The Process
This brief view of the forging process will give you an insight into the many hours that goes into creating an Inglis knife.
This video shows the many steps of refolding and manipulating the steel to create the unique patterns for which my knives are known.
Pattern welding
The patterns I make are produced by forge welding two dissimilar steels together.
I start each knife by making a billet of alternating layers of these two steels. which contains around twenty layers. It is then taken up to a welding temperature of around 1200℃. Once it’s up to temperature I will consolidate the steel under my 12 ton hydraulic press, forging it into a solid piece.
From here I will manipulate the layers and start restacking the steel to increase the complexity of the pattern.
Forging The Blade
Once the pattern is made I move onto forging the steel down to near its final thickness and start to forge the profile.
This is where the blade takes shape and starts to look like a knife, rather than just a bar of steel. Firstly the tip is forged to a point, making a pre form of the knife. The heel is then drawn down, which is the widest point of the knife, so it’s important to do this early on whilst there is still plenty of thickness in the steel to move.
From here the rest of the blade can be forged to near its final thickness and length. The bevels are then forged in to get the blade ready for grinding.
The knife will then go through heat treating - this involves three normalising cycles to remove the stress in the steel from forging, before being hardened and tempered in a kiln.
Grinding the knife
After heat treating I grind the bevels to their final thickness and remove any marks left from forging the blade with a course belt. Then using progressively finer belts I get the steel ready for finishing.
It is finished by hand sanding the blade - this is a long process but a necessary one to get a finish on the blade that will show off the pattern properly.
Finally the knife is etched in ferric chloride to etch away at the parts of the steel made of 80crv2. It is then etched for a final time in coffee to darken the etched 80crv2 steel, leaving the 15n20 steel bright giving contrast to the pattern.
The Handle
The handle of a knife is a place for a maker to really express themselves as you have a lot more freedom to play with colours, textures and shapes than you do in the blade.
I make most of my handles from carbon fibre and mokume gane. Both of these materials have their own patterns that I think compliments the pattern on the blade. I make the Mokume gane in the same way as the steel but with copper and nickel.
I use the spacer as a place to add colour and keep the rest of the knife monochromatic.