First completed knife! :>

K

kerk

Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Messages
9
This is the first knife ive ever completed (except for one in wood/metalworking class when i was like 10 :P ), all i need to make is the thing to put it in :P

Blade: car coil spring (unused one, dunno why i was given it :P)
"Guard" and knobb: Melted and casted used gunshells.
Handle: Pine covered with twisted copper wire.

Its all glued together ans everything was a bit out of "sync" :P Didnt notice until after hardening grinding etc etc so i kinda made everything around the little angle that the tang had :/

(The picture is crap, dont have enought light anywhere in the house and its a digital camera with autofocus, it was this or have a huge flashpoint that covers half the knife :/ )

pict13363yb.jpg
 
Lets get this straight, you cast the metal for the guard and butt, wire wraped he handle, all on a a forged blade for a first effort.......man you hit it hard....thats a nice first effort.....the picture isnt the best but thats ok....
Good job....:thumbup:
 
that is a heckuva first knife!! Very nice job -- :thumbup:
 
Made a picture that i think is a bit better, digitaly altered to make up for the poor lighting some .. im no expert so :P Made a small lightbox to take picture in insted.

Bigjohn: That about sums it up .. i believe in making it right from the beginning .. how hard it may be. It becomes something special to me more then a piece of steel that is just slapped together.


The scratches in the blade was like impossible to get rid of .. i would have to grind away the whole blade to remove them, one lesson learned. do not hast the edge grinding by pressing it against a realy rought grinding wheel :P

The black dots i left just to signify that its realy hand made. and small bevels that shows it a bit also, that is .. not a perfectly flat surface. :>

And thanks for the comments. I just cant help to soak it in :P

pict13785ra.jpg
 
I could just see that on the waist of one of my old Arnis teachers who was simply indescribeable with a blade. . . and he would have liked that too!!! Excellent job!
 
Great Photo! Love the guard and the blade, neat idea for the handle. My only complaint is the shape of the pommel, just doesnt agree with me. Otherwise awesome first knife!
 
I especially like what you did for the guard; I’m going to have to try that. Did you use a torch to melt the brass and how did you cast it. Some details would be of interest. Don't stop now!
 
I used my no good for nothing gas forge, just put it standing straight up, put in a small "meltin gpot" made from iron piping and plugged the above hole more then just for a hole for the gases to escape then waited for it to melt :>
Ive found the propane to be very effective when meling everything except iron :P

I use some kind of casting sand that packs real good .. but alot of it gets lost in each cast as it burns out the oil in it .. im sure i can "reoil" it later tho :>

The "patterns" are first made in wood then just inprinted and casted in the sand. I have a problem with a splash being included in each casting tho .. need to figure out how to avoid that .. so i dont have to grind away so damn much of the mass :>

The guard? .. The guard is just a "stretched circle" shape? :>
 
Kerk, First of all, WELCOME to Bladeforums. Glad to have you aboard. You are obviously a person with many talents -- metal casting, knife making, woodworking & carving, photography, computer functional, analytical enough to recognize issues with your first photo, handyman enough to make your own lightbox, and wise enough to know that the lightbox was the equipment needed to fix your photo dilemma. You can teach each of us something... :)

For a first effort, that knife has extremely nice fit and finish, especially on the handle. I agree that you get right into the hard stuff.... a dagger has all the problems of a single-edged blade, but doubled. Getting the four planes to arrive at a single point is tough. Like sOrce said, the pommel seems somehow off. To my eye, it is a bit too big -- out of scale with the rest of the knife. YMMV.

As for the scratches, there are tutorials on the web about hand-sanding blades to deal with that. For much information on knifemaking, check out the tutorials on Dan Grays website:
http://www.knivesby.com/knifemaking.html

There is a link in my sig below that leads to much info on knife photography. Check it out.

Again, welcome and I look forward to seeing more of your work.
 
hehe thanks for everything nice everyone said .. all tho i dont know if i dare to believe half of it but i will do it anways ;P

About the pommel, i think the pictures does alot in making it look out of proportion .. imo when i look at the knife it fits to the size of everything else, its slightly bigger then the end of the handle on two sides, about 2mm or so.. And its slightly twisted.. dunno what hapened but as the glue set it seemed to drag it out of place. . impossible to get right again .. so it just has to be that way :(

The knife is for me only so dont worry .. i wont try and sell it .. it will be in my not yet built hall of fame as my first blade ive completed by hand from top to toe :>

And about the daggers, i dont know but i just like the shape, sure its hard to get everything to "fit", trying to "bewel?" (argh my memory fails me :P ) grind a blade atm .. so far so good but my small very cheap grinder (small grinding stone .. 8" i think) wants to fail on me .. seems one cant run them more then 20mins at a time or they will break :/ I guess il jsut build myself one that works .. stupid massproduced stuff )i think ive already broke a bearing (the things that rolls for it to go easy :P ) :/

And its fun that so many like the work ... and il try and make even better knifes ... still on daggers but my sisters boyfriend need a hunting knife and i can just see in his eyes when he is here and grabs a knife blade that is not yet done how would like to have one :P

Anyways, thanks again everyone and thanks for a warm welcoming :>
 
Kerk,
That's on sweet knife. I like the idea of using old brass for the guard and buttcap. It looks like some sort of Viking Tanto, to me. Mix of Eastern and European. Really nice job.

Lagarto
 
Welcome... and then let me say, your talent and craftsmanship for your first knife makes me SICK !!! Some of the "first knives" I have seen made me want to crawl under a rock. :p :D Seriously. A very good effort and a great result. I espcially love the handle. One of the more complex possibilities for a first knife ! Jason.
 
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