Knives; forged vs, "stock removal"

S.Shepherd

Newbie
Maybe this will help a few who always hear "forged blades are better" understand why there really is no performance difference between the 2 ways of making a blade.
I use Kevin Cashens' page because he's don't the research, and being an American bladesmith society Master Smith he knows the subject matter better than most.

This is a long read but you'll understand the processes in the end.
http://www.cashenblades.com/images/articles/lowdown.html

Here's his closing paragraph';
"
What does it all mean?
In conclusion, after examining all of these facets of a complex process, there are indeed effects that forging can have upon the metal, however, much of it hardly falls into the realm of the fantastic claims that too many bladesmiths prop themselves up on a pedestal with, and the majority of these claims are easily debunked with an elementary understanding of the actual mechanisms at work. Too often the reason bladesmiths need extra ways to refine the steel is in order to fix all the extra abuse they heap upon it in forging it, another one of many odd “Catch-22’s” in the business. The fact is that, unless we just cold work it all and call it good, everything relies upon heating to those temperatures necessary to accomplish any of it. So if we let go of the concept of a hammer doubling as some sort of magic wand, tapping miraculous changes into the steel, and just approach the forging process as another step in heat treatment it could probably make a pretty good blade
 
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