First knife

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,018
I thought I would show you guys a pic of my first knife. I forged the blade out at Dan Farr's shop, and then went to work at my apartment. I didn't know the first thing about making knives when I started this project (not that I do now), I've learned quite a bit. I estimate about 50 or 60 hours of work went into the knife, my girlfriend says it's more like 100, she's probably right. I don't have any power tools (I bought a drill half way through) so I had to use some elbow grease, in fact I only had one file when I started. I used sand paper to remove the scale and do some stock removal, that took a while. Then I sanded until the blade was completely free of scale and the rough outline was formed. The heat treat worked out great, the blade was nicely hardened. Soldering the guard was pretty rough, it took five attempts to get a good solder joint. As soon as I fluxed the blade and guard I got a great joint. I had to cut through the silver stock with a coping saw, I thought my arm was going to fall off at the end of that...I still haven't bought a hack saw. I cut out the slot for the tang with some gouges and got a pretty good fit. I ended up taking off the first handle, reshaping it, and then making another handle. Tomorrow I am going to epoxy the handle on, if I had a drill press I would also use pins. I broke about ten carbide bits trying to drill through the tang. The handle finish was the easiest part, I just shaped the block with files (I bought a few throughout the project). I wanted the knife to have a Primos tactical flair, I asked Terry if it was all right if I tried to copy the overall lines of the knife, thanks Terry. If you squint a little bit you can see the influence. Thanks Dan and Terry for all the help.

I always have a hard time posting photos from my yahoo album, sorry.
http://photos.yahoo.com/mbuswellroberts
It is in the folder "Roberts001".

Matt
 
Looks great for a "first", heck... looks good period! Nice collection you have by the way. Love that Primos and Anso.
 
here's a pic

Close+to+finish.jpg
 
Very fine. Very fine indeed! You did it the hard way too. You'll be hell with some tooling.

WELL DONE.

rlinger
 
Thanks guys! I'm happy with the knife, it cuts well, and doesn't look too bad. Bruce; I am going to start on another knife today, I'll get some pics of the "forge" ;) I'll be using. I'll post some better shots when the handle is done curing too.

Matt
 
You're doing real good Matt. I like the way you've chosen to start out too.

Doing it all with hand tools is hard work and very time consuming. I know, because that's the way I started out. The high dollar power tools help us speed up the process, but they also can help us screw up the knife real fast. :D

I look forward to seeing the updates, and what your next project will be.
 
I added some photos of the forge I made, my tools are in the shot too. The sledge hammer isn't for pounding, I use it for an anvil :). I ended up forging a little integral semi skinner out of a bar of 1050, I'll get some more pics when it is done annealing. I started working on it around 11 I just now finished.

Matt
 
Wonderful job on your first knife. It really looks great! You are so going to appreciate power tools when you get them..... Congradulations on sticking with it on that first one!
Ed
 
Fantastic! That's a nice looking knife for anywhere along the curve, much less your first. Great lines, nice finish and a beautiful handle. Be proud and keep this one!

Dave
 
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