EARLY knife content

NickWheeler

NickWheeler

Joined
Dec 3, 1999
Messages
9,437
Kick'n it old school ;)

I made this knife when I was 18, so it's about 13 years old. I have done some figuring and it was about knife #10.

For any of those that think I've got it in for a guy making his first knives... :p :D HA! ;) I got this knife back from the owner for some work on the totally f'd up bolsters. I ended up putting new ones on it (brass like the originals).


See... we all gotta start somewhere! :)

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BTW - It's mirror polished 440C, brass, mosaic pins, and sheep horn.
 
Here is a quote from your site:
By the time I turned 20 the interest in making knives was still there, but the skills were not.
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Im not sure what you were talking about but that knife looks great. :thumbup: Maybe I will try doing bolsters one of these days? It is pretty good inspiration, which reminds me... I have to get cracking if I want to get a knife as good as that by next year! (when I turn 18) How come I think of these things when people in the house are sleeping? :D
 
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Nick that must be a great feeling to get back a knife you made so many years ago and see how shes held up, I bet you smiled alittle when you saw her,LOL Thats a beautiful knife,Charlie
 
You're way too modest Nick - that is a beautiful knife! I wish my 10th knife looked that good. But it sucked eggs.

This one sure doesn't suck. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing!
 
Quote:
By the time I turned 20 the interest in making knives was still there, but the skills were not.

Your kidding right!:eek: I wish I had your "LACK" of skills on that knife.
 
I think I should maybe give up now after seeing that pic...I may never be able to make one that nice much less #10.
 
I'll bite, here is one of my very first knives.

Made in 2006, roughly #12 for me (not entirely sure)

one of these day's I'll get my father in law to let me take a picture of knife #1 it's a sad banana shaped object but I sure was proud
 

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A customer sent me this snap shot of his Bump bought back in 1990 or so. He just loves this knife. Looking at it now I can see some things that need improvement, like the whole blade!

AncientCaveKnife003.jpg
 
Bruce Bump said:
A customer sent me this snap shot of his Bump bought back in 1990 or so. He just loves this knife. Looking at it now I can see some things that need improvement, like the whole blade!

AncientCaveKnife003.jpg
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Bruce,
How many days did you spend on that one washing the grind lines out with your buffer?:D:D:D Hee hee That's funny!
Matt Doyle
 
Thanks for playing along guys!!! :thumbup: :cool:

I thought it would be fun.

I also wanted to make it clear that I sure don't have anything against new guys. We are ALL NEW GUYS at some point for cry'n out loud. What I do take issue with is people being ignorant and rude and having a sense of entitlement for no reason.

A kid at school is a PRIME EXAMPLE. I'm 31, he just turned 21, yet he comes up to me all the time just being an ass. But then he'll turn around and say, "Hey, I want a kukri blade, I think you should bang one out for me." I'll tell him I'm busy, then he'll come back and say, "You should bring in some of your knife steel so I can cut my blade out."

REALLY?!?!? I should???? :mad:

That's the kind of attitude I don't like.

New guys? Hell, I love new guys. I can fill their heads with all sorts of nonsense and they don't know what a jack ass I am. Yet ;)



I also wanted to point out that we all do stuff early on that we'd never do later. Like my friend Matt so aptly pointed out... my name etch!!! I thought I HAD to use my whole name, and town/state. The only place the whole thing would fit, was on the bevel... so that's where it went! I didn't know I could scotch tape off the part of the stencil I didn't want to use. :eek: ;)

I hollow ground this blade on an 8" wheel. I spent hours with a horizontal disc on the flats, and HOURS hand sanding the hollow grind from 80X up to 2000X before buffing it. Ahhh..... good times ;)

I guess I don't know where I'm going with all this... just sort of thinking out loud.

Please feel free to join in with a knife pic, and/or pick on me for what I was making 13 years ago :)




Oh... and about the comment from my site. I really did feel that way! Problem... is that now I'm 31 and feel like I know even less. The more I learn the more I know I don't know much!!! :o

At 20, I had only flat ground one blade and sucked at it. Couldn't hollow grind past 120X. Didn't know ANYTHING about heat-treating. Knew NOTHING about using a mill or lathe or welder or forging or damascus. I couldn't make knives that looked like what I REALLY WANTED them to.

We all start at the beginning :)
 
NickWheeler said:
Thanks for playing along guys!!!

I thought it would be fun.

I also wanted to make it clear that I sure don't have anything against new guys. We are ALL NEW GUYS at some point for cry'n out loud. What I do take issue with is people being ignorant and rude and having a sense of entitlement for no reason.

A kid at school is a PRIME EXAMPLE. I'm 31, he just turned 21, yet he comes up to me all the time just being an ass. But then he'll turn around and say, "Hey, I want a kukri blade, I think you should bang one out for me." I'll tell him I'm busy, then he'll come back and say, "You should bring in some of your knife steel so I can cut my blade out."

REALLY?!?!? I should????

That's the kind of attitude I don't like.

New guys? Hell, I love new guys. I can fill their heads with all sorts of nonsense and they don't know what a jack ass I am. Yet



I also wanted to point out that we all do stuff early on that we'd never do later. Like my friend Matt so aptly pointed out... my name etch!!! I thought I HAD to use my whole name, and town/state. The only place the whole thing would fit, was on the bevel... so that's where it went! I didn't know I could scotch tape off the part of the stencil I didn't want to use.

I hollow ground this blade on an 8" wheel. I spent hours with a horizontal disc on the flats, and HOURS hand sanding the hollow grind from 80X up to 2000X before buffing it. Ahhh..... good times

I guess I don't know where I'm going with all this... just sort of thinking out loud.

Please feel free to join in with a knife pic, and/or pick on me for what I was making 13 years ago




Oh... and about the comment from my site. I really did feel that way! Problem... is that now I'm 31 and feel like I know even less. The more I learn the more I know I don't know much!!!

At 20, I had only flat ground one blade and sucked at it. Couldn't hollow grind past 120X. Didn't know ANYTHING about heat-treating. Knew NOTHING about using a mill or lathe or welder or forging or damascus. I couldn't make knives that looked like what I REALLY WANTED them to.

We all start at the beginning
Click to expand...

*I deleted the smilies from your post because BF said there were too many images and wouldn't post my message. ;)


Well, hopefully none of us are totally happy with our early work, but even at that early stage, yours showed more style and class than a lot of guys who've been making knives for decades. :thumbup: My hundredth knife didn't look half that good.

Here's some of my early ones:


First two knives I forged:

firstforged.jpg



My first folder:


firstfolder.jpg



One of my first daggers:

dag06-1.jpg



Here's an early skinning knife. At the time, the only book I had read about knifemaking was David Boye's, and his were pretty much the only one's I'd seen, so that's what most of mine looked like.


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Sorry to clutter up you're thread, but I think these demonstrate how much of a noob one can be. :)
 
Phillip, thanks for sharing!!! It's nice to see a young guy with your talent/skills remain so modest. But the truth of the matter is there are hundreds of guys looking at your pics wishing they could turn out something half as nice as your early pieces!

BTW- Thanks for the kind words guys, but I really wasn't fishing for compliments. I wanted to show that I'm still very closely tied to that feeling of being very new and raw with knifemaking, and that all or our work starts somewhere and evolves. I sure hope that another 13 years from now, I can look back and feel like I've grown from where I'm at right now.

Phillip- Did you braze the guards on some of those? I wanted to do it that way when I first got started, but never did try. I had David Boye's book checked out of the library about 10 times! :) I can sure see the influence like you mentioned in that skinner.

Funny how our eye/tastes change as we "settle" into our own methods isn't it?

Please guys, I'd love to see more folks add pics like Stephan, Bruce, and Phillip have! I will have to try to get a pic of my VERY first knife. It's around here somewhere.
 
All I have are early pieces...I've only completed 4 knives and am close to finishing my 5th. I have several others in progress but I seem to have a problem making meaningful progress on any of them.

First knife, completely hand filed/sanded from 1/4" 5160 (still surprised to this day that I ever finished it). Not the most elegant design, but if I had kept tweaking it I never would have finished it.

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#2 This was a small piece of scrap from cutting out the first one that I tried all kinds of stuff on just experimenting and playing around on my new Crapsman 'grinder'. For some reason my wife liked it (it's a little 3 finger jobbie,) so I finished it and made a small sheath for it. She carries it in her CamelBak when she hikes.

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#3 This was a lesson blade from Tai Goo's. He did most of the forging, I cleaned it up, installed handles, and made the sheath.

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#4 The first of a pair that I really ground on my Crapsman. It was pretty bad, but I managed to disguise some of the issues and I threw it together for more practice, to test out my HT, etc. Since it was a Bird & Trout, I attempted a desert quail scene carving on the sheath, which was less than successful to say the least...

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I apologize if this thread was only meant for real makers!
 
Nick when ya got it ya got it.Some makers try there whole life to accomplish what you aquired in 10 knives.Considering i only have this room for guidance along with the internet and 1 book . I hope i can reach the level your at I might be one of them guys that is average and i hope not being the fussy SOB that i am. Kellyw
 
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