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Originally Posted by Congoblades
Tim, the examples you gave are indeed nice weapons, you can clearly see they are forged, the two I posted are not. I think that makes a difference.
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Hi Congoblades,
many functional knives can be produced by 'stock removal', many modern African blades are made from car 'leaf springs' ....a good source of carbon steel. This is then ground/ filed into shape......if a mechanical grinder is used ...you have to be careful not to overheat the steel (through heat build-up from the grinding process) otherwise the 'temper' of the steel is altered and 'softens' the steel. Many newer Takouba's have thin flexable blades ....which do not appear to be 'forged' ....and the fullers are 'ground' as well....but can be quite sharp. They could certainly wound an opponent who is wearing 'traditional' light clothing....as Tim has already pointed out.....
I have a old Hausa arm dagger, which has a very nicely tempered blade, thin with some "springy-ness", definately a 'user'....