Forging a Knife w/ 2x Forged In Fire Champ Nate Summers

[00:00:03]Guys, welcome back to Blade HQ. We have something so special today. I might know a lot about the knife industry, but forging is something I really have no idea what's going on. And so I am here with twotime Forge and Fire Champion Nate Summers. How are you doing?

[00:00:19]>> Oh, I'm having a great day.

[00:00:20]>> Yeah.

[00:00:20]>> How about you?

[00:00:21]>> Oh, I'm great. Now, Nate, tell me a little bit about what we're going to be doing here. We're in your garage. What are we making today? Well, if there's going to if I was going to pick anything to show Blade HQ, yeah, >> there's going to be something unique I've been working on the past couple of months.

[00:00:34]>> Oh, I can't wait. This is incredible.

[00:00:36]>> Um, I know that Blade HQ does a lot of uh they do a lot of fixed blades, a lot of folding knives.

[00:00:42]>> Yeah.

[00:00:43]>> And um I think that if we did some forging today >> Oh, absolutely.

[00:00:48]>> that that would kind of uh introduce you guys to another branch of the uh the the the greater world of uh making knives.

[00:00:55]>> Absolutely. Okay. So, the unique thing we're going to do is we're going to make a stainless Damascus combination >> uh so we can make a high contrast uh uh beautiful bit of steel.

[00:01:06]>> Yeah.

[00:01:07]>> And we haven't talked about what exactly like knife style we're going to do just yet. It could be a chef knife. It could be something else.

[00:01:13]>> All right.

[00:01:14]>> Um but uh today the big thing is we're going to weld up that. Us bladesmiths work on something called Damascus steel.

[00:01:20]That's just a uh term coined for pattern welding. Uh pattern welding is where we're taking different kinds of steel and we are using the forge forges and presses and hammers to forge weld those metals together mix them twist them uh and make uh different patterns.

[00:01:38]>> Uh because those metals have different chemistry uh after the knife is made when you etch it when you dip it in some kind of acid it's going to reveal all those patterns.

[00:01:48]>> So >> and uh it's absolutely beautiful. This is a specialty uh that a lot of us who are operating forges do. Um it's it's very very common within the industry now.

[00:01:58]>> Yeah.

[00:01:58]>> And this is a unique combination as far as I know. I'm the only one who's done who's uh doing it. So uh um yeah. So let's make it. Okay. So this is what we got.

[00:02:10]We got our 416.

[00:02:13]We got our 410.

[00:02:16]And we got these nickel shims.

[00:02:19]>> Okay. So, we got to put all this together.

[00:02:22]>> Mhm.

[00:02:22]>> We got to make sure that the surfaces are absolutely touching. There can't it can't be bowed and rocking to one side or another. I mean, they must be flat touching. Um, not only that, but it also has to be completely clean. We're talking surgical clean. Um, and uh, and then we make sure that the sides are all nice and level. Let's say I have a steel atom or steel molecule and another steel molecule. Okay, they can gladly join, >> right?

[00:02:50]>> And exchange electrons and and be together.

[00:02:53]>> Okay.

[00:02:53]>> Um unless there is a a barrier between >> and which does not allow electrons to exchange.

[00:03:00]>> That's what space is. Space and distance. If they're not close enough, it won't happen.

[00:03:05]>> Um and that's what uh anything like an oxide layer uh or any kind of dirt or whatever that's going to prevent from happening. So, we just got to get everything nice and clean and get them up nice and close.

[00:03:17]Soon the bride comes in like this.

[00:03:26]Okay, you're next.

[00:03:29]So you hold it like this.

[00:03:31]>> Just like that. Yeah.

[00:03:41]bad at all.

[00:03:48]We've sandwiched the steel and the nickel together. The big thing now, it's too early to clean. We're I'm not interested about it being clean as I am making sure that um uh everything all the surfaces are touching nice and flush. And in order to weld, we're going to save ourselves a whole bunch of time welding if I take a bit of mild steel, slap it on the side, and just weld at the corners. Before we can do that, we need all these sides nice and flush.

[00:04:16]Okay.

[00:04:17]>> So, let's go back to the grinder and we're going to we're going to grind away some metal.

[00:04:32]I want them to actually weld to the stainless. I don't want to just them to just weld to each other.

[00:04:37]>> Okay.

[00:04:38]>> Uh I don't want the stainless floating around in the box. So, I'm counting on the the >> welding these on is also going to be what keeps everything tight.

[00:04:46]>> Mhm. Keep it all together.

[00:04:48]>> Mhm. Hold it kind of like clamping it all together.

[00:04:50]>> Okay.

[00:04:51]>> That is what I want. Right there.

[00:04:54]Everything's going to It's got to be like we uh like a slinky.

[00:04:57]>> So, we lift it up and put it that way.

[00:05:00]Okay.

[00:05:00]>> And then we lift this up and we put it that way.

[00:05:03]>> In between each of those little things, of course, we're going to come over here to the grinder. We're going to turn this on.

[00:05:11]And we're going to do just that much.

[00:05:18]>> Just a quick little thing. Do this.

[00:05:27]That's it.

[00:05:29]>> Okay.

[00:05:30]>> All right.

[00:05:31]>> That's the easy part.

[00:05:35]The real thing that knife making is is uh uh sanding. It's it's abrasion. um all everything is grinding and shaping like using like sanding methods.

[00:05:44]>> Uh so what we do here is with this little uh nickel's no exception. It has a layer of oxide >> and so the best thing to do is to just scuff the surface up and just break through it. It's not thick.

[00:06:04]But in doing this, uh, it increases the the chances of it working.

[00:06:10]>> Yeah.

[00:06:11]>> Any visible water marks, any visible speck of dust, stuff like that is just the thing to the thing to aim for, the thing to remove.

[00:06:21]>> Okay. Will that throw off the entire thing if you miss one of those? Well, at this point, I that's that's kind of what motivates me to be this thorough with every single step cuz Yes.

[00:06:32]>> Let's say that I did all of these layers except for one. I left something in there.

[00:06:35]>> Yeah.

[00:06:36]>> And then I have a little I let's say I have a little delamination right in the middle of where my blade needs like like uh >> if it was in the tang, maybe I can weld that shut, >> right?

[00:06:46]>> Um but if it shows up here as some as a blister or some kind of spot where it didn't weld, yes. Then the whole piece is >> Wow.

[00:06:55]crazy.

[00:06:55]>> I could turn it into something else, sure. But for what I have planned, I want the whole thing to >> It has to be perfect.

[00:07:01]>> It's got to be >> I I I never say perfect. I say to tolerance.

[00:07:06]>> Okay, fair enough.

[00:07:09]>> Let me clamp this up in these clamps.

[00:07:14]Uh, and I'm going to turn that forge on.

[00:07:17]So, it's going to heat up in here. I'm getting cold. What about you guys? Let's turn this on.

[00:07:22]Heat.

[00:07:26]Heat.

[00:07:47]Heat up here.

[00:08:13]All right. Now, we can all take five. This is going to take a minute.

[00:08:18]>> It just sits in there then.

[00:08:20]>> Yeah, it's just going to sit in there.

[00:08:21]And we got to let it sit there for for a few minutes.

[00:08:24]>> Okay. important.

[00:08:30]The press is important to use the next absolutely essential. I could not do what I'm doing if I didn't have any press in the beginning. I'm just going to go and just barely touch the block just to get everything to kind of squeeze a little bit tighter.

[00:08:42]>> Right.

[00:08:42]>> Then after that, we want to work it down about an eighth of an inch at a time.

[00:08:47]>> Okay.

[00:08:48]>> So, just squeeze it so it's an eighth of an inch thicker or thinner. And then make sure all of it's an eighth of an inch thinner. And then we >> go back in. We just wash, rinse, and repeat.

[00:08:59]>> Wow. So, we're trying to get it down to how thick? Like >> we want to get it down to just about 516. Okay.

[00:09:05]>> So, right now it's about an inch and a half thick. We or an inch and a quarter thick. We want to get it down to about 516. So, about >> like uh >> we'll say about this thick.

[00:09:17]>> Okay. Now, I don't want it the final shape that matters so much, too, cuz I don't want it to be very very long. And thin. I want it to be almost a square.

[00:09:34]That's it.

[00:09:37]You're ready. Go ahead.

[00:09:47]Heat.

[00:09:54]Heat.

[00:10:18]All right.

[00:10:21]They go.

[00:10:30]All right. Squish this down. Here we go.

[00:10:59]All righty. Whenever you're ready, >> you just come on over. You just grab that first half inch. Just like about like that.

[00:11:05]>> Okay.

[00:11:06]>> Okay. Go ahead and grab it. I'm going turn this on.

[00:11:22]>> Yeah. Then right there.

[00:11:24]>> Too much.

[00:11:25]>> Nope. That's just right. It's just right.

[00:11:27]>> Really?

[00:11:28]>> Mhm. So, what I want to do, >> it's hot as hell.

[00:11:31]>> The next thing that I'm going to do here, I got to get the core metal prepared.

[00:11:35]>> I'm going to use u 52100 or maybe if I have time, we can do something more trendy like pops like Pro Cut or something.

[00:11:41]>> Yeah.

[00:11:42]>> I'm going to split this down the middle.

[00:11:44]>> Oh.

[00:11:44]>> And fold it over to sandwich the core metal.

[00:11:49]>> Interesting.

[00:11:49]>> I'll weld all around. I'll flatten that out into a big pancake of metal. Make you guys a knife and bring it to you.

[00:11:54]>> No way. That's sick. I'm stoked. Like this is the coolest thing ever. This has been so eye opening honestly and just getting a glimpse into your world is really the coolest part of it to be honest. All right. Well, we will see you guys back at Blade HQ then for the final product. All right, Nate, we are at Blade HQ. We're back. It's been a few months and you have finished up the knife and I am so excited to see what it looks like. You have no idea.

[00:12:18]>> I'm excited to show you what it looks like.

[00:12:19]>> Oh my god, I'm stoked.

[00:12:21]>> Please mail. Yes.

[00:12:23]>> All right. Last time you saw this, it was just a big block of metal.

[00:12:27]>> Yeah. Hot fiery metal block.

[00:12:30]>> So, here we go.

[00:12:31]>> My god, that is gorgeous. May I >> Oh, yes, please.

[00:12:34]>> Oh my god, it's heavy.

[00:12:36]>> This is a This is a fullsized workhorse kitchen knife.

[00:12:41]>> This is amazing. And um you know as being a a chef knife enthusiast, a chef knife connoisseur uh um as a as a maker >> uh I study relentlessly design and the subtleties behind you know different kinds of chef's knives cuz it's there's you know tools it's it's tricky. There's really no one tool that does it all. And then as I talk about there there's a scale and it's on one end of the scale there's specificity on the other end of the scale there's versatility >> and the more you go towards one you kind of get less of the other. This is the one that prepares you for everything and this kind of knife. So I base I'm huge fan of the Japanese chef knives. You have something that is very very very sharp >> uh and has the weight forward of the handle. Uh so once you get it moving you don't feel anything. It's just uh it's it's almost like having a um they're crafting with their food. It's almost like a woodworking tool.

[00:13:38]>> It's hard to make a claim that I'm the the only one. Maybe I'm the first one. I might be wrong, but maybe I was the first one to make a Damascus out of layering nickel with 410 stainless. What's going on these days is there's a whole lot more information out about about how you forge weld with stainless steels and the and the non-fer alloys like nickel, copper, really, bronze, brass, all that kind of stuff.

[00:14:03]>> So, what that means for all of us makers is we're now venturing into like you mean we can start applying some of those techniques to some of these new steels.

[00:14:10]>> And then what what wood do we have here >> for the handle? Um, this is a commission piece and talking over with the owner.

[00:14:17]He wanted something dark.

[00:14:18]>> Okay. So I this is bog oak. Bog oak.

[00:14:21]It's been sitting in a riverbed for like 10,000 years or something like that. And uh you know absorbing um minerals and all that kind of stuff. So So the the wood didn't rot. It just like >> uh part it's like partially fossilized.

[00:14:37]>> Yeah. That's very cool.

[00:14:38]>> B b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b basically. It's just dark.

[00:14:40]>> Yeah, it's a beautiful color.

[00:14:42]>> The um top here is micarta. Um I love micarta for chef knives. my card uh when it gets wet, it kind of gets a better grip on it, right? And when most, you know, in a in a kitchen environment, of course, it's going to get wet and stay.

[00:14:56]And uh uh it is really really helpful.

[00:14:59]>> Mhm.

[00:15:00]>> The spacer here is uh mocha magane.

[00:15:03]>> Oh, >> you heard of that? It's just it's Damascus made from copper and uh nickel silver and uh bronze as well. I got like a 100 pounds of it because they mistook it for scrap copper.

[00:15:14]>> You're kidding. Well, should we see how it cuts? Yeah, we should.

[00:15:17]>> Cuz now I'm curious.

[00:15:18]>> Um, this is a general purpose uh knife.

[00:15:22]So, it's should be able to do three things fairly well. The push push cuts, pull cuts, and rocking cuts.

[00:15:28]>> Okay.

[00:15:29]>> Uh, with a with a knife that's like um uh where it's very very flat. That means push push cut or pull cut.

[00:15:36]>> Uh we're trying to keep it completely level with the uh board, >> right, >> as it goes through. Whereas a rocking cut looks more like this.

[00:15:48]>> Okay. And so that's why the front edge is a bit curved. Right. Cuz then you can work with the board. Yeah.

[00:15:53]>> Exactly.

[00:15:53]>> Cool.

[00:15:54]>> And have you ever done this before?

[00:15:56]>> Yeah.

[00:15:57]>> Not with a knife nearly as nice as that one. So I don't look that graceful doing it.

[00:16:02]>> Um you know, do you know the technique?

[00:16:04]>> I saw you doing it. I don't cut like that, but I will gladly learn.

[00:16:08]>> Allow me explain why. So, this is just a way for you to make sure for one, you're you're controlling the food and and you're controlling the blade while not cutting your fingers.

[00:16:16]>> Uh, what I'm doing is pick any knuckle, any knuckle on your finger >> and I'm resting it against >> I gota >> uh the flat of the blade like this.

[00:16:26]>> Yeah.

[00:16:26]>> At the same time, I'm holding It's just like you're holding a tennis ball or holding something like this with your hands. Yeah. Like this. I got you.

[00:16:34]>> And as long as the motion >> move every time.

[00:16:39]>> Now, but the cardinal mistake, the mistake that I don't want anybody to make is raising the edge over that knuckle, >> right? Cuz >> once you're picking a spot, if you need to go raise it higher, then you need to use a different knuckle. Use the knuckle up here.

[00:16:50]>> Yeah, I guess.

[00:16:51]>> That way you can raise it higher.

[00:16:52]>> Pull your finger away.

[00:17:00]>> Yeah.

[00:17:01]>> That simple. Oh yeah. Oh, sweet. Yeah, it's gorgeous.

[00:17:07]A perfect cut every time.

[00:17:09]>> What do you notice?

[00:17:12]>> Well, I noticed the knife doesn't get caught anywhere like you were saying.

[00:17:15]It's a perfect >> It should be um >> from the spine to the tip, it's just the perfect >> It's like an airplane wing.

[00:17:22]>> Yeah.

[00:17:23]>> Yeah. Um my own I I don't like knives that are a bar of metal with an edge on it.

[00:17:30]>> Yeah. It's like if the whole knife lends itself to the motion, then um you know, then everything you do with it just feels good. It feels it feels natural in the hand.

[00:17:41]>> Uh you can predict how it's going to move. This has a convex edge to it.

[00:17:47]>> Uh so um rather than have rather than making a perfectly flat plane as uh as it goes through food, >> uh it's going to push against one side or the other.

[00:17:58]>> So I can tilt the knife. If I tilt the knife a little bit like this, that's how I control whether or not I have a nice flat surface.

[00:18:04]>> Wow.

[00:18:04]>> And then this just falls away like it's nothing.

[00:18:07]>> Yeah.

[00:18:07]>> And it's the same thing as I'm going through. This is This is my favorite part. Come check this out.

[00:18:14]>> Do you see how there's space between the spine and the potato?

[00:18:18]>> Yeah.

[00:18:18]>> Yeah. Uh that is why there's not a ton of drag >> on it is cuz it actually is pulling away from the food.

[00:18:26]>> Dang.

[00:18:29]It's amaz like truly it's like literally art watching. It's so cool.

[00:18:34]>> Well, >> it is the part that I am attracted to the most about the chef knives. It's just um you know I love making knives because I love >> what knives make.

[00:18:43]>> Mhm.

[00:18:44]>> Um you you give you make chisels for a guy making a violin or you give them uh or you give a knife like this to a pro.

[00:18:51]It's like like watch what they do with it. They make some incredible things.

[00:18:55]>> That's sweet. Well, Nate, I super super appreciate you a letting us into your home to watch this process and then, you know, teaching me through the whole thing. It was so cool. And then again for coming out and showing us the final product. It is absolutely gorgeous and we just appreciate it. So, it was a pleasure having you.

[00:19:13]>> Yeah, I >> thanks for having me.

[00:19:15]>> Thank you so much. It was sweet. And guys, thank you for watching. Please go follow Nate on Instagram. I believe that's where you're you're popping, right?

[00:19:23]>> That's where I'm biggest.

[00:19:24]>> Okay. Instagram as well as go buy some of his knives. Whether it's from Blade HQ or elsewhere, he makes an absolutely amazing knife. So, go check them out and we will see you guys next time.