honestly I always end up with some stock removal.  I still call my work forged.  There are guys that are talented enough to do 97% of the profile on the anvil, but for the most part, I dont believe that is what the public wants.  The blades I am selling are the polished damascus blades.  Some require stock removal so as not to distort the pattern others I can hammer closer to shape.  however they all require a lot of time on the grinder, flattening, smoothing and then finally hand sanding.  To me, this is still a forged blade in that I have spent, sometimes considerable time, creating the steel and the basic shape.  much like a wood worker will make the basic shape then haul out the sanders for final finishing.

I wrote about this in my Knife Magazine column last June. I don't really have any answer then or now. 

Is it a forged blade .. probably.  is it a well forged blade.. no ,I would say it isn't. Is it a fine well made knife, maybe. My judgement of another's skill in one step in the process means all most nothing. with some exception we don't tend to actually judge the skill of anyone's forging, and I am not sure we should. 

Forging isn't a mark of quality, the act of hitting it with a hammer isn't some magic that makes a knife better. Forging is a skill.  It can open doors to our creative process,  it can save material, and even be an efficient method of production.  there are lots of good reason to forge, but just making a great knife isn't one of them.  

For me forging is the fun part, the part that got me into all of this. The better I get at forging the less time it takes me to forge a blade,  and the closer to shape I tend to forge (with some exceptions that I CHOOSE not to forge close to shape.)  

The only time that question really matters is in judgement for rank or awards.

MP

     Just getting started with bladesmithng, I think if you are using a forge and a hammer to create the pre-form/profile of the blade from tip to tang, that is a forged blade, no matter how much you go to the grinder to finish it.  As to how far you take it from there, just depends on how enjoyable the process is to you, and whether you enjoy trying to forge it down as close to finished as possible, that is part of the journey.  Experience and practice gets you closer.  Each knife you say:  I should have done this, or I should have done that, or my hammer blows were too heavy here and too light there. I think it depends on your perspective and experience.  I am proud of my first knife, and to say "Hey, I forged this."  Two or five years from now, will my standards call it a "good/great" forged blade, probably not.  I would say if you don't consider it forged, because of how much grinding you had to do, then it isn't forged to your standard of what a forged blade should be.