- Joined
- Mar 6, 2017
- Messages
- 72
So I finally finished my first knife. I wanted to make a post of the things I learned through my mistakes as well as to obtain some wisdom from those of you with much experience.
I used a piece of O1 steel 1/8 inch thick. I found a design I liked and modified it to my liking.
I used mostly hand tools except for a drill. I did end up getting a 1x30 sander in the middle of the project that I used to shape the handle. Well, my first mistake and probably my biggest was being impatient with sanding. I ended up moving on to the next grit too early and by the time I got to 2000 I saw some small scratches and grooves in a few places. In tandem with that, good lighting might have solved this as I often worked at night and my garage had just as one bulb, I would suppliment that with a lattern but that created a lot of shadows. So often times, I didn't notice some of the details until the next day in the daylight. So my first two tips are to have plenty of good light and be patient.
Second thing. I realized that after attaching the handle scales to the knife that the portion of the handle by the ricasso is about impossible to sand and finish after it is connected. The sad thing is that I ended up reading the sticky "How to instructions for making knife" by Stacy the day after and he specifically mentions this as well. So third tip, throughly read through the stickies.
Next thing, as you might have noticed the handle pins are very crooked. I realized after drilling the holes in the blade then in the scales they didn't line up. so I had to make the holes on the knife larger to compensate. evidently it wasn't even. I used a hand drill so drilling a second time made it difficult to be precise. I think next time (other than investing in a drill press, which I will at one point), if I drill the scales and the knife at the same time that should help. Tips are welcome here for better ways.
Next thing is plunge lines, I used a file jig then hand sanded afterwards. I had a hard time keeping the plunge line crisp looking. Two issues I had, the plunge line is it was one of those spots that still had scratches, as it was hard to sand there without rolling over the plunge line to the ricasso. So as a result the plunge line got rounded over the top portion and still had scratches in the low portion. Hopefully that makes sense. It's hard to describe what I mean. But much advice would be welcome here.
Well, though it's not perfect, it actually is quite satisfying holding my first knife, it's hard not to smile knowing that I actually was able to do it. I'm excited to make more. The pictures aren't the best but any other observations or thoughts are welcome. Thanks
I used a piece of O1 steel 1/8 inch thick. I found a design I liked and modified it to my liking.
I used mostly hand tools except for a drill. I did end up getting a 1x30 sander in the middle of the project that I used to shape the handle. Well, my first mistake and probably my biggest was being impatient with sanding. I ended up moving on to the next grit too early and by the time I got to 2000 I saw some small scratches and grooves in a few places. In tandem with that, good lighting might have solved this as I often worked at night and my garage had just as one bulb, I would suppliment that with a lattern but that created a lot of shadows. So often times, I didn't notice some of the details until the next day in the daylight. So my first two tips are to have plenty of good light and be patient.
Second thing. I realized that after attaching the handle scales to the knife that the portion of the handle by the ricasso is about impossible to sand and finish after it is connected. The sad thing is that I ended up reading the sticky "How to instructions for making knife" by Stacy the day after and he specifically mentions this as well. So third tip, throughly read through the stickies.
Next thing, as you might have noticed the handle pins are very crooked. I realized after drilling the holes in the blade then in the scales they didn't line up. so I had to make the holes on the knife larger to compensate. evidently it wasn't even. I used a hand drill so drilling a second time made it difficult to be precise. I think next time (other than investing in a drill press, which I will at one point), if I drill the scales and the knife at the same time that should help. Tips are welcome here for better ways.
Next thing is plunge lines, I used a file jig then hand sanded afterwards. I had a hard time keeping the plunge line crisp looking. Two issues I had, the plunge line is it was one of those spots that still had scratches, as it was hard to sand there without rolling over the plunge line to the ricasso. So as a result the plunge line got rounded over the top portion and still had scratches in the low portion. Hopefully that makes sense. It's hard to describe what I mean. But much advice would be welcome here.
Well, though it's not perfect, it actually is quite satisfying holding my first knife, it's hard not to smile knowing that I actually was able to do it. I'm excited to make more. The pictures aren't the best but any other observations or thoughts are welcome. Thanks
