Gears are formed from annular blanks in a gear-forming apparatus including a die block formed with an axial bore and teeth radially projecting into the bore, a cylindrical punch sleeve axially movable toward and away from the bore in the die block, a mandrel movable with the punch sleeve into and out of the bore in the die block, and a backup sleeve axially movable into and out of the bore in the die block in opposite directions to the directions of movement of the sleeve punch and mandrel, wherein gears are formed by preliminarily forcing at least one of the blanks into the bore in the die block until the blank is partially deformed by the teeth of the die block; placing another blank on the preceding blank so that the subsequent blank is received on the preceding blank; causing the mandrel to extend through the respective center holes in the preceding and subsequent blanks; pressing the preceding and subsequent blanks between the end faces of the punch and backup sleeve and forcing the two blanks through the bore in the die block so that the preceding blank is caused to form gear teeth on its outer peripheral surface; and forcing the subsequent blank and the gear resulting from the preceding blank through the bore in the die block for withdrawing the gear out of the bore in the die block.