Had one that exceeded your expectations?

PIndelicato

PIndelicato

Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
1,577
Have you ever had a knife that when finished it way exceeded your expectations (for whatever reason?) If so, please post some pics and explain why.

As a newbie knife maker, I just had this experience for the first time yesterday. This knife was the worse of a pair that I first ground when I got my Craftsman 2x42 last year. It is made from 1/8" O-1 steel, stainless pins, and what is supposed to be cocobolo but it doesn't look as red to me as most I've seen.

Anyway, this is completed blade #4 for me, and I'm blown away by how much I like it now that it's done. It had lots of issues (mostly crummy newbie grinding), some of which I was able to disguise pretty well, so perfection it is not. I was really finishing it as a test blade to see how I could do on HT of O-1 in my forge, since it was the one I liked least from the pair. I spent much less time on fit and finish as I have on previous ones, but it's kinda my favorite so far in some ways. Maybe just the design, size, profile (had Bird & Trout in mind when I drew it)...I don't know. I won't bother describing all of it's flaws, as that's not really the point of my thread.

Here are a few pics:

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I'd enjoy seeing other folks examples of this, so let's see 'em!
 
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One for me was back when I was doing folder kits. This was before I could make knives 100% myself, so I was practicing my skills by modifying kits and doing everything by hand with files and sandpaper. All I had were those and a crappy 1X30 grinder.

I started a kit and then said "Im going to swap the handles for my own"

When that was done I said "Im gonna add some damascus bolsters"

Then "im gonna swap out the blade and make my own"

Then "Im gonna ad a copper spacer"

Then "im gonna put some filework on this"

By the time I was done, the thing looked amazing and inspired me to get more serious into doing everything myself. I still have it in my shop as a reminder to myself that with enough patience, anything is possible even for a beginner.

Heres the stock kit:
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Heres what mine evolved into:
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I almost threw out the piece of scrap 440C this knife was made from. I decided to go ahead and see if I could make a useful knife from it. This was 1985. The blade is five inches long.
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Great looking knife Paul.
Here is a knife I made for a exchange so I made a damascus guard for it.
01 forged blade and maple handle.
Cheers Ron.

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The pair on my homepage definitely exceeded my expectations.
 
looks really good P J . That should be popular . Taper from butt to tip looks real good , when you feel more comfortable that would be perf. for a tapered tang . I have one question , the handle thickness , from the pics it looks like you should take off that ridge on the top of the handle , round it out more. This of course is just MHO. Finish looks nice.
 
Thanks for the comments and pics, all!

ONeill, I'm chuckling about the fact that you noticed and commented on the butt to tip taper. That was done to disguise the biggest problem this one had, namely I ground too far and into the spine so I thinned it down to make it look better. Before I did that, it looked like crap and there was a step in the spine. I might try your suggestion to rounding the handle more later, but it's not too bad in the hand now as this is a fairly small knife (3" blade, ~6 3/4" overall.) Since this was just going to be primarily to test my HT of O-1, I didn't spend too much time on handle shaping.

Marketing 101: embrace a flaw and turn it into a feature!

Paul
 
I have never made a knife that exceeded my expectations. I have made a few that came close to what I had in mind, but, still "no cigar".

Here are 3 that came pretty close, but in my mind, I know they could have been better.

Robert

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Very nice Mr. Dark, and I understand and relate to what you are saying. I think maybe that explains what I experienced here, as normally I have very high expectations for whatever I do, and they are rarely met. In this case, my expectations were quite low as I just wanted to test out my HT with a botched blank that I didn't like much for lots of reasons, but once I finished it it surprised me how much I liked it.
 
I too like these show-off threads and to see others works. it is really inspiring.

These recent customs really exceeded my expectations. I didnt like the designs at the beginning and I tried to rush things up to get rid of them. After finishing these I couldnt believe my eyes...
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Thanks for resurrecting this thread, guys! I thought it would be fun to see what others had experienced.

Those are beauties, galadduin.
 
galaduinn, care to share your method for those fullers? I remember you saying you hand-tooled them. They look pretty good!
 
Mr Bruce. I think you are a god or something. When I see your work each time I feel dizzy...

T. Hendrickson said:
galaduinn, care to share your method for those fullers? I remember you saying you hand-tooled them. They look pretty good!
Click to expand...

I built myself very similar but much uglier tool as Mr. B. Finnigan's fuller tool :http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=586300. The blade on mine has a round edge. All I can say, to cut a fuller by hand is easy but to clean in it demands real patience...
 
My work is nowhere near the caliber you gentlemen have presented here. Frankly, I surprise myself every time a knife comes out straight and sharp.
 
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