I Forged A Knife From Hundreds Of Tiny Steel Cubes

[@nicholaseedy3244]

Thanks boss, 6 yo watched this with me. We talked about integrity. We appreciate your teachable moments as much as we do the knives.

[@concernedcitizen2868]

I would buy that blade as is. Put my own handle on it, and use it to cut veggies. I love it, i think all the shattering cracks looks one of a kind.

[@iammattjones]

Came here to say that exactly. I like the crackly edges, makes it look like it was lightning forged.

[@J-B876]

Exactly! Hoping he didn’t toss it. Better than any blade I’ve made I would imagine.

[@jeffbrown4382]

I love watching videos that allow people to understand life is not Instagram. We live in a social media Fantasyland, and you brought a refreshing truth to combat the fantasy. Respect. I know it's a bummer to lose that much time, but the next version will be amazing. Thanks for the video!

[@FireCreekForge]

Thank you, I appreciate it. Yes, life isn't really perfect despite what social media would lead us to believe. These failures are the price of successful builds.Thanks for watching!

[@IWatchedWhat]

You telling us the issue and not selling it just shows your integrity to your work and your ethics. That was going to be a nice looking pattern too.

[@Gman1024]

That texture in the etch looks friggin' sick despite the imperfections.

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks I appreciate it!!

[@bretmaples]

Beautiful blade! I love it when a creator is honest about their mess ups

[@johnharris3390]

The pattern was incredible. Sometimes the imperfections in life tend to make things better. Thanks for sharing.

[@formor18]

I still love the way it looks. Your honesty is moving.

[@dagnard5707]

if you dont mind a suggestion, i use fire brick on the bottom of my forge and switch it when im forge welding and have another set for non forge welding. dont have to fight the flux that way

[@gerogefinkle4764]

The imperfections make it look like a lightning strike, very cool for a display blade.

[@davidguffey4538]

Your integrity gives me hope for our entire country. You have my admiration, sir.

[@ziemec150]

Stand up dude. Mistakes are how we learn, thanks for sharing yours. Thanks for the great content.

[@tincansailor9437]

Do it again! That is one of the coolest pattern welds I’ve ever seen!

[@DavidEricWilliams]

Barney would be proud! I too appreciate your “warts and all” approach to video production. Keep up the good work

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks I appreciate it

[@RBLofton]

I always enjoy when you "learn" from mistakes. Most creators would gloss over or ignore imperfections. Even with the overheat, it still made for an interesting pattern.

[@ghostdog662]

3:53 "I got this billet nice and hot" well that was an understatement

[@FireCreekForge]

As it turns out...

[@HDBrown-wc9xt]

Truth is you love it so much you can’t part from it. 😂

[@FireCreekForge]

Haha, i do like how the pattern turned out.

[@harryvanniekerk7269]

Good conscience sounds good to me. My respect for you took leaps in growing. Integrity is what we need in our world.😃

[@billmixson3218]

Beast of a blade........good to see you forging & the weather is just right.............

[@FireCreekForge]

Thank you. Yes the weather is perfect right now

[@chrisordiway7203]

I agree with a lot of the other comments, I'd buy that for the look of the pattern. Simply fantastic!! But I appreciate your professionalism and not wanting to compromise on your standards. Can't wait to see the second attempt.

[@yo.aj6391]

Something about science, trial and error and art.. truly fascinating.

[@minnesotatomcat]

I mean…..it passed the chop test, no damage. If you’re not gonna sell it I would use the shit out of it and try to break it to see if that metal migration really was that detrimental. I think it’s a bitchin looking pattern 👍

[@yomamajo]

I’m sure the audience would love to see this knife die in battle.

[@arbez7k]

I'd gladly add that to my collection!!!!!!

[@GreenBeetle]

Great video. Are you worried it overheated in the canister? If that's the case you shouldn't have really lost much carbon, just pushed it around a mm or two. The grain structure and alloys are not uniform but it should be uniformly hardenable. I don't think anyone who buys a canister knife made with powdered steel that crosses the edge expects uniformity though. I personally found powdered steel makes a slightly porous edge and try to avoid it along the cutting surface but I see other guys who don't seem to have that problem. It's a great looking pattern I'd be tempted to finish it out. There's people here who seem interested in buying it! But if you can't stand behind it hats off to your integrity.

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks Steve, I do think it overheated and the canister did appear compromised, but I didn't think much of it at the time. Then I found the striations and it looks like oxygen got to some of the canister and started burning out carbon, hence the lighter color to the lines. While it all welded back up ok, there's obvious issues, so I'll have to try the pattern again sometime.

[@minnesotatomcat]

I wonder if there is any kind of pyrometer that you could probe into the forge so you can set it to exactly the temp you want it?

[@pjamestx]

Heartbreaking! Looked really beautiful, you did the right thing by putting it in the scrap pile, best of luck with the next one!

[@marie-claudehenrichon3743]

That’s a darn shame 😢 I hope you give this pattern another try, it’s beautiful even with the imperfections ❤

[@VirginiaBronson]

That’s a bummer! It’s a pretty one. Thank you for sharing the journey!

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks for watching!

[@quinn-676]

If you plan on doing this one again, when you cut the cubes put a wire kitchen strainer under them, it will catch the cubes and you can wash all of the saw dust out of it with ease.

[@mikkosalonen7894]

Pattern looks like breaking ice. Beautiful.

[@CarlWestBlacksmith]

You could name the blade "Debacle".

[@ufoe20011]

use a magnet in a zip lock bag and attach to the end of the billiet as you cut. a square magnet the same size as the square would hold them in place.

[@michaelh2797]

Awesome pattern. Im no knifesmith, so dumb question here. Are the cracks an aesthetic thing, or do they weaken the steel? Just curious. But like some other posts, I think it looks dang good like it is; but appreciate your honest assessment of your work.

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks! I like the patter too. The cracks are an indication of compromised steel, yes.

[@chriscornell8766]

What an awesome pattern, bummer that it went bad in the end... Like they say, you live and you learn...

[@pyrosmoak53]

Man that really sux that those imperfections had to happen. The pattern on that was wicked and would've looked great fully finished. The honesty and you not selling is great to see, kudos to you dude.

[@jonny555ive]

Bummer you had to stop.... But, thank you for posting instead of just sweeping it under the rug....shows that even a "pro" can make mistakes and learn what not to do next time. I applaud you sir. Looking forward to next time👍👍 Take care, ~Jonny5🥁

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks for watching!

[@brysonalden5414]

First, thanks for trying with the little cubes. Glad you did all that work, not me!!! Second, I add my respect to your other commenters; I wasn't sure what you were seeing until the closeups at the end of the video, and I am forced to agree with you. If that came out of my shop I couldn't sell it in good conscience, even if it was just going to be a wall hanger. Like you, I don't want my name on less than perfect product.

[@PseudoSamurai686]

Next time you have to cut up stuff into little pieces like this try heading to a second hand store and picking up a cookie cooling grate or an old sieve and setting them up with a clamp to just catch stuff as it falls. I've had good luck doing that when woodworking. Then you just give it a shake and half the cleanup of the parts is done

[@FireCreekForge]

Great idea!!

[@strathjohn4549]

Koodos for exposing your failure...my respect

[@yourilepp8078]

Wow. Stuff happens to all of us makers of things. Sometimes our efforts go sideways on us. Your steel pattern looks amazing! I would buy a blank like that and use it anyways.

[@andrewneilson227]

Man that was a sick pattern. Bummer that it wasn’t sellable. Love your work as usual

[@thetinkerist]

A lot of work man, and actually a nice pattern, you have enough material it looks like, to reheat and fold it damascus style, like 16 layers or so, and make a smaller knife out of it. anyway, always great to see your vids, thx!

[@drcurioustube]

Plenty of folks would love to have that blade

[@dwayneburbridge3283]

Wow…looked like a cool pattern. Sorry about the loss of time invested. One question: many of the squares from the first cut had paint on the end. Did you keep those or toss those cubes out as they may not forge weld?

[@FireCreekForge]

Thank you. I tossed the painted ends.

[@Errb_Sulaky]

Could have used some CA glue to glue the rods together before cutting them and then just toss them in some acetone to dissolve the CA glue and clean them up.

[@Eric_W_Knives]

Goes to show that if something doesn't seem right, it isn't worth it. Still looks cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@matt7401]

You could always send it to me....I love the fact that you didn't cut anything out and showed us.

[@arkagy_ironworks]

Still a beautiful looking Damascus!!.. you don't see patterns like this.. And thanks i learned what it looks like overheating.. I did this on a twist pattern and couldnt figure out what it was..

[@dirtfarmer7472]

Live & learn, it’ll still work very well for you & now you know what doesn’t work & especially why, that’s the most important part. Thank you Sir for this lesson. A question do you use the cutoffs for future projects ???

[@nogoodcops6557]

It went theought the 2x4 with no issue. Can you expand on why you think the knife is not worth selling?

[@jeffallen1151]

Awesome blade!! You sir do some amazing work

[@FireCreekForge]

Thank you!!

[@jerryhoffman9833]

Beautiful pattern….. hope you try it again!

[@casketrace6087]

Such a bummer, what an insane pattern!

[@gregmead2967]

I don't know if someone else has suggested it yet, but why not use a magnet to collect the cubes as you cut them? Sure, you'd pick up the shavings, too, but you could sieve it afterwards to keep just the bigger pieces.

[@derangedmetalworks9489]

Even though there's issues, I still really liked the pattern concept.

[@bbrachman]

Can you cut up a forged knife and remake it with a canister? Add really contrasting powder? Just curious.

[@58rkelley]

The blade may have imperfections in your eyes but i still like it. It has a unique character to its already unique design.

[@gregmead2967]

FWIW, as a geologist, I think that's a very interesting pattern - it looks very much like a breccia - a sedimentary rock composed of angular pebbles or gravel. Hope you can work the bugs out and get a solid weld in the future.

[@lukelofgren4108]

Very cool pattern! You have inspired me to make my own canister. I just finished a canister for a small axe im very excited about.

[@lucigg]

hi, can you please explain what is the main issue with those 'imperfections'? The pattern is great anyway and the blade seems to be holding up jst fine!

[@normanberg6502]

This was my question too. As someone who isn't a metallurgist or a smith, not sure how forge welded cracks like that would result in a dangerous blade.

[@FireCreekForge]

The blade might never fail or break, but the steel was still overheated and even if that's only evidenced visually.

[@StefanMArndt]

@@FireCreekForge That pattern, with the cracks are really cool. Instead of keeping it as a chopper, could you mitigate the possibility of it breaking by reprofiling the knife into a kitchen knife or something else that won't be taking impacts? From an integrity standpoint, I appreciate that you don't want to have a knife that you made a mistake on out in the wild. Especially in the sense that you don't want other blacksmith's seeing the knife and judging the whole of your work on it. But, to the untrained eye, that pattern is wild, and would be a heck of a discussion piece in a chef's kitchen.

[@kellyrussell3598]

Looks great… you could stain it and just make it a display piece because it’s a really cool stone wall pattern

[@aaronkreger1891]

That is an Awesome pattern!

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks! Aside from the issues, I like how it turned out

[@stev231]

Grab some of those copper wool bundles for soldering iron tips or braided copper wire used to clean up residual solder and soak up all the flux in your forge with that.

[@tonyhallen1062]

Idea -- use a switched magnet to contain the final cubes as they are being cut. Also, if the 'cracks' have no inclusions and the welds are solid, shouldn't it be a good knife? Are the cracks just cosmetic?

[@13ClaytonM]

There are thousands of people that buy knives for shelves bro, like 100x more than ones entering chopping competitions. I sell knives and people say oh i dont need a belt clip option, its for show... waste sometimes but people like pretty stuff

[@MASI_forging]

Great work as always 👏👏

[@rezmedic57]

Beautiful blade with the imperfections

[@oonamorrioghanblackthorne]

Use a magnet to keep the pieces together.

[@darcybrawataakaontariostac6835]

Whats the best way to remove all that flux/borax

[@FireCreekForge]

Pretty much have to replace the bricks

[@goten102002]

Isn't that the purpose of the powdered steel to fill the gaps and act as a binder of the solid metal and when you etch it shows the difference of hardness for each metal by differences in color?

[@Eremon1]

Mistakes are nothing more than opportunities to do better.

[@entropy11]

You should try this with mixing a carbon with nickel steel so the cubes really show up in an etch I think that would look so neat. The nickel powder does a good job though!

[@superkjell]

In one of the Forged In Fire episodes, David Baker mentioned that they had to replace the forges due to all the flux

[@FireCreekForge]

Yep forge lining is a consumable material supply in a shop

[@lowbudgetbob1155]

That's a total bummer that the blade can't be sold, I'm sure someone would have loved to have that... I would. That pattern is different and really cool. When you pulled the canister out of the forge, the first thing I thought was, man, that looks awful hot.

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks! Haha, you were right

[@justGOLD7]

I'm not, yet at least, a blacksmith/ bladesmith so if you could give a little more insight on the problem with the final material I would appreciate it. I'm mostly wondering if the cracks were filled by the powdered steel and it welded solid, how would it be a problem? Unless it didn't weld up solid. I looked at the close up pictures and I can see what you mean, but lack of experience on my part interferes with my fully understanding the problem. However, as I hope one day to have an opportunity to try my hand at the craft, I would like to learn more of this situation.

[@FireCreekForge]

Overheating steel damages it at the micro level, to truly correct it would require re-casting it i believe.

[@justGOLD7]

@@FireCreekForge Thanks, I appreciate you answering my question.

[@KimP0612]

I love the end design. Try again!

[@00waldo]

Couldn't you sell it as a display/decorative piece? It looks fantastic and definitely something i wouldn't mind having on the wall.

[@devinhardy1832]

Bummer it didn’t work out! That pattern is awesome! Hopefully you can make it work next time

[@robertr4193]

At least it is a proof of concept and the pattern does look pretty good.

[@sulliken77]

I think the cracks just adds to the design.. looks awsome. Even though I know that it's a fault in the knife. :-)

[@kzarnold3678]

Interesting stuff 🤔. Still looks good better luck next time I hope you give this pattern another try

[@billwoehl3051]

Separating different small sized material? Cymatics, certain frequencies, will separate the large from the small, one material from a different material, etc.

[@terenceblakely4328]

I wish he mentioned what would happen to the blade if it was used as a knife.

[@FireCreekForge]

Probably nothing? But the evidence of damaged steel is still there.

[@hulkthedane7542]

If the micro cracks in the w1 steel cubes are filled with the powdered steel, ... then there are no cracks open.... howcome the the finished stock is bad, then ? Interesting as always. 👍👍

[@FireCreekForge]

Stated simply, the cracks are visual evidence of damaged steel at the micro structure level.

[@hulkthedane7542]

@@FireCreekForge OK. I thought, that as it has been annealed, and the cracks seem to be filled again, it would not make other differences than changing the pattern. 👍🌞👍

[@AustinMuellerHandmade]

I would have just charged double for the unique pattern, but you had to let your integrity get in the way of a good pay day hahaha Seriously though, that thing was looking nice! I saw your email, I'll get back to ya today!

[@FireCreekForge]

Thanks man! Haha yeah

[@patrickclark6261]

I love the theory! When you get the temp right it's going to be a sweet knife.

[@numbersabcdefg]

Is there a reason you ONLY go left right on the first press, and NOT left left left left left left left left = rotation?

[@FireCreekForge]

no reason, just need to get even forging on the billet

[@caballitodehierro27]

Man, that looks beautiful, sometimes mistakes make the piece even better, there are thousands of examples, I sell it, if you don't feel satisfied with the result, sell it for less, but in my opinion that looks awesome

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

Bummer outcome! I'd like to see you mix these squares with ball bearings in a future pattern. Why don't you stick a large magnet on the squares that you are cutting with the bandsaw?

[@Erinnem]

Bummer dude but it looked sick!! It’s a wall hanger can’t wait to see the next one!

[@benmcdonnell139]

Would you be able to cut the knife apart and re forge it

[@FireCreekForge]

Yes but I don't know how much it would take to return it to it's original state.

[@tombeard2288]

that was a very interesting pattern,it's a shame that the damage occured but it was a learning experience

[@jaredbraggs1]

Oh man this would have looked so cool.

[@ufukgul3221]

It looks very nice and solid. Wouldn't it be better in terms of pattern and durability if you rotated the metal a few times after heating it? It got tighter every lap

[@rhodie33]

Cool pattern.

[@checoleman8877]

Im in a facebook group for blacksmithing and just recently someone made a post saying they had some powdered steel and wanted some ideas for what to add to it. I said to cut up some cubes of 15n20. Then today I see this...

[@Faesharlyn]

I'm a jeweler and I use Wite-Out as an anti-flux... it would take a few bottles lol It would look amazing cut into pendants!

[@clifbradley]

That sucks. I woukd still buy that blade. It went through a 2x4 without issues. It woukd be an honor to have something you made. I woukd never use it like they do in competitions. It woukd be used to chop meats and veggies in my house. Maybe use it to whack a palm frond down to roast hot dogs or marshmallows in the firepit. That would be the toughest thing I put it through. If you want to sell it, I'll sign a waiver or whatever and won't hold you liable if it breaks or snaps. I understand that it's nitmup to your quality, but your standards are way above most companies.

[@Zodliness]

I bet there's plenty people be proud to own that knife. Maybe you could start a line in less than perfect blades, then it's not a total loss. 😉👍

[@scrappyddz]

it's fine.... admirable that it's not good enough to sell, but it is good enough to give away to a friend - with a disclaimer.

[@patlyn6784]

Idea maybe instead of grinding each square stock before cutting the cubes. Just cut the cubes then tumble them to get the scale off then clean and do the same thing. I would think all the sharp edges on the edge of the cubes don’t help with that stress of the heat and pressure. Vs tumbling would round them out a bit.