"My very first knife" - post up!

Mike you really did have an advantage over most folks. Gil Hibben was one of my Hero's back when I started. To be able to work with him would have shaved years and allot of wasted money. A "Mentor" in the early years is money well spent.
Mike Carter said:
Good thread. It is interesting see all of the first knives.

I had a bit of an advantage and greatly reduced my learning curve as I made my first knife in Gil Hibben's week-long knifemaking class in 2003. I would have spent years learning on my own what I learned in that week. I am still proud of the result.

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Gil made a knife of the design so he could show me how to do it. To my surprise, my wife bought the one that Gil made and gave it to me for my birthday a couple of months later. The pair are proudly displayed in my home and I would never part with either of them. They represent the beginning of a life-changing journey.

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bushcraftbasics said:
thats almost like cheating! ;)
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Well, considering that I didn't start making knives until I was 49, I needed to cheat a little. I don't have much hope of gaining 50+ years of knifemaking experience so I had to take advantage of Gils. I couldn't agree more that a mentor or taking a class from an experienced maker is money well spent if you are serious about knifemaking.
 
I brought in a picture to work a while ago to post here and just uncovered it from a pile of stuff.

FirstKnives.jpg

I forged these blades from Nicholson files at a couple blacksmithing events held by Centaur Forge back in '04-'05. There was a lot of cussing and fighting and spittin' trying to get everything ground and to fit halfway decent. These were Christmas gifts. Top one was for my stepson, Shane. the middle one was for my buddy Kyle and the bottom one was for my son Sam. They've been turning out a little better nowadays
 
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This is the first one i ever made very happy with how it turned out did it this past summer. It is now in the mail on its way to NC. for my step Dads Christmas present.
 
It's been over a month since anyone has posted in this thread so I thought I would bring it back to life with my first blade finally completed on 1/24/13. It has been a long time in the making and I want to thank everyone here for the encouragement, support, and for taking the time to teach all of us newbies.

First is a picture of what I went through, about a six month period working semi part-part time, before acquiring the skills to produce a complete one. There were a few attempts before these, but this is when I got serious about knife making.
Starting on the left was one of my first grinds on a grinder ending with what would become my first completed knife (shown before heat treat) on the right. I am actually proud of each one of these because I accomplished something new on every one, which brought me to where I am today...
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The first of many...
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The pictures make it look better than it really is but I'm still proud of it.
 
Congratulations Steven.
Looks like you actually did learn something along the way. The knife looks darn good for a first. You should never stop learning, it pays off.

Rudy
 
Thanks Guys!

Rudy, as long as this brain is functioning, I'll be learning.

Laurence, I was going for the Loveless look and it kept getting smaller and smaller here and there. But I think I came pretty close to what I had envisioned.
 
Steven, You may have the most organized beginning so far. Did you have the blanks cut out for you? It looks like you now have the skills to go back and fix most of the early attempts.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Steven, You may have the most organized beginning so far. Did you have the blanks cut out for you? It looks like you now have the skills to go back and fix most of the early attempts.
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Thanks Bruce. I started out very unorganized, then the knife making bug hit me bad. I figured if I wanted to be successful at making multiple knives, I'd better up my odds and spend a little time preparing. I was becoming very impatient in the beginning and almost gave up. I honestly thought you had to have some special artistic talent to make a good knife until I found this thread and saw what you experts started out making. It literally motivated me to keep at it, so thank you for that.

I did not have the blanks cut out for me. After I would make a mistake that discouraged me, I would cut out a new one and try again. Most of them are beyond repair because I used them to practice tapering the tang, but I do plan on trying to save a few of the most recent ones. Unfortunately, I still can't successfully taper a tang, but I'm a little closer to reaching that goal :biggrin:
 
Tang tapering is a craft in itself!
If you go back I'am sure you can rescue those tapered tangs.

Then there is what I refer to as a Design modification!:biggrin:

You see, This is a new kind of tapered tang that I invented myself, ,,, ,,, ,,,.

LOL

That is really how most things are discovered! By accident and screw ups that become Design Modifications!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
My first build was 4 of the exact same design in 4 different sizes. I completed this one first a few days ago. Im very much enjoying the homemade look/ first time builder look of the tool.

knife 1 w patina (Custom).jpg
 
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