A thread of first knives....show off what you made when you started out!

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GrizzlyBear

Joined
Dec 5, 2009
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This is just for fun and a way to see where we all began compared to where we are today. If you have pictures of your first (or even your 2nd) knife please post them up and maybe a small bio on how long ago it was.

I haven't made my first ground blade out of good known steel yet. I have made about 8 knives from premade blanks. I did make 2 profiled and ground knives out in the Auto Shop at Sears last fall/winter during our down time. Just to see what I could do and to get some basics down for the process.

Both of these knives were made from unknown steel. The first, from a piece of stock that had been wedged into the wall for probably the last 10 years. I drew out a design, cut it with an angle grinder and profiled on our bench grinder. I finished it out with a couple of files we had on hand and sandpaper. It has a swedge filed in and some quick filework to the spine. Once again, just practice and killing time :). Being that it was unknown steel, I had no idea how to do any heat treating so I heated it with a torch to non-magnetic and quenched it in a tub of used motor oil. I noticed it got quite a bit harder, and since it was just for fun and practice (mainly a time killer lol) I didn't do any tempering. I handled it with a piece of scrap Bocote that I had which was too small to do anything else with....and barely big enough for this knife. It's made a pretty neat letter opener thus far!

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This other one was made at the same time. I needed a gift for my brother who is EXTREMELY hard to buy for...I had a couple ideas and then time ran out trying to order them in time for Christmas. So, I finished up this other blade I was playing with as a letter opener as well. It is handled with walnut burl from a tree cut from our granny's yard. It's not perfect, but it's the better of the 2 and wound up being a nice hand made gift along with the box it's in.

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So, those are my first actual hand made knives. Would like to make my first out of GOOD steel soon, but I'm having fun doing the premade blades for now :).

What have you folks got to share?
 
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First knife on a belt grinder Craftsman 2 x42 , 1095 , 8" OAL I heat treated it myself too . It was made 3 months ago.


 
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This was my first ever knife. It was done with a cordless drill, hacksaw and files. I cut the scales from one of my dogs bones and did the jigging and dying myself. They're installed over brass liners with brass pins. Didn't turn out very good but it did give me my the motivation to continue with it.

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This is my second attempt. Again it was done with a cordless drill, hacksaw and files. Lot of errors, squared micarta scales with no contour, bad plunge.

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This was my first knife, I started it when I was 14, I softened a file, and filed it to shape, then when I was in college I heat treated it and finished it

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Material: Nicholson file, brass hex stock, desert ironwood

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This is one I made 38 years ago and gave it to a friend who gave it back to me 4 years ago. Made it from a farm implement shank.
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Wow, you guys have some great early blades.

My first was the Burger Splitter.
It was an old file cut with a dremel and hacksaw, ground on a 1x42 with no platen.
About halfway through I learned about tempering and annealing.... that sped things up.
The handle is some mahogany scrap.

The edge is such a convex wedge that it works perfect for splitting frozen burger patties apart, and it lives in the knife block for that purpose.

This was February 2010. I then made drawings for the rest of the year until restarting with some instruction a year later, and I've been going at it regularly for most of 2011 so far.

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So as you can see... I haven't learned a damn thing, since... lol.
Click to expand...

Rick, your leatherwork has improved substantially.
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-Daizee
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This is my first one. O1 and hickory. I made this one on my dining room table in our apartment when we were between houses back in 2008. My wife never said a word because she new I was going crazy in that apartment. I think I made my first 3, or 4 knives on that table. Man is it nice to have a shop to work in now! I left the heat treat scale on it cause I wanted and old look to it, plus I didn't know what the heck I was doing either. I do know the heat treat is correct because I did that at work and am very familiar with O1 heat treatment. What a fun ride it has been so far!

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#1
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#2
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I have not progressed too much since, I'm staring #4 today.
 
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This was my first; all by hand (files, hand drill, hacksaw, etc.) from 1/4" 5160 except for some rough shaping on the micarta scales which I did on my newly acquired 2x42 Craftsman. Heat treat was in a propane forge, quenched in veggie oil. I think it was about 3 years ago or so?

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Here's one of my most recently finished pieces. I now have a KMG, portaband, drill press, etc. Heat treat was done in a friend's Evenheat kiln.

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Heres my first D-2, black liners, s/s pins and thong, hollow ground, redwood burl?, my old boss had to have it and traded me 3 milgard windows for my house for it, my 3rd is in my avatar, alabama damascus, red/white liners,s/s corbys, and some redwood scales mark (burl source) picked out for it at this years oregon show. Cool thread, im approaching my 1 year mark next month, its been crazy fun and only just begun!!!! GHaile
 

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I am for sure winning the ugliest and maybe the oldest (so far) first knife contest ....what's the prize? You all did pretty good for the first shot, I love seeing them!
 
I still have it. I just picked it up off the floor of my shop where it has sat quite a little while and snapped this picture of it.

Oh... I'm going to regret posting this:

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This was my first attempt, done about 18 years ago. Forged with an oxyacetylene out of "tool steel" and ground with an angle grinder. I never finished it.


Okay, if I'm going to post my ugliest knife I've ever made on a public forum, I'm at least going to post a link to the prettiest knife I've made to help balance it out a bit:

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These were the first two I made around 1970ish when I was still in college. After I made them I never got around to making another knife until 2008. I had forgotten all about them until my brother asked me to help him clean out his basement where he had them stored. I borrowed them to take pictures, and then gave them back to him. They are made from un-annealed industrial hacksaw blades and ground to the mirror finish you see on a hard wheel grinder. The top one has a handle of mahogany and the middle one has rosewood. The bottom knife is one I made last year (2010).

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- Paul Meske, Wisconsin
 
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