The Shed – September-October 2019

Making a Viking knife

Materials and tools

• A ‘blank’ of new spring steel — for this
  knife, 25mm wide, 5mm thick, 250mm
  long. You buy it by the metre and cut it
  to your needs


• Blacksmith tongs (Josh makes his)


• A three-pound hammer. “I’m using
  a Toolshed special,” Josh says. He
  replaced the handle


• Adjustable wrench


• Pliers


• File


• Sharpening stone and oil


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  motor oil contains impurities)


• Forge


• Anvil


• Vice


• Earmuffs, safety glasses, gloves, mask/
  respirator for angle grinding

Firing the forge

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up the forge he made. The forge frame

is a 40mm box section. The forge body

is 250x250x250x6mm, lined with full-

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bottom with cast iron holes. A 50mm pipe

comes out of the grate with a T-section for

the air supply, and at the bottom is a door

to let out the ash. A hair dryer controls the

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Bunnings coal” to build the hot bed of coal

in the pit of the forge.

“Once it’s been going for a while and

the pit is red-hot and mounded up about

75mm, you put your stock in the hot zone.

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the temperature is not as hot. The hottest

part is brightest — where it looks like a

blazing inferno,” he explains. He forges by

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not take temperature readings. f

“Just for the record

I’m not a knife maker;

I’m a blacksmith who

makes knives”

Descale the metal as you go with a

wire brush

Automotive cogs from a gearbox for
candlestick bases

Forging the bevel

Rounding the tip of the blade