difficult or some what easy?

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blank space

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Aug 12, 2013
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What was the tpye of your first knife u made and what steel was it and handle material. If you remember and was there any regrets going the way you did?

I am going to be going with 01 sreel and i will be doing a drop point style knife think oal of 8" as for the handles i am thinking of home made micarta scales and brass pins.

I will be posting pics in another thread when i get started hopefully next weekend.
 
Go with something you think will be easy to make. It will not be, but go slow, perhaps, and try to enjoy it as you do it. Frank
 
I'd go with something simple, your plan sounds good.

Take your time on everything and make is as perfect as possible. This may take a while but the knife will be around for a long time.

Make a list with your order of operations to make sure the process will work. How will you do heat treat, etc...

My first knife was O1 steel, I tried to heat treat it with a torch and was not satisfied so I bought a kiln. I used horse stall mat for the scales and use the knife almost every day.

Good luck with everything! Don't forget about draw filing and remember your pin holes need to be a hair larger than the pin. :D
 
Yes i am going to be taking my time for sure i want it to be a great knife..

This was meant to see how yalls first knife went and which way yall went.
 
My first knife was o1 as well.
A small paring knife with blackwood scales, nickel silver pins and a brazed and pinned 416 bolster.
It took me about 3 weeks to finish, working on and off, using a hacksaw and files on 1/16" stock.
Also tried H.T. with a torch and was not satisfied with the results.
I wish I knew where I put that knife.


 
OK I'll play.
I wish I had started earlier in life and would have had the kind of information that is available today.
All I can say is stick with it and never except "Good Enough"
Summer of 2004,first knife made from a file. Just had a couple of books to help me get started.



Fast Forward 9 years

 
Those are some great looking first knives to me i hope mine comes out close to them..

And the fast forward 9 years wow those are really great looking.
 
Never sell your first knife or give it away. Your first one is special. You will want to look at it again years from now. I gave my first one away but that's ok. I know where it is and it's not going anywhere. This craft is so much harder than you think it will be but also much more rewarding too. Do the best you can do at every step and take your time. Keep asking the folks here for help. They have been where you are and they can take months or years off of trying to figure things out yourself. Keep us posted and show us your progress.

My first was 5160. I have a HT oven so I was satisfied with the results. My first attempt at sharpening it was ok but felt the edge could be finer. So I re-ground the bevels to a bit thinner edge and re-sharpened. I was happier.

 
I'll echo everyone's sentiments and repeat what they said.

Don't get rid of your first knife. I didn't finish the first blade I ground, and honestly probably never will now. Here are my first two blades.
Number one:
IMAGE_1000001182.JPG


Number two:
IMAGE_1000001193.JPG


Never ever ever ever settle for "good enough."
You'll hate yourself for settling. It's ok to make mistakes and its ok to not do something because you didn't know to do it, but don't settle for good enough because you don't want to do it right.

Personal story: I'm working on a slipjoint. I posted a thread about straightening the liners that I messed up. Overwhelming the response was to fix them at all costs, even up to remaking that side. That how important doing it right is. I ended up lapping them flat, and I'm much happier and much more proud of what will be the final result because of it. It took another hour to do it right, but the hour to do it right equals many hours of looking at it and knowing it is right.

Good luck. Ask questions, listen to the answers, post results and ask for feedback.
 
My first:





ATS-34 steel with micarta handles and corby rivets in the handle I didn't do the HT a member here was gracious enough to help me out. Somewhere on here is my neurotic WIP of it lol. There were no real regrets to doing it the way I did except I got a 2x42 grinder while I was working on it and decided to use it to speed things up a bit. Then I spent more time after using files and sandpaper to fix the fast errors I made with a power tool. I'd say 90% of it was done with files and sandpaper. Echoing what others have said in here don't settle for "good enough" take your time through every step and make sure you complete every step to the best of your ability before you move on to the next step.
 
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Well I am only slightly more experienced than you, being that I am about half way finished with my first knife. My plan has been to keep it simple. I chose a design that required very little stock removal but still was interesting to me. I think of it as a modern version of a kwaiken but with a full tang. I am using 5/32" 5160. I would not have chosen this steel for my first knife except that I have access to small quantities of this steel available for free and a competent metallurgist willing to HT it for me in a materials testing lab. Kind of a no brainer. However when I begin to HT I will start with 1084 for reasons explained all over this forum. I am working with files, sandpaper, and C-clamps. I have the majority of the bevel finished, I made a thread awhile back, slightly more than at the time of that post. I'm still not fully committed as to their final shape. I decided on a convex grind, once again to keep it as simple as possible. Pretty happy with that decision. The beveling of the blade turned out to be easier than I thought it would be, well the rough part anyway. Draw filing and a padded sanding stick were not at all bad to work with and on the contrary I quite like the feel of making a nice draw stroke and feeling the metal peel away. What I thought were immediate plans for a 2 x 72 grinder have now become in the near future plans because I can make the next 5-6 knives that I am planning and gathering materials for, with files. I do plan to invest in a long angle lathe file and a Magicut, I am currently using a couple of Nicholsons. Some things that have made it onto my short list to make or buy is a knife vise (kind made with a couple short sections of tubing or pipe), drill press, calipers and or micrometer, and the big one, a workshop. Both of my jobs taking up all available daylight hours has made for slow, but good work. What looked good the night before can be crazy uneven the next day. You can check it out in the thread http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1094809-Here-is-what-I-am-making, I will get some photos and an update done soon. Good luck.
 
hey blank space, I made my first four knives out of 1095, however I wasnt satisfied with any of them so they never have seen heat treatment. Recently completed my next 2 in D2 and have sent them out to hear treat at Texas knife supply. I would suggest looking at using an air hardening steel and going through them for great treat. They seem to be the most cost effective heat treat that I can find unless you are sending in several blades at a time. I used my HF 1 x 30 to do 90% of the work and would advise you against buying one. I would also agree with Perrin that one nights satisfactory work just doesn't cut when you look at it the next day, so take it slow. You can always remove steel, but can't really add to it. Good luck!
 
My first two so far are not complete. I am using .187" 1095 for the hidden tang knives. Designing is not that difficult as long as the primary function of the knife remains the impetus of the design. For me the beauty is attention to detail in the fabrication of the piece. As Mr. Buzek and Mr. medicevans stated, never accept "good enough". The work of the Master Craftsmen in the forum along with their advice are your best teachers. This vocation or avocation as the case may be is not easy to learn or do. Nothing worthwhile ever is.
 
I made my first knife from 01 and satin finished the blade to about 320 grit. The weather was hot and humid, and I left the knife finished on the bench for a week while I worked mid nights. On my days off a week later I turned on the shop lights and to my horror my beautiful knife had turned brown- a thin rust layer on the entire blade yet the handle looked fine. I buffed it off and saw all the pits and refinished it. I quickly moved on to learn how to work with stainless and only used 01 on custom orders when it was requested by the buyer.
 
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Hey Blank Space,

You asked so I'll play along. My first was just about a year and a half ago. I did my lurking on here and some other sites to glean all the knowledge I could and chose to go with some of Aldo's 1084. I really wanted to try the Heat Treat myself (I'm stubborn like that), and I have been happy with the results. This knife field dressed, skinned, and quartered several deer and wild hogs last year and preformed much better than the Buck 110 that I carried for years prior. I even use it when we do the final butchering on our game and it holds an edge quite a bit longer than the commercial knives that I used previously. (I did get a friend with a machine shop to test the hardness for me and it came out at Rc 59)

Scales are teak scraps that I had lying around with brass pins and carbon fiber thong tube.

I think that it came out pretty well for a first effort, especially when you consider that I did the whole thing with files and sandpaper. The only power tools I used were my bench top drill press, and a bench grinder to help smooth in the profile after cutting it out with a hacksaw.

Of course there are things wrong with it, but you learn from your mistakes and the goal is to make each one better than your last. It does get easier each time you build a new knife, so don't get too overly concerned with your mistakes along the way. Learn from them and try your best to fix them. This will teach you more about how to better the next one than anything.

Look forward to seeing your progress.

Jeff
 
Wow some nice looking knives.

Did any of you make your own micarta scales?
I am planning on making my own for my first knife i want to be able to say i made it all. It will be mine if you know what i mean.

Keep em coming guys
 
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