First Knife Completed (sort of)

[Forrest Taylor]

Okay, the back story is I played around with making knives back in the mid nineties. I finished 3 or 4 back then before I moved on to other hobbies, mostly because I felt really limited by the little 1 x 30 belt sander I had at the time. Never really quit thinking about, but never pursued it either. Recently I decided to get back into it, so I purchased a 2 x 72.
This is the first one since getting back in the hobby.
D2 steel, Cross cut linen micarta scales, red liner, brass pins and mosaic.

 

[Richard338]

Very nicely done, congrats!
I made a few myself many years ago and then returned more recently.
About the only thing you are likely looking at is getting a crisper bevel to flat transition.
You can always taper the tang if this was too easy...

 

[FredyCro]

Damn, that's really clean. I guess you have done a lot of hand and machine craft before doing you first knife and it really shows.

 

[Drew Riley]

I'd say it looks like you're off to a pretty dang good start. 1st or 10th, that's a fine looking knife.

 

[Forrest Taylor]

"You can always taper the tang if this was too easy..."

LOL!

Yeah the transition between the two got washed out a little during hand sanding. Wide blade flat grind had something to do with it I'm sure.
No really a lot of machine and hand craft, some with my jobs as carpenter. I guess that's not really true. I tinker with stuff all the time which I guess counts as hand craft.
No machining experience.

 

[Forrest Taylor]

What I learned as far as the craft goes from when I played around with it before to now, mostly from reading here or watching youtube, is it's all about doing things in the right order and not saying "that's good enough". This one isn't perfect and I can point out flaws that I noticed later but I feel pretty good about it and I thank you for the thumbs up.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Very nicely done.

You might straighten the handle out a tad more on the next one. The continuous arc has a slightly odd look. Don't make it straight, just straighter in the handle area, and the blade just like it is.

 

[Forrest Taylor]

The shape was based on a knife a friend of mine has. That knife has the same curvature but he wanted one with a slightly longer handle and blade. The main intended use is gutting or removing the hide on elk. The pattern knife has a narrow hollow grind. I opted for a flat grind with a thin edge geometry. Its meant for cutting.