Australian Blade Ed 3 Dec 2017

After having forged and completed over 25,000 blades during my 30 year career, I have come to identify
four distinct purposes of cold forging: to flatten, to finish, to shape and to refine. These four goals must be
balanced with the real possibility of damaging the steel from over working it. I recommend that the
bladesmith cold forge one knife out of a batch of similar knives to the point of failure (cracking) to
discover where the threshold is for that particular steel type. The remaining blades can then be cold forged
just shy of the failure point for best results.
The most basic result of cold forging is that the thicker, or protruding areas, get hammered down to the
thinner, or lower portions of the blade which results in the flattening of the blade. Systematic hammering
over the whole blade will result in an attractive, smooth surface finish that will not need to be ground or
polished on the finished blade. Minor widening and curvature can be added to the blade, i.e., more
hammering can be done to the cutting edge of a blade to curve it upwards like a scimitar, or more
towards the spine of a blade to curve it down like that of a sickle or kopis shape. Lastly, the hammering
of the blade after annealing results in blades that have better balance between edge sharpness, edge
retention and ease of sharpening.
It is important to see cold forging as a significant contribution to the overall final performance of a
blade, but rendered meaningless if ideal forging, annealing, quenching and tempering procedures are not
realized. Like a champion in figure skating, a perfect score is only realized when the performance is
flawless from start to finish.
Murray Carter
ABS Master Bladesmith
17th Generation Yoshimoto Bladesmith
2038 NW Aloclek Drive #225
Hillsboro, Oregon 97124
www.cartercutlery.com
Office: 503.466.1331
Cell: 503.816.6556
murray@cartercutlery.com