This random video came up in my Recommended feed on YouTube and it's one of the VERY few times it's actually found me something I would be interested in watching.

It's a documentary video from 1981 following the making of a Finnish Puukko. Really fascinating process and just shows the artistry and time put into these works of art. Not to spoil the ending but the knives are BEAUTIFUL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLnqr6IGVgs

Nice.  Very painstaking work, and it's all free hand.  Very nice.

Check how gently he hammers the blade during the final stages of the forging.
Took me years to learn why and how that has to be done  :)

You can really see they are masters at what they do. and the final product is flawless.

Beautiful work. I love watching master craftsman make things freehand. It seems almost impossible how perfect they make it. I really want one of those knives now lol.

One familiar woman also has the making a tradition knifes.

In the comments of the video there are some links to similar knives that are still made relatively the same way but the prices, at least for me on my student budget, are a little high... I understand why of course, a lot of time and mastery goes into it but I would never be able to justify getting one :(

The other option is start smithing on your own ;)

If you provide the space, tools and materials I'll be happy to give it a go ;)

That was a nice video to watch. It would be nice to make a sling toggle with the method the handle was made...

I use a chunk of railroad iron as an anvil, a small grill, charcoal and a hair drier.  A 24 ounce (3/4kg) ball peen hammer and a 2 pound (1kg) masonry hammer and old lawn mower blades.  I have a PVC pipe set in the ground full of old cooking oil for tempering.  I also use my oven for final tempering.  I have made several knives and two swords with those.

It's very difficult to get to welding temperatures, so I usually set my project up so I don't have to.  Also, I heat the blade up to remove the temper from the lawnmower blade, then cut my rough shape with a hack saw.

This is much more time consuming than if I had a shop with the proper set up and forge but it's probably better than what a lot of ancient blacksmiths were able to use, plus, I am starting with steel, that generally wasn't an option for most of the ancients.

And yes, Mauro, it's all your fault.   ;D 

My next project will be making and casting something from bronze.  I'll blame that on Mauro, too.   ;D 

And I still have to find time to finish my matchlock.   ;D

My first 5 or so bows were made with a dull kitchen knife in my parents garage. Granted, bow making doesn't require heating metal to high temps but, point is, if there's a will there's a way.  And hey... you learn some good lessons along the way. Such as, "because it's straight" is not a legitimate reason for cutting down a decorative crepe myrtle.

Hair drier, short iron pipe attached to it, a tiny pit in the ground with the pipe blowing in, grill coal, a hammer head on the ground to act as an anvil, a hammer and thongs is all you need to start forging  8-)

Cover the pit with a proportionate iron cylinder (e.g. an upside down bucket thick enough to stand the heat) and you have the perfect bronze-melting furnace  :D

For the low price of a sixpack of Shiner Bock, I just got some really nice foot-long railroad pieces from the metal shop at work.  I know they'll work as-is, but I've really been itching to turn one into a properly shaped anvil and put it to work. I still need to figure out how to run a backyard suburban foundry quietly enough that the neighbors won't complain though 

My railroad anvil is set on a stumpy chunk of log I salvaged when I cut up a tree that had fallen across a road.  It doesn't make the ringing clang that a proper, tempered anvil makes.