Been fooling around with completely finishing a knife before quenching & tempering...thus keeping the blackened forge colors and no other finish...tippit
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Interesting.

I like it.  I think for a knife I would actually use as opposed to collect, I would prefer it over one that has been polished.  Ironic that some knives are finished and then blued to make them less noticeable, whereas this knife seems to have its own natural "bluing" from quenching and tempering.  Any downsides over a polished knife, like a greater tendency to rust?

Forge scale, Fe3O4 is a "super rust". As opposed to regular rust, Fe3O3.
  Forge scale is also pretty porus depending on the forge and the condition of the steel when it goes into the forge, this will lead to easier red rusting.
  The upside of forge scale is that it's incredibly tough stuff. Way harder than hardened steel. So when I leave it on blades I boil the knife in water for a few minutes (working from memory I forget the specifics look up "rust blueing") and then soak them in a protective oil, like linseed.

Frequently I leave forged scale on my finished knives just to show they have been forged instead of stock removal blades. I've never boiled them in water for the forge scale left behind. These two knives had the blades ground down to a shiny finish and sharp edge. So, the blade itself is completely finished before quench & temper. Normally you Don't Finish the blade until after quench & temper. The problem is warping of a thin blade during that process. If they are ground evenly there is much less change of warping plus you can correct any bends with in 10-20 seconds of the quench either my hand bending with welding gloves on or light hammer taps. So, the blades should cut as well as a polished blade. We'll see how the hold up. Just another fun/different thing to try...tippit

 I like them. The look is really nice. Good job as always Tippit (Jeff)

I really like that look, Jeff..