Bill's Blades

There are basically two methods to make a knife. One is by stock removal wherein you take a piece of metal and grind away material until you have a knife blade. The other is by bladesmithing, where you use fire to heat the material into a plastic form and hammer it into the desired shape. Since almost all of my blades utilize damascus steel that I make, forging the material is a must. Bladesmithing  does not restrict you to whatever size steel bars you can purchase as you can forge to the desired size. Metallurgically you have more options by bladesmithing. You can refine the grain structure of the metals to the point you desire in portions of the blade or totally. Of the two methods I believe bladesmithing gives you more control of the project. If the blade is the body of a knife, then heat treatment of that blade would be the soul. I do my own heat treating using high temperature salts as well as an electric heat treating oven. Both of these are capable of very precise control of heating parameters thereby insuring accurate heat treating.

Having worked with hot steel in one form or another all my life  it came natural to me to turn to fire as a tool when I started to make knives. I use propane fired forge's. Currently I have three different style forges that I have made. Two of these are vertical forges with blowers for making damascus steel and general use and the other is a horizontal style with three venturi burners. The vertical forges are the ones I use most often and both are equipped with pyrometers and thermocouples for heat regulation. With the use of a pyrometer in your forge you know what the heat is instead of guessing at it by the color of the steel.

To shape the hot metal into a blade form I use three methods. First, and most important is the old style hammer and anvil (along with sweat and a little blood now and then) to form the primary blade shape. I have a selection of hand hammers and a standard anvil that weighs 135 lb. I also use an air hammer to help draw material out, to form bevels, and distal tapers. A 30 ton hydraulic press is used in the making of damascus steel and to some extent in forming a blade shape also.

I make all my own damascus steel and use it for most of the blades I make. Generally the blade materials are 1080 and 15N20 steels. These are both high carbon steels and make a great blade as well as making a good contrasting damascus when etched using ferric cloride. Like most knife makers do when they start to make damascus steel I used all sorts of found and recycled materials. Some worked great, some were disasters. I use new materials almost exclusively anymore for my damascus. That way you know what the materials are, how to use them, and more importantly how to heat treat them to give the best blade characteristics.

My knives are all made from raw materials by myself. I strive to make each knife the best I can in the old fashioned way - with care and craftsmanship.