My first effort

Johan Nel

Well-Known Member
This is my first effort at making my own knife. It is still a work in progress. The shaping was primarilly by means of hand files.
The steel is 5.2 mm thick (just less than 7/32 on an inch) and is a carbon based "mystery" steel obtained from a mower blade (And yes, I did see all the justified advise on the forum against unknown steel, but it was what I had and I did test it beforehand for hardening).
The design is strongly based on a design from Dan Comeau's website that I had changed slightly.
The knife blade is thinned to 0.5mm at the cutting edge, all sides and profiles sanded down to 220 gr, ready to go to heat treatment & hardening.
The WIP by Josh Dabney was a huge help in making this knife. Although I did not follow it to the letter, it did give clarity on the processes and techniques and will still help further in finishing it. Thanks Mr Dabney!
 

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That's a great job. It's even better that you did it basically with files. The heat treatment is going to be based on a guess and crossed fingers and I hope it works out for you.

Doug
 
Thanks for the compliment Doug,
Yes, I know and I have to bear the consequinces of my choice. When I tested the steel, I heated it to non-magnetic and then quenched it in oil. It broke brittle when I struck it with a hammer, so it does harden. How well it will harden and how well it will retain an edge, remains to be seen.
 
Hey, congrats! That's a real clean and practical looking knife, good lines on blade and handle both. The whole thing has nice flow.
 
Thanks John,
As I said in my first post, this is an adaption (very minor) on a design by Dan Comeau, so he must get the credit for the design.
 
Thank you very much songdog. Your post has prompted me to also just comment that I have had the knife hardened and I did the tempering on it. I still have to finish the handle and finish up the blade. i hope to be working on it over the coming weekend.
 
That looks looks very well done to me. Very nice clean lines and the plunge shoulders appear to be lined up nicely. I wish my first attempt had turned out that clean!
 
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What irony it is that it took me more than six months to get myself so far to actually start on the handle itself. For some reason I developed this mental block on finishing this. I wanted it to be well made and not mess it up, since I only get to make my first knife once...:s7435:
And I ended up procastinating. I also did not have a plan on how to execute the handle, I have no tools to speak off and no one to teach me. I took the final plunge this past weekend and ended up wondering what took me so long...:)
The wood I used was literally a piece of wood that I salvaged from where I work. It has a lace wood texture to it and that was the reason I used it.
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I used a belt sander that I turned upside down and after pinning the two slabs together with toothpicks, I started to grind the excess material off to the outline drawn on the wood.
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Then I pinned it to the blade using toothpiks again and ground it to match the profile of the handle of the blade. Finally I pinned the two slabs to each other again, used a pencil to draw in the lines of how I perceived the handle to look like and started grinding away, ever so carefully.
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I now still have to do the finishing on the blade, then glue the slabs and pins onto the blade, then do the finishing touches to the slabs before polishing it. Perhaps a dark red liner might compliment the wood...:3:
 

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Thanks for the comments John, Ty, Hally2 & Kwzito! I appreciate that. I am also happy to hear that other makers find it of good enough standard.
I must really thank C. Craft here on a comment that he made on using an upturned belt sander to make stuff and shape stuff, because that helped me form a plan on executing the handle work. Prior to that I was going to resort to files and sandpaper only.
 
I respect the way you are taking your time with your first knife. It's so important to learn how to do things right in the beginning and to pay attention to all the details. This knife will be one you will be very proud of.
 
Thanks BrandartR,
I wish I could claim that I was biding my time and building up knowledge and ability before taking the plunge. The truth was otherwise, I was reluctant and unwilling to try. I think Von Gruff has a saying at the bottom of his posts that says: "The ability to do comes by doing" or something to that extent. I think that is what I experienced when I started working on the handles. What I realise now is even if I buggered it up, I could always just have started over again and learn from the process. An example to what I mean is this:
The original shape of the handle at the ricasso/bolster area was going to be more straight than what it ended up to be. When I was cutting off a piece of the one slab to reduce the wood that I would have to grind away when shaping, a small portion of the wood broke away, leaving a triangular gap against the tang. My choice was then to either start over or try and fix it. I decided to fix the problem by changing the shape of the front of the handle and see how it panned out. If it didn't work out or if I was not happy with the results, I could always still start over, but it worked out all right. I do not like the new shape that much, but nobody else would notice, unless they knew what the original design looked like to start off with.
I do not like to jump in blindly, so I do try and have a plan before I start, but I took way too long on this one. I still enjoy this though... :)
 
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Great first knife!

Do you work with wood or metal for a living? I ask because those trades tackle a lot of things that can be painful for first timers. When I see someones work that is this nice I assume they are in the trades or a serious hobbyist in wood or metal. That's real nice work. Keep at it.

One thing I have had to do is allow myself mistakes in the process of "discovery". By not having to make every project perfect it allows great freedom to learn.
 
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Thanks BrandartR,
I wish I could claim that I was biding my time and building up knowledge and ability before taking the plunge. The truth was otherwise, I was reluctant and unwilling to try. I think Von Gruff has a saying at the bottom of his posts that says: "The ability to do comes by doing" or something to that extent. I think that is what I experienced when I started working on the handles. What I realise now is even if I buggered it up, I could always just have started over again and learn from the process. An example to what I mean is this:
The original shape of the handle at the ricasso/bolster area was going to be more straight than what it ended up to be. When I was cutting off a piece of the one slab to reduce the wood that I would have to grind away when shaping, a small portion of the wood broke away, leaving a triangular gap against the tang. My choice was then to either start over or try and fix it. I decided to fix the problem by changing the shape of the front of the handle and see how it panned out. If it didn't work out or if I was not happy with the results, I could always still start over, but it worked out all right. I do not like the new shape that much, but nobody else would notice, unless they knew what the original design looked like to start off with.
I do not like to jump in blindly, so I do try and have a plan before I start, but I took way too long on this one. I still enjoy this though... :)

A large part of knife making, especially in the beginning of one's adventures, is learning how to fix mistakes as they happen. I, like many others, have a draw full of mistakes that just couldn't be fixed that I affectionately call the Drawer of Shame. Inside are the reminders of all of the things that I have learned about knife making through personal experience. I'm really not ashamed of these rejects because they represent learning hurdles that were overcome in subsequent knives. My advice when it comes to mistakes is three fold:

1. Avoid them in the first place. Tall order, I know.
2. Fix those that can be fixed, even if it calls for some "field modifications."
3. Above all else, learn from each one so that the next knife will be better.
 
A large part of knife making, especially in the beginning of one's adventures, is learning how to fix mistakes as they happen. I, like many others, have a draw full of mistakes that just couldn't be fixed that I affectionately call the Drawer of Shame. Inside are the reminders of all of the things that I have learned about knife making through personal experience. I'm really not ashamed of these rejects because they represent learning hurdles that were overcome in subsequent knives. My advice when it comes to mistakes is three fold:

1. Avoid them in the first place. Tall order, I know.
2. Fix those that can be fixed, even if it calls for some "field modifications."
3. Above all else, learn from each one so that the next knife will be better.
Well Spoken, and very good advice. Thanks BrandantR!
 
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