Drop Point Hunter(First Knife is done)

Brian Ayres

Brian Ayres

Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
1,429
So, I started "making" knives in March, I forged this blade from a piece of 3/16"x1" 1080 in April and ended up selling my house and losing my shop/garage. I will be finally moving into my new place this month with a dedicated 8'x16' office trailer I'm converting to a shop. Despite the move and lurking in my brothers basement :( I've moved forward, and finally have my GIB done and spent some time with GHaile and A C Richards at their shops. I set up shop in a corner of Greg's shop and finally got my first blade done...

Here it is. Several serious flaws, but I'm going to do a 3-4 more and refine my methods. It was my first time forging and I had never so much as seen a video of someone forging...I forged the ricasso too thin and wasn't smart enough to upset it thicker at the time. I totally screwed up the plunge and ended up with a depression....:(:rolleyes: Oh well....:D:D

8-1/8" OAL, 3-3/4" blade. It's from 1080 bar stock from Kelly Cupples. Stabilized Redwood burl from Mark Farley.
It has copper liners, a copper corby and a copper thong tube. It just gave it a light coat of oil and it needs oiled and buffed out a bit more.

There's a few deep scratches that I left as I forged the blade pretty thin for a hunter and didn't want to go much thinner, a few other issues, but overall happy with the result. Very happy with the look and am looking forward to making several more.

My HUGE thanks to A C Richards, and Greg Haile. Chuck for the lessons, shop time, helping me with the heat treat and ESPECIALLY the smoked ribs......And to Greg for the use of his shop so I wouldn't go nuts waiting to get into mine...The difference between this first forged blade and the other 3 I have forged is huge. I can't wait to get the handles on them these next couple of weeks.

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For a "seriously flawed" knife and your first time ever forging, that's a very nice looking, and I'm sure very functional knife. I would be happy to carry it. The finer points you will refine as you go, but an excellent knife, to my eyes.
 
Good looking knife with classic lines. Nicely done!
 
Looks like a winner. Makes me want to cut meat with it :)
 
Well done Brian shes a beaut, sole authorship for your first go is something to be proud of, now get your bow and get in the woods, so we can put that edge through some real world field dressin testin!!!:D
 
That turned out SWEET. But like Greg said, go get it bloody with a nice bow kill. Looking forward to you next finished blades too.
 
Nice work! It looks well finished and I really like the flared copper tubing, nice lines too.
 
Not bad at all. Congrats for getting into a new shop soon. Looking forward to watching your progress.
 
Sure wish I could give the forging at least a try. I'm hoping it might still happen but only just a try. I know I would be very pleased to end up with a knife as good as yours first time out . Congratulations ! Frank
 
Wow that turned out great! I would LOVE to give forging a try one day. I got a love for copper, that knife uses it well.
 
Solid design, looks like a very comfortable user!

Love the copper, do you do anything to it to slow or stop tarnishing? Or will you let it patina naturally?
 
Thanks or all the good words....:D
A few things I learned... I burned the wood around the corby in the early shaping process...:eek: I was able to get that out, but AFTER the handle was shaped I cleaned up a spot on the spine with my grinder and got dip bucket water on the handle...:o:( metal dust sure turns wood black fast. The ring/halo around the corby is not burnt, it's metal dust stain from the water..:(
When drilling the holes in the liner to match the holes in the tang I added a few divots for the epoxy and got one too far out and after glue up have a divot at the scales edge that shows.
I also need to write on the wall the corresponding grit sizes for my Gator belts...A30(600) really doesn't take of much metal....;) that took ten minutes to realize.....

The best thing I learned was making knives is awesome, but, making knives with friends is priceless!:thumbup:

As far as the copper, I'm going to let it patina naturally...
 
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