This is my first post to this area of tradgang.  I'm usually up in the powwow or bowyers bench.
Anyway, been wanting to make a knife, so I did, out of an industrial reciprocating saw blade and some osage scales.  The blade is thin but feels much like spring steel or something along the line of a stiff fillet knife.  It is a small drop point hunting knife 6 7/8" OAL.  Blade is 3 5/8".  I'm happy with the way it turned out, but I want to make something much stouter like from a file.
My question is, can you make a blade straight from a file without the annealing process?  I ask because I don't have any way of getting it that hot.

 

If you have a charcoal grill try that.  I used a bag of $5 oak charcoal briquettes and left it to burn for an afternoon.  Did the job for me.  You might be able to go that route to get it hot. I don't know much cause I've only made a couple. There will for sure be someone wiser that will chip in.

Troy, yes you could without annealing, but it would be hard work and at the expense of tools and much time.

I made a very primative forge by making a box with cinder blocks, charcoal and an old hair dryer for some forced air and higher heat.

Situate your steel on edge for this process to avoid warping.

Nice knife!!!

Steve
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Potomac Forge

Just put the blade in your fireplace when the coals are red hot, or in a charcoal barbeque when they are red hot and let set until blade is non-magnetic.  Then stick blade in fire ash, vermiculite or leave it in the barbeque as it cools.  Lots of folks anneal with very easy methods.

After you anneal and grind out your blade, you will need to get it back that hot for the hardening process. There are gobs of cheap forge ideas on the web. Try that famous video web site for some ideas. I would also search this forum for buildalongs for knives from files- that's how I started with only charcoal, hair dryer, magnet, belt sander in a vise, files, sandpaper and transmission fluid.