My customer asked for a few photos, so it's only appropriate I share them with my pals.
A decent Brute de Forge is not all that simple to do.
This one will also get a milled and tapered tang, so I had to leave it just a tad thick in the tang area.
Starting with 1 1/8" W1 rod, we need to forge these backwards!
Handle first:



Round to flat to start shaping the handle profile/drop/width:




The basic handle profile:




The little notch is where I set the blade on the corner of the anvil and determined where I'm going to start setting the finger location. I know this thing will grow in length and I will need to tweak the handle, as I'm going to bang the snot out of it.
No need to make things pretty at this point.



With a large faced hammer so as to spread the force over a large area, I "push" the corner of the anvil into the handle:

Push it in a little more:



And then just a tad more:




Now have the post vise and BDF hammer ready:




I try to do it just a little at a time:




After about 4-5 heats and precisely directed hammer blows I have the "guard" where I want it.

Now I cut the blade off at a bit of an angle. Makes things go a bit easier:




Work on the blade profile and cutting edge:




This is going to get a bit of a raised clip:




Only a little clean up to do:




Some reducing heat thermal cycling:



A bit of fine tuning:



This knife will get a nice hamon - already done at this writing - and some polished black canvas Micarta with bulls eye pins!

A regular hunter is soooooooooooooooo much easier to forge!!

Bars make really nice handles!!

 


Basic blade profile:

 


Cut off from parent bar at a precisely measure length:    :cool:  

 

Just gotta love a power hammer.
3 heats later:

 


A little thermal cycling and off we go:

 

Thanks for letting us in on this Karl!

I really like the design of that brute de forge with the raised clip. Especially curious for how you go about grinding the finger guard area and how you determine/grind where the scales go in proximity to the forged in guard (if that makes any sense at all...).

Jeremy

I guess I don't know what you mean by "grinding the finger guard area".
No grinding takes place there.

And I don't grind the scales area, I mill it flat - with the mill.

Here is a finished knife:

Very cool Karl, thanks for sharing!

Here is the milled handle sides.
And you can see a wisp of the hamon.

Shocker that I didn't communicate clearly...     You answered the question I had about the scales with the milled side shots. As for the grinding, I was curious if you did any grinding where the finger guard transitions to the bottom of the tang? Or do you get that forged so closely, too and just leave the scale finish on the tang edges? Almost looks in one of the finished pics you had like the finger guard area was shiny-wire wheeled? If so, is that just done as well to the tang edge?

Sorry for the incessant questions... I find some of your processes a bit fascinating, a lot like some of Lin's, too. The more knives I see that are of such high quality, it seems some of the common threads (regardless of maker) are such well thought out progression of work. I appreciate you sharing so much of what you do. By the way, how's the eye-all healed up? Hope you're doing well.

Jeremy

Jeremy, I do no finish grinding in the guard area.
I will wheel finish like you say.
As I do the ricasso sides.
I'm not good enough to forge without some grinding, so I do clean up the handle perimeter on the flat platen right up to where the guard forging stops.
The eye is much better - thanks for asking.

Really like the raised clip on that knife.  Thanks !

Thanks a lot, Karl-think I got it all now. And I forgot to say in my last one, I really like how that raised clip is shaping up, too     .

Jeremy

Very nice thanks for sharing the process! Helps us(me)beginners a lot!

amazing as always Karl