1st Forged Knife

[LazyW]

Here is my 1st hand forged knife. Learned a lot. It is 1084 with copper corby bolts for the pins and bourbon barrel staves for the handle.
1. I need to start with thicker steel (started with 1/8")
2. Need to find a better way to flatten the staves when i use them.
3. Work on my grinding skills to get a nice flat blade and handle scales.

Any critiques are welcome. The handle was longer but I had to shorten it to get rid the gap between the tang and wood.

 

[EngrSorenson]

Promising start- congratulations on completing it. I'm not sure what you used to flatten the scales, but a simple #4 bench plane should make anything just about as flat as you need it.
I might recommend sacrificing some of the char in favor of a more contoured handle.

I'm also not sure about any finer points of using wood that's been steam bent into shape, as is the case with barrel staves.
There might be some stability concerns, but I'm completely ignorant when it comes to repurposing barrel staves.