Beginner knife design feedback

T

Trauma

Joined
May 26, 2019
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I am planning on making my first knife. I have got my supplies and am ready to start. I drew out a design, full scale, that I plan to cut out and use as a template. I am not an artist by any means and any feedback would be appreciated.

Thank You

https://imgur.com/a/2KnrK65
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Last edited:
Not a bad start.

You don't have a scale on the image, but it looks too short and fat. Drop the point a bit, and make it about 1" to 1.25:" wide. A good begining size is a 3" blade and a 4" to 4.5" handle.

The way you drew it is what we call a "sharpened bar of steel". It is too straight along the spine and "stiff" looking along the bottom of the handle. Drop the tip as well as the butt. Make your finger groove blend back into the handle, not be a sharp transition. Look at some knives in the Gallery or The Exchange for ideas of how to add some "flow" to your blade.

Make some new sketches and post them.
 
Thanks to all the advice. I went back to the sketch pad and came up with this. Better? What can I do to tweak this? I am trying to keep it pretty basic for my first knife.

Thanks
 

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I’d do a quick sculpting of that handle shape to see how it feels in hand, and notice what kind of gripping ability you have. More times than not a handle will have a convex belly rather than a sweeping concave handle.
Not saying it won’t work but I think you can mock it up with relative ease.
 
Hi

Thanks for the feedback. I see what you were talking about the handle. I think this sketch has a better fell to it with the handle changes suggested. Doing a mock up blade would be tough since I am working with limited hand tools. Hand files, angle grinder and a hand drill. I might spend some money to buy a bench top drill press since I cant seem to drill perpendicular to the work.
 

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You can easily shape a 2x4 or something smaller very quickly with an angle grinder and a flap wheel. You can also carve it down, then file and sand to shape to see how the handle feels in your hand. It's very fast and you'll learn a lot.
 
I would think you could take a 1”x4”x8” piece of lumber and mock it up in 30 minuets (paying more attention to the handle that the blade) with the tools you have listed.
 
Your first re-draw was the best. You might want a tad less inward curve in the handle belly, but it is very close. I would add about 3/16" less convex.

One thing that new makers don't realize is that a sketch is 2-D. When you get to rounding the handle, the curvature from the spine and belly will make the handle look and feel to be thinner. To prove this to yourself, look at , then grab, grab a 1X1" square block of wood. Now do the same with a 1X dowel. It seems much smaller both visually and physically.
 
You can also do a mock up out of layers of corrugated cardboard. Cut out 5 or 6 of the shape you have there and stack them up.
 
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