These are two knives made from the same 2.6kg ingot of steel (Low alloy with a bit of P and Cr). The ingot was drawn out into a 3/4 thick by 2 in wide bar and then cut into 3/4 x 1 x 6 in bars. All pictures are post heat treat. These two bars took about 40% of the original ingot.
1st Bar: Drawn out by hand with a 4lb hammer. Forged hira-zukuri style (including the tang). Quenched with about 1/16 in edge and then ground flat.
2nd Bar: Drawing dies on a 25 ton press for most of the reduction mixed with 4lb hammer to straighten and bevel. Forged hira-zukuri style (including the tang). Last 4 or 5 forging cycles an aggressive farriers hammer was used. Quenched with about 1/16 in edge and then ground flat.
Interesting how much the final forging changes the structure. On the first bar I ended up grinding a little more than I wanted to and I feel that some of the pattern was wiped out because of it. The last picture is the first bar finished up with a handle and shows the hira-sukiri shape on the tang. I haven't seen any wootz knives like this but I think that it lends itself well for showing off the pattern and with the distal taper back to front, adds more strength to the blade. There also isn't any tedious grinding for a bevel. IDK about everyone else but wootz steel takes a toll on my grinding belts...
Moving forward with the differences in final forging, this knife was from the same ingot as the two knives above. The final forging was improved on slightly from the others because there was a significant amount of material that I had to grind off.
This one ended at about .2 in thickness and then scale decarb was ground off leaving about .14 in
