Blacksmithing Personal Weapons in the Camp

Tom Hughes

Sergeant Major
Joined
May 27, 2019
Location
Mississippi
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I wanted to show a few knives and a sword blade that I have dug from civil war/plantation sites in west central Mississippi over the years and start a conversation.
I'm sure the art of blacksmithing was a well-known skill that many possessed during this time in our history.
In the process of blacksmithing these bladed objects, the idea was to bend the blade back and forth while forging. This would help strengthen the steel. This knife I thought was a good example of a blacksmithed item that showed the bending process in action. Notice also that the forger had already formed the angled tip to the knife.

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Another knife "frozen" in the bending process of being forged. This is a more crude example and I'm still in the process of restoring.

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This next example is a sword that I found last Sunday. It shows a slight bend where it was being forged. Still in its early stages, the forger had first made the handle grip.
It is, of course broken, which is why I'm sure it was discarded and not completed.

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A closeup of the metal shows that "raw meat" look that shows the stress that was applied to the object while being forged.

Thanks for looking!
 
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Very interesting items. It’s hard to know the lengths of the items by looking at the pictures alone. Since these were found on plantations, it is likely that the sword piece you found was a butcher’s blade of some sort. They raised, slaughtered and preserved their own meat on these places, and I’m sure butchering tools were very important.
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That's true, @alan polk I've found knives that were used in butchering. Those were generally shorter and thinner.
The curious thing about the blade I found last week is that it was broken at 18 inches. The blade looks much too long for a cooking knife. The length of the handle suggested support for a large blade. Hey, you never know. It was in the stage of being blacksmithed so it's certainly possible that it was being fashioned into a butchering knife and just hadn't been shaped well enough at this early stage. One thing is for certain, it was going to be used to stick something!
 
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In the process of blacksmithing these bladed objects, the idea was to bend the blade back and forth while forging. This would help strengthen the steel. ..........
Sorry but a blade is NEVER bent back and forth while forging, and doing so would absolutely NEVER strengthen the steel... NEVER. Bending a blade back and forth while forging would more likely create stress fractures causing the blade to easily fail.

Blacksmithing has been my hobby for over 47 years. Here is a picture of myself in front of a reproduction wheeled mid-1800s U.S. Army "Traveling Forge" that I spent four years and over 3,000 hours building. I even made the tools that I used to make the wheels in the photo.

The vise and the anvil are from that period in time, and I even made the forage cap that I am wearing in the photo. The Traveling Forge was constructed using a copy of official U.S. Army measured drawings provided to manufactures of mid-1800s wheeled items manufactured for the Army, as well as reproductions of period Ordnance Manuals.

Dave at Traveling Forge - labeled.jpg
 
Sorry but a blade is NEVER bent back and forth while forging, and doing so would absolutely NEVER strengthen the steel... NEVER. Bending a blade back and forth while forging would more likely create stress fractures causing the blade to easily fail.

Blacksmithing has been my hobby for over 47 years. Here is a picture of myself in front of a reproduction wheeled mid-1800s U.S. Army "Traveling Forge" that I spent four years and over 3,000 hours building. I even made the tools that I used to make the wheels in the photo.

The vise and the anvil are from that period in time, and I even made the forage cap that I am wearing in the photo. The Traveling Forge was constructed using a copy of official U.S. Army measured drawings provided to manufactures of mid-1800s wheeled items manufactured for the Army, as well as reproductions of period Ordnance Manuals.

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Why are my examples bent over like this?
 
Sorry but a blade is NEVER bent back and forth while forging, and doing so would absolutely NEVER strengthen the steel... NEVER. Bending a blade back and forth while forging would more likely create stress fractures causing the blade to easily fail.

Blacksmithing has been my hobby for over 47 years. Here is a picture of myself in front of a reproduction wheeled mid-1800s U.S. Army "Traveling Forge" that I spent four years and over 3,000 hours building. I even made the tools that I used to make the wheels in the photo.

The vise and the anvil are from that period in time, and I even made the forage cap that I am wearing in the photo. The Traveling Forge was constructed using a copy of official U.S. Army measured drawings provided to manufactures of mid-1800s wheeled items manufactured for the Army, as well as reproductions of period Ordnance Manuals.

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You are certainly talented. What a great hobby. Things like this help us to better understand the time period we are studying here.
 
Why are my examples bent over like this?
A ruler next to the objects would be a help to identify them. They could be blades or other parts that fell off of farm equipment.. If they are knives, relics get bent. I live near Gettysburg, and I don't remember seeing a dug relic that was not bent up. Once something hits the ground, it will likely get repeatedly run over by farm or other equipment. I used to have a dog that would proudly bring me pieces that fell off my farm tractor. ..... Sorry but knives/blades are not worked back and forth when forging. NEVER.

If you PM me with a Postal Service deliverable address, I will gift you a copy of my book. You can then see the steps in forging a knife, and even try your hand at making a knife. For safety sake, I highly recommend taking a course in blacksmithing that emphasizes safety issues before trying forging by yourself.
 
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Sorry but a blade is NEVER bent back and forth while forging, and doing so would absolutely NEVER strengthen the steel... NEVER. Bending a blade back and forth while forging would more likely create stress fractures causing the blade to easily fail.

Blacksmithing has been my hobby for over 47 years. Here is a picture of myself in front of a reproduction wheeled mid-1800s U.S. Army "Traveling Forge" that I spent four years and over 3,000 hours building. I even made the tools that I used to make the wheels in the photo.

The vise and the anvil are from that period in time, and I even made the forage cap that I am wearing in the photo. The Traveling Forge was constructed using a copy of official U.S. Army measured drawings provided to manufactures of mid-1800s wheeled items manufactured for the Army, as well as reproductions of period Ordnance Manuals.

View attachment 383278
What little that I know about the dark art of the blacksmith I’ve mostly gleaned from the TV show ‘forged in fire’, I’ve never seen anyone bending a blade back and forth, I’ve seen them tempering and annealing but never bending. I was wondering if those bent blades could have been previously damaged and were given to the blacksmith for forging something new. Is it possible that they were just a small part of a pile of scrap metal for future use. I can’t imagine that people back then wasted anything.
 
What little that I know about the dark art of the blacksmith I’ve mostly gleaned from the TV show ‘forged in fire’, I’ve never seen anyone bending a blade back and forth, I’ve seen them tempering and annealing but never bending. I was wondering if those bent blades could have been previously damaged and were given to the blacksmith for forging something new. Is it possible that they were just a small part of a pile of scrap metal for future use. I can’t imagine that people back then wasted anything.

Here is something that I periodically post on blacksmithing related forums. I hope you find it useful.

Heat Treating Terms
One highly misused word is “Tempering”, when the person should be using the term “Heat Treating”. These are very basic and important terms, and misusing them could cause not only a loss of respect, but a loss of interest of an experienced smith in answering your questions about heat treating and/or smithing in general.

Definition of Heat Treating Terms

Each steel has its own heat treatment specifics. That said, most tool and knifemakers seem to be using oil hardening steels, even sometimes with steels that are identified as water quenching. I suggest checking the recommended quenchant and temperature recommendations for the quenchant for both the hardening stage, and the tempering stage, for both your selected steel and the intended use of the blade. Actually not as complicated as it sounds, since most smiths will likely use a limited number of steels for a limited range of products.

Heat Treating of Steel, such as for a knife, or other edged tool, is a multi-step process.
Hopefully we can all agree on the definitions of a few standard terms:
--Heat Treating – the process of achieving a desired hardness in steel.
--Hardening – the step in heat treating where the blade is brought up to temperature appropriate for that alloy of steel, and quenched, locking in a hardness that for knives, and other edged tools. is likely to be brittle.
--Tempering – the step after Hardening in the Heat Treating process where the steel is softened to the desired level of hardness for the tool, or knife's application. For example, a skinning knife will likely have a higher level of hardness at its edge than a knife that is used for chopping.

And then there is:
---Normalizing – the process of softening to air temperature in order to reduce stresses within the metal, or to soften for drilling or milling. Usually much softer than would be achieved by the Tempering process. Normalizing is often done by placing the blade/tool out of the way in a safe place where it will not be stepped on, such as under a forge or work table.

---Annealing – the process of achieving **maximum** softening by heating then cooling as slowly as possible, such as in a slowly cooling forge or oven or by slowly cooling within an insulating medium such as in a bucket of vermiculite, or iron scale collected from around the smith's anvil. When I took a course with Rob Hudson on Damascus (Pattern Welding) the class used Annealing in a bucket of vermiculite overnight to reduce stress in the blades rather than Normalizing. Some very hard steels may require Annealing prior to being able to drill holes in them.
 
A ruler next to the objects would be a help to identify them. They could be blades or other parts that fell off of farm equipment.. If they are knives, relics get bent. I live near Gettysburg, and I don't remember seeing a dug relic that was not bent up. Once something hits the ground, it will likely get repeatedly run over by farm or other equipment. I used to have a dog that would proudly bring me pieces that fell off my farm tractor. ..... Sorry but knives/blades are not worked back and forth when forging. NEVER.

If you PM me with a Postal Service deliverable address, I will gift you a copy of my book. You can then see the steps in forging a knife, and even try your hand at making a knife. For safety sake, I highly recommend taking a course in blacksmithing that emphasizes safety issues before trying forging by yourself.
Thanks for the information. I would love a copy of your book. Thanks!
 

Here is something that I periodically post on blacksmithing related forums. I hope you find it useful.

Heat Treating Terms
One highly misused word is “Tempering”, when the person should be using the term “Heat Treating”. These are very basic and important terms, and misusing them could cause not only a loss of respect, but a loss of interest of an experienced smith in answering your questions about heat treating and/or smithing in general.

Definition of Heat Treating Terms

Each steel has its own heat treatment specifics. That said, most tool and knifemakers seem to be using oil hardening steels, even sometimes with steels that are identified as water quenching. I suggest checking the recommended quenchant and temperature recommendations for the quenchant for both the hardening stage, and the tempering stage, for both your selected steel and the intended use of the blade. Actually not as complicated as it sounds, since most smiths will likely use a limited number of steels for a limited range of products.

Heat Treating of Steel, such as for a knife, or other edged tool, is a multi-step process.
Hopefully we can all agree on the definitions of a few standard terms:
--Heat Treating – the process of achieving a desired hardness in steel.
--Hardening – the step in heat treating where the blade is brought up to temperature appropriate for that alloy of steel, and quenched, locking in a hardness that for knives, and other edged tools. is likely to be brittle.
--Tempering – the step after Hardening in the Heat Treating process where the steel is softened to the desired level of hardness for the tool, or knife's application. For example, a skinning knife will likely have a higher level of hardness at its edge than a knife that is used for chopping.

And then there is:
---Normalizing – the process of softening to air temperature in order to reduce stresses within the metal, or to soften for drilling or milling. Usually much softer than would be achieved by the Tempering process. Normalizing is often done by placing the blade/tool out of the way in a safe place where it will not be stepped on, such as under a forge or work table.

---Annealing – the process of achieving **maximum** softening by heating then cooling as slowly as possible, such as in a slowly cooling forge or oven or by slowly cooling within an insulating medium such as in a bucket of vermiculite, or iron scale collected from around the smith's anvil. When I took a course with Rob Hudson on Damascus (Pattern Welding) the class used Annealing in a bucket of vermiculite overnight to reduce stress in the blades rather than Normalizing. Some very hard steels may require Annealing prior to being able to drill holes in them.
Thats very helpful.
That’s interesting info about oil hardening as that’s something that I’ve regularly seen on Forged in Fire, I can’t actually recall seeing anyone use water for quenching except for the Japanese. I think that some of the most fascinating and skilled sword makers that I’ve ever seen working are the Japanese master sword smiths, those guys are incredibly skilled, everything they do is all done on sight and feel, it’s a true art, I think the most impressive part of making a samurai sword has to be the point where they cover the sword in a hardening made from clay, I think the hardening allows the metal to cool down at different times. When they place the sword back into the fire they do it in complete darkness so that they can judge the temperature by the colour of the heated metal. The Japanese use water for quenching their swords but it’s a frantic time, apparently one in every four swords cracks during the quenching, only a master sword maker knows when the time is right to quench the sword, working with metal is definitely an art.
 
Thats very helpful.
That’s interesting info about oil hardening as that’s something that I’ve regularly seen on Forged in Fire, I can’t actually recall seeing anyone use water for quenching except for the Japanese. I think that some of the most fascinating and skilled sword makers that I’ve ever seen working are the Japanese master sword smiths, those guys are incredibly skilled, everything they do is all done on sight and feel, it’s a true art, I think the most impressive part of making a samurai sword has to be the point where they cover the sword in a hardening made from clay, I think the hardening allows the metal to cool down at different times. When they place the sword back into the fire they do it in complete darkness so that they can judge the temperature by the colour of the heated metal. The Japanese use water for quenching their swords but it’s a frantic time, apparently one in every four swords cracks during the quenching, only a master sword maker knows when the time is right to quench the sword, working with metal is definitely an art.
I was fortunate to be able to take a Damascus knife making course with Rob Hudson, many years ago. Clay application to the blades was an option, it is called differential hardening. I also took a tool making course at the same guild where we watched the colors run up the chisels in dim lighting, where you quench the end of the chisel, polish the end, and watch the colors run up the blade until the end is a light brown, then quench again. I carry several lengths of tool steel engineered for water hardening in my tool bag in case I need to make a chisel or punch that is not on hand, as well as a piece of sandpaper so I can watch the colors run.

There are some amazing knife smiths in the U.S. and elsewhere, but you won't see them on Forged From Junk. Sorry but I am prejudiced as the show is reality television and 1) does not show all the steps in properly heat treating a blade and 2) While I sometimes have the show on as background noise, the conditions and time constraints are producing some pretty nasty looking blades. It is a reality contest show only for entertainment purposes, thus people get a lot of bad information from it... For one thing, using junk steel is pot luck because junk steel runs the risk of containing stress fractures from it's previous use resulting in even the best knife forger to end up with a broken blade, not of his/her fault.

If you are interested in making knives I suggest contacting your local blacksmithing group to take some introductory courses for safety and skill building. If you are youngish and want to go through the apprentice program, the American Bladesmith Society has a program to learn skills and test for skill level.

The other point is that people still use clay and colors in modern non-Japanese blades, and you can find color charts for hardness both in books and on the Internet. Water hardening is usually not used with MOST MODERN knifemaking steels as those steels would be too hard and likely break. Water hardening is still done but only with modern steels that are designed for hardening in water. Traditional Japanese samurai blade steel is not modern knife steel and is intended for claying, differential hardening, and water hardening. If you search you can find Youtube video(s) of it being done.

And lastly, iron/steel back in the mid-1800s was not modern steels. Blades, bayonets, knives, swords were fairly soft and would bend either in use, or deliberately to make a candle holder or pot lifter, etc. Then could be bent back. Expect to see bent blades, forks, and other iron objects, from that time period. Also, if you look at the specifications for ironwork on cannon carriages, caissons, Traveling Forges, etc., you will see that the metal used was really really thick. That is because the iron used was so soft that lesser thickness would bend or completely fail.
 
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