Been watching a lot of forged in fire and finally fell to the temptation and built a forge. I've been playing with the idea of making a fleshing knife. Does anyone have experience with this?

Yes I do...

How did it turn out and any tips? I do have a couple damascus bars that I made that I want to try making a fleshing knife with

Interesting.

Gonna have to follow this thread

Just guessing but your Damascus bars are probably something like 1095,1080,1084 and 15n20? am I right? If your using Damascus when you do your forging just keep it at a good forging temp so as not to make cold shunts when you forge down the handle tangs... regardless the old saying "If a blade you wish to win, forge it thick and grind it thin" fits here.. Whatever design your looking to make keep it thick before the heat treat..
A flashing knife is an odd shape and if its too thin when you heat treat it will turn into a pretzel when you quench.. Forge your basic shape, do your clean up, grind your basic bevel but leave the edge at least 35 to 40 thou thick.. Then finish grind after temper..
Be careful with the finished edge..Most fleshing knives have a single bevel edge, much like a chisel or kataba in Japanese cutlery.... I suggest you finish your single bevel by hand if you have never done one on a belt grinder... There's plenty of ways to do that.. One of the easiest is sand paper on a flat surface....
Don't get in a hurry with this type of grind.. Take your time

Thanks for the advise. My bars are ladder patterned with 1080 and 15n20. My plan was to get the general shape and tangs forged out then quench. I'll have the edges chisel shaped with the outside edge sharpened and the inside for pushing. I'm going to use my necker 600 as a reference.