but only a small amount as you can see on these two pictures.

When this is done I hammer the point into the blade, always working the steel from the tang to the point.

Next step is to hammer in the ricasso with the round headed hammer. The round headed hammer allows you to hammer out and establishing the cutting edge. See photos below.

I used to bend the blade with a mallet into a cutting edge, but over the years I have become proficient enough to hammer the cutting edge into a blade without distorting the shape too badly. I use the raw hide mallet for hammering the blade flat and straight.

The next step is to carry on along the cutting edge towards the point. It is very important to remember at this time the right color and temperature to hammer the edge at. Because the edge is getting thinner the steel will heat much quicker in this area so you have to be very aware of your temperature. Do not overheat the edge of your blade! I do my best to work at medium/dark cherry (720-770ºC) and never in the orange range (830-870ºC).

Then I start to establish the final shape of the blade. By now the shape of the blade is becoming much more apparent. I am careful now to start planishing out any slight dents in the blade. I make sure there is a good taper from ricasso to point and the blade looks in general right in proportion and balance. The final stages are hammering the tang from the notch, which I used to hold the blade whilst forging. Finally I straighten the blade and make sure the cutting edge runs straight down the center of the blade and there is enough steel to allow for grinding. Then I check by line of sight for any warps or kinks and hammer them out with the raw hide mallet. When you have done this you will end up with a blade like the one shown on the picture.

The next step is a very important stage in any forging process. You MUST de-stress the blade. During the forging you have heated different parts of the blades to different temperatures. This puts a large amount of stress in the blade. What I do now is heat the blade very carefully (from point to tang) to the same color, i.e. dark cherry. This is around 750°C. Then I allow the blade to cool slowly on a fire brick near the heat source. When you are able to touch it, you repeat the process again, checking to see if the blade has warped in any way and if necessary correct this with a light tap from the raw hide mallet. Allow to cool again to warm touch. The final stage is to heat some thick pieces of steel in the gas forge (15mm thick, by 60mm wide, by 35cm long). I heat three of these up to a orange color. I place them on a piece of white insulation blanket and allow to cool back to light cherry. Then I heat the blade a final time to dull cherry (750-770°C), place the blade on one of the pieces of steel on the fire blanket, place another piece on top of it (as a sandwich) and then cover it all over and seal it from the air. See pictures below. This will allow the blade to cool very slowly in 17 to 18 hours so that when you open the blanket the blade is still warm to the touch. This process is called annealing, i.e. heat the blade for 5 minutes to 770°C, allow to cool slowly at 37,7°C per hour to 600°C. The slower the steel does this, the better annealed the blade is and the less problems you have when you quench the blade for final hardening.