First knife

K

kungfucowboy

Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
290
well my first knife is done, The steel is 1080, I ordered some camphor wood burl and some snake wood from a guy online over here and he sent me some smaller irregular shaped pieces of other woods as samples (this and some pretty green colored wood) I figured i would use the free stuff first if you know what wood this is please tell me. Made with a hacksaw, files sandpaper and an electric drill

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Biggest mistakes i made imo:

I completely misunderstood the idea of draw filing and thus got a Very convex grind i fixed it a little bit with draw filing but i didn't grind down far enough so the blade is too thick.

i hit the plunge line with sand paper too much it got wore down kinda weird.

i drilled the pin holes cockeyed (bought a drill stand to fix that)

i made the scales shorter than i should have made them i did it on purpose but it doesn't look so good that way.

I left the scales a little thick (ok maybe a lot thick).

i used to fast of setting epoxy, so i was rushed when putting the stuff together, there are some gaps and the mosaic pins aren't aligned that well.

aside from that next time I'm not going to let the blade be so wide from top to bottom and try to grind up higher.

all constructive criticism is welcome
 
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As long as you learned something, that's what's important. It looks pretty good to me, better than my first knife that's for sure. My first knife was so bad I didn,t even finish it. I can't see the gaps you are talking about. One thing you might consider though: I showed my second knife to a knife maker at a show here in Ohio, and he suggested that I use liners in the future. I now automaticly use them in all of my knives. I especially like red or blue ones, but eeven black looks good and I'm getting pretty fond of it too. Good luck, and nice work there on your first knife.
 
I wish I had the patience to make a knife with that little equipment. It looks great for a first!
 
I wish I had the patience to make a knife with that little equipment.
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No you don't... it really sucks! No fun at all, and you spend a lot of time on things that should take very little time, so it's frustrating.
 
No you don't... it really sucks! No fun at all, and you spend a lot of time on things that should take very little time, so it's frustrating.
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actually i had a lot of fun, i did it a little bit at a time over the past couple weeks. It was frustrating at times but i enjoyed getting lost in working with hand tools and it was better exercise which i dearly need. I've never really used power tools much so i have no real reference to how much longer it takes. And judging by my (limited) past experiences with power tools i would have screwed up a lot more with them :D
 
kungfucowboy said:
actually i had a lot of fun, i did it a little bit at a time over the past couple weeks. It was frustrating at times but i enjoyed getting lost in working with hand tools and it was better exercise which i dearly need. I've never really used power tools much so i have no real reference to how much longer it takes. And judging by my (limited) past experiences with power tools i would have screwed up a lot more with them :D
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The faster the tools are, the faster you can work, but also, the faster you can ruin it.

But seriously, I don't know if I can spend a MONTH on a knife. I'm too impatient. Two weeks is my maximum time :p
 
I'd have to agree with the "faster you can ruin it" in reference to power tools.

Great job. Looks like a great cutting tool.
 
Nice first knife! Design looks good. Finish could improve a bit... What I do when sanding the blade is clamp it down flat on something and put your sandpaper on a block and sand in one direction straight as you can for the last several passes so that you get a more even finish. Change directions between grits so you can see the heavier scratches from the last grit until they're gone. Fun isn't it?!
 
Did you bevel only one side?
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yes i wanted to try a chisel grind and i figured it would be simpler to make(less things for me to mess up). i'm going to use it for at least my next couple of knives maybe after i start to get some of the basic things down i'll try a double grind

Nice first knife! Design looks good. Finish could improve a bit... What I do when sanding the blade is clamp it down flat on something and put your sandpaper on a block and sand in one direction straight as you can for the last several passes so that you get a more even finish. Change directions between grits so you can see the heavier scratches from the last grit until they're gone. Fun isn't it?!
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Thanks for the advice, and yes it is fun.
 
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