>>894906>I have to tell you that whatever you make isn't going to hold an edge well unless you forge and properly heat treat it. Grinding stuff down probably won't cut it.and as a professional bladesmith, I can tell you, that this guy is wrong. He's talking complete bullshit.
You can grind your blade, you can forge it, you can CNC mill it, you can shape it by whatever method you like. Hell, use your teeth and gnaw it to shape. It will make absolutely _no_ difference to the edge-holding qualities of the finished product.
The only thing that determines edge-holding is the heat-treatment of the steel being done properly.
How you shape it prior to heat-treatment is absolutely irrelevant to the quality of a blade. In fact, forging is more likely to result in you introducing carburisation of the steel from overheating, or irregularities in the steel due to strikes as it cooled too far, when compared to stock removal. Remember, to become barstock for forging or stock removal, the steel has already been shaped from a 1-10 tonne ingot through 20 sets of rollers pushing a thousand tonnes of pressure per square inch through the metal.
A good quality heat-treatment, for the correct alloy, with 2-3 normalisation cycles after shaping, followed by a quench in a suitable quenchant for the steel alloy chosen (ie, for 1095, go for Parks' 55 quench oil.), followed by 2-3 heat-treat cycles of around 200-220 degrees C, will result in a blade of around 57-59HrC hardness which is both durable against cracking, and will have exceptional edge-holding properties.
I will repeat: what method you use to shape the blade has absolutely NO bearing on the quality of the edge holding properties of the knife. Only the choice of steel, and the application of a proper (or improper) heat-treatment will determine the edge-holding quality of the blade.