Critique my work

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BladeboBaggins

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Oct 25, 2011
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Well - here are a few that are passable as knives. The top one is a piece of mild steel that I started out with to see if I could turn out something that looks like a knife. It was my third try at grinding a reasonable looking knife. The bottom two are both .25" O-1. I switched to 1084, 3/16" to continue and improve. PLease beat me up on technique or areas to improve. Specifically if you see something that could be fixed, please tell me how or point me toward the right thread. I have done a lot of reading here, and searching, but you always miss something.

I did home brew parkerize job on the bottom two knives. It took pretty good on the smaller blade, with the exception of the blemish under my thumb. The bigger knife did not like the parkerize treatment even though it was the same recipe/procedure. Beats me why one came out better than the other.

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Thanks for any input.

Bill
 
Looks pretty good so far. The one thing that pops out to me, with .250stock, i would round/contour the handles a bit more so they are not blocky and cumbersome. They look pretty thick. As far as the parkerizing goes, you might have had some oil from your hands or something on the blade. Looks pretty nice so far :) Keep at it, lets see some more!
 
the grinds on the tanto are very good. this is one piece of advice that I will give. Your grinds will improve with practice. I can tell you that my first knives had nothing resembling a grind line. my latest bowie has passable ones. the only difference is practice and a greater appreciation of draw filing.
 
Nice job, sir!

I like chunky blades for field use because I am a knife abuser. Stacy(our mod) would poop his kilt if he saw how I treat a knife. That said, I feel you could go with a smaller angle on your primary bevels. Unless you are in love with the look, I would experiment with a wider flat grind. The secondary bevel on the tanto must be pretty steep. I think you would sacrifice little strength and improve your cutting by leaps and bounds.

I find when doing any type of etching/bluing, prep is the key. One thing I do differently now is after the degreasing wash, I don't wipe the blade with anything... just shake off the drips and go right into the acid/solution. Paper towels leave residue and even the cleanest laundered cotton cloth can transfer oil from where you picked it up.

You are off to an excellent start, bro.

Rick
 
You can see how you are progressing with each knife.

Take it out and cut every thing you can find with it and see how it performs. That will give you a lot of feed back. The look pretty suited for hard use, so go put them through their paces.

Keep up the good work.
 
Thanks for the comments.

Rick - I agree and it is one of the things I noticed when comparing these knives to a good knife. I finished a knife that I gave to a friend and it is wider. I am working on one now that is wider. The problem I have is keeping the grind lines consistent down the length of the knife. I keep getting one section higher than the rest and then try to correct and it gets higher in another section. I think it's just practice, but is there a technique for getting laser straight lines? Grinder then files?

I do need to improve my handles. They feel OK in my hand, but I could definitely do a better job.

I like the thick, chunky look as well.
 
The knives look good. Nice Job.

It seems to me that the finger notches are too deep, but you say that the handles fit your hand well, and they will certainly help in holding onto the knife.

Looking at your knives I notice the handle material goes all the way to the front of the finger notches. The middle one looks like it would be rather weak there with only the glue to strengthen it. With the bottom knife the handle material is starting to get in the way of the cutting edge, preventing you from making a higher grind.

- Paul Meske
 
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Paul - Great observations, thanks for the comments. The little knife handles were a save from a mistake. I agree they are thin at the front. I really didn't notice how close to the cutting area the big knife handles were, I will pay attention to that in the future.

My hands hurt - I roughed out a small push dagger and hand sanding another knife for a couple of friends. Was at it til 2300 hours last night since my whole family was working. Happy New Year to all of you.
 
The first and third need a lot of work on the bevel grinds.
I can't help but comment that the center knife has a perfectly straight and flat bevel and even a yokote...both are not easy or usual on first knives. The level of execution seems far beyond the other two...was this a kit blade, or something from another knife that you re-shaped?

On the handles, avoid the thin points of handle material at the finger notch. They will break off in use. Round them back to a blunter and thicker curve.
 
Stacy - the 2nd is a single bevel and it was a flat piece of O-1. I agree that it came out pretty damn good compared to my other tries. I dont know why. The push dagger WIP i'm on now is also single bevel and it looks pretty good. That is why I asked about staying with a single type of grind and getting really good at it vs. trying, convex, V and hollows. I seem to have an affinity for single bevel grinds. Again, not sure why.

I dont know what a yokote is, so if it's in there, it's a pleasant surprise.

I am also working on a small fighter that is an attempt at a V grind and it is frustrating the hell out of me to keep the both bevels the same and the grind lines straight. Maybe I'm just a single bevel guy.

Good stuff on the handles, I 'll do better on the next one.
 
Ah - the Yokote, now I see it. I didn't find that to be too difficult but maybe it was beginners luck? The Push knife has that as well.
 
Yes, the yokote is where the tip bevel meets the blade bevel in a nice sharp line. It can be a real trick to get it to stand out clearly.
 
Well heck, that's been the easiest part so far! I worked on the bevels of a V grind I'm doing and had to force myself to work at a shallower angle than I thought was necessary. I basically resigned myself to the fact that I was gonna ruin this one to see what Rick was talking about. Well, I didn't ruin it but I learned two things;

1. 12 degrees is nowhere close to 45. I mean I know they're not - I'm not a dunce, but working at the 12 degrees just didn't feel right.
2. I gotta force myself not to poke and look. I really want to see how sweet it's turning out, bad idea.

I appreciate the comments and feedback, it really is helping.

Bill
 
Thanks Rick. Dig the sweet Yokote on this little push tanto/drop point/ thingamajig. Disregard the rest of the hack job, apprarently I can grind a damn good yokote though!
This is 3/16
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1084, need to finish and heat treat. I am gonna powder coat this to see how it goes. Handle will be some home made canvas/resin stuff, not the M word since that is TM.
 
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