First Knife WIP

What do you mean, not good enough?!?!?! Show us your thoughts so we can see. If you're just in the planning stages maybe posting will help. Especially with a first knife, you have to show the WIP.
 
Good Call!!! I got my second wind now anyway. This is a pic of where the profile is at now. I have a piece of stag for a handle so I will be making a stick tang and then welding an additional length of threaded rod. My blade is going to be 1/32" under 4" so it's Connecticut legal because this is my Official EDC Bowie!!!

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This is a picture of the stag handle.

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My next idiot question is this, the width of the metal is 5/32". I have forgotten how to do the drill bit method. I have a 5/32" Drill bit, I marked the blade and flipped and marked again. It just marked in the same place, in my brilliance I realized, hey your doing this wrong. So, how do I do it? Please anyone, I could use the help:(:D
 
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I would also step down to a 3/32 drill bit.
Did you hold the drill bit the same? I have noticed that sometimes i mark in different spots.
I use a 5/32 drill bit also
 
Hey Ernie!!!

Thanks for responding. Yes I just used a 3/32", but I could barely hold it because my hands are too big, but I noticed the marks are barely visible. I can't even get a good pic out of it. I have a small piece of granite and I laid the knife and the drill bit on it and marked both sides. I was able to make them even by sliding the drill bit evenly on the piece of granite. But like I said, I couldn't get the etch very deep because my hands were too big to grip it well enough.

Thanks

Jeff
 
Don't use Sprayon S00602 Ultra Blue Layout Dye, I bought some yesterday to use instead of marker. It just peels off, at first I thought it was oils on the steel so I washed everything down with Acetone and let it air dry while hanging on a hook. I never touched it with my bare hands after washing it down resprayed it and let it sit for an hour, still peels off when marking. It was a nice waste of money, I am going back to Dykem.
 
That worked Ernie. I used a marker. I might have gotten a halfway decent pic as well. I made the two plunge cut marks and measured each side from the end of the knife which still holds a factory edge, to ensure they are square. I put on the file guide, leaving about 2/32" from the plunge marks to allow the file to travel to the mark. I also marked the 5/32" blade thickness with a 3/32" drill bit and now have something to guide me on my long journey along the file highway:D Pictures are below of my progress:

Plunge cut line:

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A balancing act with Knife and File Guide:

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A very bad picture of the center marks on the blade:

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Please everyone, feel free to provide positive or negative feedback, it's the only way I'm going to learn a thing.

Thank You for your time.

Jeff
 
unky_gumbi said:
Don't use Sprayon S00602 Ultra Blue Layout Dye, I bought some yesterday to use instead of marker. It just peels off, at first I thought it was oils on the steel so I washed everything down with Acetone and let it air dry while hanging on a hook. I never touched it with my bare hands after washing it down resprayed it and let it sit for an hour, still peels off when marking. It was a nice waste of money, I am going back to Dykem.
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Thank you for the heads up. My financial situation is lacking at best, I really don't need a situation like that. I hope you got your money back.

Jeff
 
Why is there no knife drawn on that steel yet? I know you're doing a stick tang and all but, what about the ricasso area? How about the spine are you going to keep it flat, put something in there for the thumb to rest on, etc? Don't worry it'll sand off and if you're short on Sharpie markers I can send you one :D
 
I figured that a lot of the metal behind the file is going to be cut away for a stick tang. I'm going to be using a stag handle Fletch, should I have anything else marked on the knife? I thought you knew going into this that I don't have a creative bone in my body.:D Does having a straight spine take away from the flow of the knife? I counted my blessings that I was even able to recover the hose job I made of it a couple of day's ago.

Jeff
 
KB1SYV said:
Does having a straight spine take away from the flow of the knife?
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Hard to know what you have in mind with what you want it to look like. So far all we know is you got a rectangle with a point on the end :p. Maybe come up with how you envision the knife to look as far as design goes. Maybe sketch how you want the knife to look on a piece of paper. Hell you can even trace the stock on a piece of paper and draw the knife on that. I dunno maybe it's just me but I like to have an idea of how I want a knife to look when it's done going into the build. Like a blueprint or model to go off of. Without it, to me at least, it feels like grabbing a bunch of lumber, concrete, nails and screws and attempting to build a house.
 
I had an idea in the beginning, but I hosed it up and I don't have enough metal to do it. Would it look more ready to file if I got the back end cut? There is a curve on the spine going to the blade tip, does it look that bad(Rectangular)? I do have a vision in my head on what I want to do now. I just don't know the terminology to describe it to you. When you say rectangular, are you talking about the back end?
 
Fletch Helical said:
Hard to know what you have in mind with what you want it to look like. So far all we know is you got a rectangle with a point on the end :p. Maybe come up with how you envision the knife to look as far as design goes. Maybe sketch how you want the knife to look on a piece of paper. Hell you can even trace the stock on a piece of paper and draw the knife on that. I dunno maybe it's just me but I like to have an idea of how I want a knife to look when it's done going into the build. Like a blueprint or model to go off of. Without it, to me at least, it feels like grabbing a bunch of lumber, concrete, nails and screws and attempting to build a house.
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I have cut in along the bottom and moved the plunge line up a little, so the actual blade will be a little shorter. The location of the file guide is not indicative of where the actual plunge line is. I marked in a curved tang line to follow the curve of the stag handle. Here is an updated pic:

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Well I guess if you have an idea on how you want it to look and are able to do it from what you see in your head then have at it :thumbup:. I just don't know where exactly you're going with the overall design of the knife so I'll have to see how it comes together as you go along. Starting to look a bit more like a knife now.
 
Fletch Helical said:
Well I guess if you have an idea on how you want it to look and are able to do it from what you see in your head then have at it :thumbup:. I just don't know where exactly you're going with the overall design of the knife so I'll have to see how it comes together as you go along. Starting to look a bit more like a knife now.
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Sorry Fletch, I originally wanted to pattern it after a Bowie, as you can see, that didn't work out. Don't ask me how, divine intervention I think, I was able to bail myself out. I have an idea of the style I can make it based on what I have in front of me, but I don't know what I would call it. I'm not telling you because I don't want to, I just don't even know what the damn thing would be considered. Camp knife, utility, tactical, steak knife I don't know.

Jeff
 
Looks great so far. I'm just one step above you in terms of tools, and it makes all the difference in the world! The last blade I made with the bare minimum broke me, and I swore I'd never do that again! :D

Future reference: A drywall screw makes a great metal scribe. Works every bit as good as a carbide bit, and easy to make a handle for.
 
You made a lot of progress since I left for work! It sounds like you have a basic idea of your design at least. I think I see the makings of a stubby Bowie-ish blade hiding in that bar...

I have learned that it helps me immensely to draw a detailed sketch before I start a knife, but before I started doing this I was in the habit of leaving everything a bit over-size until the grip and other hardware were rough fitted. Especially on a stick-tang knife because it is hard to visualize how it will look with the grip piece on. My point is that you can always make adjustments later as long as you don't do anything too drastic or permanent now. Leave a little fudge room in your profile and don't sweat too much if you suddenly think you've removed a little too much here or there. A lot of the time when you are thinking this you will find that it works out fine in the end, sometimes you will go back to that spot and remove even more later due to design adjustments.
Are you going to put a guard on it?
 
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