What I would like to know is how much of the steel is lost in the forging process? I talked with a prehistoric blacksmith reenactor who once made his own iron using sediments (iron oxides) from a local river. That was a fairly involved process with a relatively low yield. Have you ever weighed a piece before and after forging?

WRT forging temperatures, I saw a demonstration by the aforementioned blacksmith, where he heated the material in a charcoal fire powered by bellows until it was almost white-hot and began to sparkle (at that which point the iron starts burning).

It's a good idea to use charcoal. Coal can contain impurities that can affect the steel negatively, epsecially sulphur and phosphorus.

Phil --- That's an idea that's more my speed. (Although I think that Mark is intrigued by the DIY forge. Maybe we'll try it in a decade or so when the garden is so well mulched it doesn't take over our lives in the summer. )

Roland --- Care of tools is an excellent point, and one we need to pay more attention to. I've read about sharpening shovels, etc., and I never seem to get around to it, probably because I don't really know what I'm doing. I think that hand tool care would be right up there with learning to use a scythe if I had a local expert I could apprentice with.

It is not that difficult. You can start with your kitchen knives. Since these are almost always stainless steel, they respond very well to a honing steel treatment. You can do that every day if you wish. Only if the knives are really blunt (say, once a year) you need to get a dual coarse/fine sharpening stone. An artificial stone (bonded abrasive) is the cheapest and works fine. A piece of wet factory glass (float glass) with a piece of fine waterproof sandpaper on it also works very well.

Grind the knife at an approximately 20 degree angle on both sides (lay it flat on the stone and tilt it up by 20 degrees), that should be fine for most kitchen knives. You can make knives sharper by using a smaller angle, but that makes the edge more vulnerable. If keeping a constant angle is difficult for you, use a sharpening jig.

Knives or tools that rust are carbon steel, which is harder and holds an edge better. Don't use a honing steel here, just a sharpening stone.

Personally I like to use water on the sharpening stone, to keep the metal cool and carry away the swarf.

Phil, I completley agree with you on using sawblades or lawnmower blades for blade making. Frankly ive used old discarded cake spreaders, discarded butcher/kitchen knives, hand saw blades, skilsaw blades, and a variety of other discarded items to make blades and other items. While I 100% support taking care of your tools and items, most of the stuff I personally use to make new items are items that are discarded or sold because they no longer are needed for their original purpose (old files that have become dull, saw blades that are now dull...) and most people would rather throw away or scrap their items than resharpen or rework. Its the modern disposable way of thinking for most people, which while sad it does lend itself to those of us who reuse, recycle, or repurpose those items discarded and bring them not only to new life, but reduce what I actually "buy" from the stores.

Kind of a use the whole buffalo way of thinking with items, might as well find a use for items rather than throw them out or discard them.

Daddy --- That's a topic I've pondered for a while. Is it worth holding onto old skills just because humanity might need them some day? Sure, I'm glad that we still have shovels even though big agriculture has pretty much made these hand tools obsolete, but that's because shovels fit a niche in my life. If the shovels had all disappeared, chances are I would have read about them in a book and found some way to make one after all. I'm not sure that a skill is worth learning just to turn the farm into a living history museum. But I'm still pondering....

Roland --- I do tend to sharpen our knives...well, the ones we use to kill chickens, right before we do the deed. We have a cheapo knife sharpener that has the angle built in --- you just run the blade through it a few times on the coarse side, then on the fine side. Probably not good enough for great knives, but it works fine with our so-so knives.

I was wondering about the high carbon steel distinction David made in his post, and I'm glad you added that tidbit about it.

David --- The recycling element is what I love most about your hobby and post! (Although "hobby" makes it sound like less than it is.) Of course, we'd all love it if our culture stopped churning out disposables, but while we live in the current world, I think that it's a noble occupation to take those throwaways and turn them into useful tools.

A lot of steel (if not most of it) is recycled these days, mainly because it is much cheaper than refining ore. Steel does not lose its properties when recycled.

BTW, if you ever have the opportunity to see impression die forging, go and have a look. It is very impressive, seeing white-hot steel being formed in only a couple of strokes.

There are some nice videos on youtube as well.