First Knife Complete

[deerrockknives]

Hi everyone,

I don’t post on here much but have learned a great deal through bladeforums. I finally completed my first knife this morning and thought I would post some pictures. I used my 2x42 grinder (with constant awareness of heat control) and a lot of elbow grease.
I struggled a bit with the grinding but already started my next knife and feel I’m getting better. I have Fred.Rowe bubble
Jig and it’s so awesome for learning. I also used it to knock the corners off on the handle at a 45*. I may round the handle in the future but kind of like the way it looks and feels. The knife specs are as follows:

Steel: .100” 52100 HRC 60.5
Blade Length: 3.75”
OAL: Just under 8”
Handle (finished to 180 grit): Black G10 with natural pins and liners

Blade finished to 400 hand rubbed finish. Edge sharpened to 16* on my shapton pro stones (240, 1000 progression). There’s definitely a lot of imperfections but overall I’m happy with how it turned out. A lot of my motivation to start making knives came from not being being happy with how thick most knives are, I use knives for cutting things and wanted to learn how to make slicing machines that were very thin behind the edge. That’s when I found DeadboxHero who was an awesome resource to learn from. Big shout out to Scott of seedy lot knives too who was a constant resource of knowledge I could draw from. Hope to continue to improve, and maybe even get that 2x72 in the near future!

 

[weo]

Plenty to be proud of with that first knife. Nice job!

 

[Hengelo_77]

Good first knife.
Constructive criticimn for your next ones:
Hold this handle and see where your hand touches the handle and where not.
Remove material where your hand touches untill your whole hand touches the handle without pressure points (same pressure for your whole hand)
Close your eyes and feel for pressure points.
When you think you have it, lay it away and repeat over the coming days.

 

[eric brinkerhoff]

Well, you've managed to avoid the pitfall of trying to include every single detail of all the knives you've ever seen in your first knife! Instead you have made a knife that will indeed cut and by the looks of it cut Well! Congratulations!

 

[Scaniaman]

Very nice first, way better than mine!
On the next one I'd round off the scales and move the lanyard hole back a bit.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Nice knife. Only thing that it needs is to chamfer the thong hle to remove that sharp edge. A ball burr on a Dremel or similar tool should do it easily.

 

[12345678910]

Hi everyone,

I don’t post on here much but have learned a great deal through bladeforums. I finally completed my first knife this morning and thought I would post some pictures. I used my 2x42 grinder (with constant awareness of heat control) and a lot of elbow grease.
I struggled a bit with the grinding but already started my next knife and feel I’m getting better. I have Fred.Rowe bubble
Jig and it’s so awesome for learning. I also used it to knock the corners off on the handle at a 45*. I may round the handle in the future but kind of like the way it looks and feels. The knife specs are as follows:

Steel: .100” 52100 HRC 60.5
Blade Length: 3.75”
OAL: Just under 8”
Handle (finished to 180 grit): Black G10 with natural pins and liners

Blade finished to 400 hand rubbed finish. Edge sharpened to 16* on my shapton pro stones (240, 1000 progression). There’s definitely a lot of imperfections but overall I’m happy with how it turned out. A lot of my motivation to start making knives came from not being being happy with how thick most knives are, I use knives for cutting things and wanted to learn how to make slicing machines that were very thin behind the edge. That’s when I found DeadboxHero who was an awesome resource to learn from. Big shout out to Scott of seedy lot knives too who was a constant resource of knowledge I could draw from. Hope to continue to improve, and maybe even get that 2x72 in the near future!

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Good first knife, thin is in.

More planning into pin placement next time.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Beautiful for a first knife, or your 20th.....
Really classy looking

 

[john april]

well done, very consistent blade finish.

 

[The Zieg]

Hi everyone,

I don’t post on here much but have learned a great deal through bladeforums. I finally completed my first knife this morning and thought I would post some pictures. I used my 2x42 grinder (with constant awareness of heat control) and a lot of elbow grease.
I struggled a bit with the grinding but already started my next knife and feel I’m getting better. I have Fred.Rowe bubble
Jig and it’s so awesome for learning. I also used it to knock the corners off on the handle at a 45*. I may round the handle in the future but kind of like the way it looks and feels. The knife specs are as follows:

Steel: .100” 52100 HRC 60.5
Blade Length: 3.75”
OAL: Just under 8”
Handle (finished to 180 grit): Black G10 with natural pins and liners

Blade finished to 400 hand rubbed finish. Edge sharpened to 16* on my shapton pro stones (240, 1000 progression). There’s definitely a lot of imperfections but overall I’m happy with how it turned out. A lot of my motivation to start making knives came from not being being happy with how thick most knives are, I use knives for cutting things and wanted to learn how to make slicing machines that were very thin behind the edge. That’s when I found DeadboxHero who was an awesome resource to learn from. Big shout out to Scott of seedy lot knives too who was a constant resource of knowledge I could draw from. Hope to continue to improve, and maybe even get that 2x72 in the near future!

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View attachment 1755319

I'd carry this every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Well done.

Zieg

 

[deerrockknives]

Thanks for all the kind words and advice everyone.

I decided to try rounding the handle. I started on my grinder but realized it’s just whipping along way to fast for me to feel like I have control. So I just hand sanded it using the “shoe shine” technique and was surprised how quick it went. G10 is easy to sand apparently. Also lanyard hole chamfered.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Thanks for all the kind words and advice everyone.

I decided to try rounding the handle. I started on my grinder but realized it’s just whipping along way to fast for me to feel like I have control. So I just hand sanded it using the “shoe shine” technique and was surprised how quick it went. G10 is easy to sand apparently. Also lanyard hole chamfered.

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Good idea.......
WAY Better. Really, Really Nice.

It helps visually with the pins, too.

When taking pics, I like to wipe the knife down with a little mineral oil..... It really makes the scales Pop.... and not look dry.
(sorta like how in movies, at night..... the streets are Always wet looking) It looks better with the lighting.

 

[Spats McGee]

It's looking good.

 

[eric brinkerhoff]

Make 10 of those as close to the original design as you can, only making subtle Improvements each time. Try to keep the good parts of the original design while eliminating any small " flaws" you may discover. You have already succeeded in the design phase of knife making by keeping things simple. If you succeed in improving on what you have now, I believe you are on to something!

 

[SilentPartner]

Nice!!!! That will be a family heirloom!

 

[Bigfattyt]

Very very nice for a first attempt!! Light-years ahead of my first.

 

[i4Marc]

Very, very nice for a first knife. Just a couple of observations. Not critical but maybe food for thought. You may want to try tapering the handle thickness a bit, making it slimmer at the front where it meets the blade. Also, think about putting a radius at the top of your plunge line and blend it into the spine rather than running it straight up the blade and off the top. Be proud of that one.