There is a lot of ground to cover on your questions Bobby. So, I will focus on the age old – is a forged blade better, question. The answer is yes, and no. Is a forged blade better than a stock removal blade? I don’t know, is an oven heat treated blade better than a forge heat treated blade? Is a blade made by John better than a blade made by Ted? Etc… with my point being that there are countless factors in what makes one knife different from another, and how it was shaped can be the least of them at times.

The first thing we can do is eliminate the things that are simply impossible and tighten up our terminology while increasing our understanding of the topic. The very term “edge packing” has become a running joke in the knife business now, but it wasn’t always that way. At one time folks actually used that term seriously, and it tainted the conversation from then on. You see, the concept of “packing” or “compacting” the edge runs afoul of reality and how the universe actually works. Steel doesn’t work that way, you can’t pack iron atoms tighter than they are without cosmic level forces, and if you could, some very exciting things can happen when you suddenly “squeeze” heavy metal atoms, much more exciting than any of us want.

What can be done, just not through hammer blows is that the atomic stacking of the iron can be rearranged with heat; this is what is responsible for the effects of heat treatments. But, as you pointed out, this stacking will be redone every time you reheat the steel to just below non-magnetic, and any stock removal maker can do the same. You will hear a lot of mental acrobatics dealing with effecting grain size. But if this is accomplished with hammer blows, rather than just allowing heat to do it naturally, you get a lot of other unwanted strain effects along with it. This is exactly why we normalize, to allow heat to undo the unwanted effects of hammering while doing the desirable things that steel does when cycled.

Now, there was a time when I would have said, “No” the forged blade is not better. But years of studying steel, and unfortunate trends in the manufacturing of certain alloys, now leads me to say that there is a good possibility of a forged blade coming out better than one that was just ground to shape. Now, don’t get me wrong, due to the number of things that could go wrong, the odds of a forged blade being inferior has always been incredibly high if the smith is not on the top of their game. Add to this all the really bad practices and misinformation I have seen bladesmithing handicapped with, the chances of the forged blade being better gets even slimmer. But…

A skilled, and knowledgeable bladesmith, who really understands his material, becomes very familiar and accomplished with heat. Forget the hammer, except in how it affects rates of cooling on the anvil, the real power is in the heat. How high, or how low, and at what rate you get there, all have very profound effects on the steel. Not all steel comes to us from the mill in ideal condition. How many of us have seen the heavy banding down an untouched bar of steel? The mill essentially sets the stage for the stock removed knife, and what you see is what you get. But as bladesmiths, with a working knowledge of heat, we have dozens of opportunities to undo, or even improve, upon the condition that we received that steel in.

But in the end, most of the improvements that are possible will not be all that noticeable in normal knife use. Too many times I have been told how great a custom knife is, when I knew the makers horrible heat treatment practices, which leads me to believe that it is all incredibly subjective and very reliant on the all-powerful placebo effect. I have also tested some of those knives and realized how easily impressed the owner was. For most of the public, the standard we are held to is to produce a blade that cuts better than their Walmart special, and any smith, or stock remover should be able to do that.

Also, I have seen more scientific attempts to explain forging improving a blade via closing up and reducing mill defects, such as inclusions, voids and other inconsistencies along the edge as it is hand hammered down. But let's stop and look at this. When considering this, ask yourself if you have ever seen the size of an ingot at a steel mill. In reduction, that is beyond most of our imaginations, the mill reduces steel that is measured in many feet of thickness down to fractions of an inch for the purpose of refinement, and in one heat! The Bladesmith then comes along and hand hammers a bevel down the edge of that 1/4" bar and tries to take the credit for reducing the steel. Really? I guess the stock remover could always put it on the floor and step on it a few times.

I had started typing a reply to the original questions, and erased it all. Then I repeated this process a few more times, before telling myself to wait for Kevin.

Thank you Kevin, for not disappointing.

For those of you who are interested in a little humor behind this subject, back in 2017, I amassed what I considered to be the top 10 reasons that forging is superior to stock removal.

Here is the list of quantifiable and repeatable reasons:

1. Buying steel in large bulky chunks is slightly less expensive than buying precision ground steel.

2. When we were young, our parents told us we should never play with fire or hit things. Forging allows us to do both. (if you do it right, you can even get paid to do it)

3. You are not constrained in size, shape or design by what size or shape steel bars come in. You are only constrained by your ability to convince or coerce the steel to assume the shape you intend for it.

4. You get really cool, hard and black boogers that scare children.

5. Pattern welding!

6. Bad knives can always be reforged into something useful.

7. You need more tools to forge stuff. (yes, this is a benefit)

8. You can make the tools you can't or don't want to buy. (hey why buy something for $10 when you can make it for $20?)

9. You get cool burn scars that impress members of the opposite sex.

10. You get to tell funny stories at social events about how you accidentally set yourself on fire.

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For those of you who are interested in a little humor behind this subject, back in 2017, I amassed what I considered to be the top 10 reasons that forging is superior to stock removal.

Here is the list of quantifiable and repeatable reasons:

1. Buying steel in large bulky chunks is slightly less expensive than buying precision ground steel.

2. When we were young, our parents told us we should never play with fire or hit things. Forging allows us to do both. (if you do it right, you can even get paid to do it)

3. You are not constrained in size, shape or design by what size or shape steel bars come in. You are only constrained by your ability to convince or coerce the steel to assume the shape you intend for it.

4. You get really cool, hard and black boogers that scare children.

5. Pattern welding!

6. Bad knives can always be reforged into something useful.

7. You need more tools to forge stuff. (yes, this is a benefit)

8. You can make the tools you can't or don't want to buy. (hey why buy something for $10 when you can make it for $20?)

9. You get cool burn scars that impress members of the opposite sex.

10. You get to tell funny stories at social events about how you accidentally set yourself on fire.

Good list but you forgot, because it is FUN!!!

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1. Buying steel in large bulky chunks is slightly less expensive than buying precision ground steel.

I remember getting 12’ lengths of L6 1-1/4” round for $0.99 a pound! Power hammers are great!

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2. When we were young, our parents told us we should never play with fire or hit things. Forging allows us to do both. (if you do it right, you can even get paid to do it)

Many times, when I was asked how I became a bladesmith I have replied that when I was a kid I liked to play with fire and I liked to play with knives- and I just never grew up.

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5. Pattern welding!

There are times that I think that Bill Moran getting all that PR for that pattern welded knife he took that that Guild Show all those years ago did more to save bladesmithing than anything. You can’t make damascus on a grinder.

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7. You need more tools to forge stuff. (yes, this is a benefit)

I believe it is in your DNA to be a tool hoarder if you are a bladesmith.

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8. You can make the tools you can't or don't want to buy. (hey why buy something for $10 when you can make it for $20?)

I can’t tell you the number of times that I started making tools until I had a pile of blanks or parts only to realize I needed it this year some time and just pulled out the $10 to buy it!

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9. You get cool burn scars that impress members of the opposite sex.

Around the age that you are done impressing the opposite sex, those scars are really transformed by time so you can get more respect from children who are intimidated by them. And all those Borax strikes turn into liver spots! It looks like tattoos of the Milky Way.

OMG!! These are GOLD NUGGETS!!!

There are times that I think that Bill Moran getting all that PR for that pattern welded knife he took that that Guild Show all those years ago did more to save bladesmithing than anything.

I believe it is in your DNA to be a tool hoarder if you are a bladesmith.

I just never grew up.

AND MY FAVORITE....

You can’t make damascus on a grinder.