Creating the Integral Knife
Join instructor CHARLIE ELLIS for an incredible deep dive into the world of integral knife forging and finishing! Charlie explores and shares 2 methods of creating integral blades and handle fitment: hidden tang and bolt-on tang.
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Introduction, process, and design considerations
Meet Charlie Ellis! He’ll be taking you through his process of creating the integral knife. This lesson will go over the design considerations and process that will be explored in later lessons.
Meet Charlie Ellis! He’ll be taking you through his process of creating the integral knife. This lesson will go over the design considerations and process that will be explored in later lessons.
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Forging the Integral Knife
Forge along through the process of forging integral knives. This lesson contains all of the hot work for the process outside of heat treating. We start with about 4-5” of 1” or 3/4” round 1080 steel.
Forge along through the process of forging integral knives. This lesson contains all of the hot work for the process outside of heat treating. We start with about 4-5” of 1” or 3/4” round 1080 steel.
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Normalizing
This is a CRUCIAL step in the process of developing your blades steel structure. Normalizing your blade will make a weak structure strong and lay an important foundation for hardening and tempering later. For this steel, we performed 3 normalization cycles. The first heat was at 1600 degrees, the second at 1500, and the third at 1350.
This is a CRUCIAL step in the process of developing your blades steel structure. Normalizing your blade will make a weak structure strong and lay an important foundation for hardening and tempering later. For this steel, we performed 3 normalization cycles. The first heat was at 1600 degrees, the second at 1500, and the third at 1350.
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Bolster Layout
One of the key ingredients in Charlie’s immaculate work is his attention to detail and using proper layout tools prior to grinding. Something you’ll see Charlie do a lot of is centering his blade in a homemade jig using a height gauge. The first step at a symmetrical integral is making sure your bolster faces are even!
One of the key ingredients in Charlie’s immaculate work is his attention to detail and using proper layout tools prior to grinding. Something you’ll see Charlie do a lot of is centering his blade in a homemade jig using a height gauge. The first step at a symmetrical integral is making sure your bolster faces are even!
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It has to get ugly before it gets pretty
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Meet your instructor
Charlie Ellis
Charlie Ellis has been forging since 2005, and been steeped in knowledge from the American Bladesmith Society through Haywood Community College where he attended for several years. From there worked architectural blacksmithing for 5 years gaining experience in machining, fabrication and jig and tooling development for the jobs at hand. Has been making knives obsessively since 2008 and has done so full time since 2019. Has learned from David Burnette, Jason Knight, and Adam and Haley DesRosiers.
