Grind first, heat treat later, certainly makes sense. But that approach has it’s plusses and minuses.

Years ago I knew a Sword Smith who worked with stock removal rather than forging. This was in the early days of the SCA. Back in the late ‘sixties, swords, daggers, halberds, and other period weapons were not thick on the ground and ripe in the pod.

My buddy the Smith would cut swords to shape, and then grind the shaped stock. At that point the blades were sent to a heat treat specialist. One of his blade blanks—intended to be a double edged straight sword—returned from the heat treat as a double edged scimitar. As scimitars go, it was a wonderful sword. But it was a far cry from what he had intended. The best we could figure out was that the double edge grind had not been consistent. There was enough difference between the way that one edge was ground, compared to the other edge, that the heat treat—um—treated the two edges as different entities. One edge contracted. The opposite edge expanded. The result was something more likely to be carried by Saladin than by Cour-de-lion.

My buddy had made a deliciously curved sword which was a happy accident. Nevertheless, it was a failure in terms of the quality control that a smith needs to maintain when shaping a blade. When you cut and grind a blade blank, and send it in for heat treat, you should not to be shooting dice. It is a Very Good Thing to learn sufficient grinding skill that whatever blade you make will end up the way you intend it to finish. If you cut and grind one knife and the heat treat specialists return you a different knife, you need to work on your grinding skills.