Hamza's Blades

The forging process

Raw stock to finished edge

Six stages, in the order they happen. The order carries the meaning — nothing here can be done out of turn.

  1. Step one

    Raw stock

    It starts as a bar of high-carbon steel. Nothing about it suggests a blade yet. The size of the bar decides what can be made from it, so that choice comes first.

  2. Step two

    Heat

    The forge brings the steel to an even orange. Colour is the gauge that matters: too cold and it will crack under the hammer, too hot and the grain coarsens and the steel is spoiled.

  3. Step three

    Shaping

    Hammer work. The bar is drawn out, the bevels started, the tang set. This is where the blade takes its shape and where most of the hours go. It goes back in the fire every time it loses its colour.

  4. Step four

    Grinding

    Once the shape is right the blade is normalised, hardened and tempered, then ground. Grinding takes the rough forged surface down to clean, even bevels. It is slow, and it cannot be undone.

  5. Step five

    Handle

    Wood, horn or leather, fitted to the tang and shaped to the hand that will hold it. On a commission this is the part that gets discussed most, because it is the part you feel.

  6. Step six

    Finished edge

    The edge is brought up by hand on stones, then stropped. A blade is finished when it will do the work it was made for, and not before.

If you want something made, tell me what you have in mind.

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