Hello all,
Despite what I said yesterday, I did decide to attack that bar of 1095 again this evening. It *was* easier to form with the anvil properly mounted, which I'm sure is no surprise to anyone.
So, I made a knife, and it turned out pretty well, though I spent quite a lot more time grinding than forging to get a pleasing final shape and finish before quenching. I even reshaped the bar at the backside of the blade to 3/4" square and gave it a twist for a handle (no mean feat with a cresent wrench and a bench vise).
The quenching went fine, and I tempered it in the oven for 30 minutes, making sure that it was at a "straw" color before setting the timer.
After removing it, I took a look down the blade and noticed the tiniest of warps near the end, so (extremely foolishly) I clamped it in the vise and tried to bend it straight. You can imagine exactly what happened, I'm sure.
So I reground the backside and very gingerly reshaped the blade, taking care not to heat it too much and wreck the temper. While it is still a reasonably sized blade, it does look a little funny compared with the length of the handle.
So here is my dilemma... Not only is the blade a little on the short side, but it is about twice as thick on the spine as any other knife I own. Which makes it a PITA to sharpen, especially considering that is too hard to file the initial bevel. I do have a pretty good working edge on it now, but I am wondering if I have any chance of reheating and reforging the blade to lengthen it and thin it out. Or is it the case that once I have hardened and tempered it, it is better to leave it as it is? I'm pretty happy with the handle and the way it fits my hand (even with it's various bumps and warts), and I'd like to be equally pleased with the blade that is coming off it.
If it's a done deal after getting this far, it's not a big loss- it will make a decent carving knife as is. But I'm sure this will happen again at some point in the future, and it's aways good to know what I can and can't do to recover from the mistake!
On the bright side, snapping the tip off gave me an interesting look at the way the steel changed from the edge to the spine (I quenched about one half of the width of the blade very quickly, then allowed the spine to cool a little bit before finishing the plunge.)