Page 248 - The Lost Ways

some slight waviness in the edge, which is eliminated by grinding. The final point of the
blade is also formed at this point as there are limits to what can be done on the anvil.

With the profile cleaned up, the knife maker moves on to grinding the taper of the blade.
Knife makers did their grinding freehand, with the blade pointed up, just as experienced
knife makers do today. Considering that the average taper angle of a blade is somewhere
between 7 and 15 degrees, maintaining that angle freehand is challenging to say the least.
Some knife makers used a block cut at an angle to ensure consistency, but this was a
technique more for beginners, not experienced knife makers.

The grinding of the blade is accomplished by long strokes over the full length of the blade
rather than working on only one part of the blade at a time. The long strokes across the
grinding wheel help to keep the blade shape and edge consistent. Every few strokes the
blade is flipped to allow the other side to be ground. In this manner, the blade is kept
even so that the edge goes right down the center of the blade.

The knife is not fully sharpened in this stage, but the blade is ground to a fine edge. The
actual cutting edge of a knife is usually 20 to 30 degrees, even though the blade makes a

much sharper angle. The final sharpening is done by hand on a whetstone as the very last
step.

Hardening the Blade

The finished blade needs to be hardened and tempered to make it usable. The repeated
heating and cooling of the metal during forging causes the metal to be annealed. This
makes it easier to work and to bend but is not good for a blade that must be kept sharp.

Before tempering, rivet holes are drilled in the tang. Most knives had two rivets in the
handle, but it is possible to find examples with more. The rivets will hold the sides of the

handle to the tang. For knife makers that did not have the capability of drilling holes (not
all blacksmiths did), the holes could be made with a punch.

The process of hardening the blade consists of heating it and then quenching it in oil. This
works better when the oil is hot, which is easily accomplished by heating an additional
piece of steel in the forge and then running it through the oil bath to warm it.

A horizontal oil bath works better for hardening knife blades than a vertical one. What I

mean by that is a bath that allows the knife to be placed in it horizontally rather than
vertically. Putting the knife in vertically, as if you were stabbing the oil, can cause uneven
cooling, which can warp the blade.

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