is this worth sending off to heat treat

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
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so this is my second attempt at a knife. Definitely turned out better than my first. I'm just using files and this is hand sanded to 120 grit. I'll go up to 220 before sending it off. but just wanted to get everyone's professional opinion if it's even worth sending it off. if not it's not gonna hurt my feelings I got ALOT of experience with this one.
 
It is worth it. Think about it this way you spent all that time sweating and swearing, you need to see this through to the end. There are places online that you can send you knife to be HT'ed for not much.


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Waxingmoon said:
It is worth it. Think about it this way you spent all that time sweating and swearing, you need to see this through to the end. There are places online that you can send you knife to be HT'ed for not much.


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yeah but my issue is, you can sweat and sware and bust your but but if it's still a useless knife that's ugly it's really not worth it. it's taken me about 4 days the first one I messed up on it so I stopped.
a few months ago Darrin Sanders offered to do my first one for free idk if that offer still applies, but if not I'll send it to tru grit. it's only 10 bucks
 
valknut said:
yeah but my issue is, you can sweat and sware and bust your but but if it's still a useless knife that's ugly it's really not worth it.
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I see where you're coming from, I believe in seeing something through to the end, only you can decide if your knife is worthy to be HT'ed. That said while I know my 1st knife isn't beautiful I'm still going to make sure it gets HT'ed and try to use it often.

That's my 2 cent s


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You've taken it this far, I think you should go ahead and make a useful tool from it. We learn the most about knives by using them hard and seeing what does and doesn't work, and you can't use it if it isn't heat treated.
 
Your last line says it all. HT or not, keep it somewhere. After you make a few more blades, take it out and compare. You won't believe that was your work.
 
I can't see a lot of your knife there but the blade has a nice profile. I think you should ht it and finish it out. It won't be as beautiful as your future knives but you will be able to look back on this one and see where you have come from. From what I can see it won't be that terrible.
 
ok so here is the full knife after a 220 gr finish. just gotta drill holes and send off to heat treat. let me know what you think.
 
I think you should always try to finish a knife that doesn't exactly go the way you want for a couple reasons. Firstly, you can always use the practice to put on scales or try your hand at mounting bolsters or guard without messing up a knife that is going really well and secondly, you can always use a functional knife for hard use in the shop or camping, and thirdly, it will be valuable to compare to knives you make later on. Larry
 
LARRYZ10 said:
I think you should always try to finish a knife that doesn't exactly go the way you want for a couple reasons. Firstly, you can always use the practice to put on scales or try your hand at mounting bolsters or guard without messing up a knife that is going really well and secondly, you can always use a functional knife for hard use in the shop or camping, and thirdly, it will be valuable to compare to knives you make later on. Larry
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thanks Larry those are really good points.

well she's all done and read for HT



I had a blast making this and I'm 100% addicted I really don't mind only using files and sandpaper it's pretty therapeutic. I don't really like the handle on this one but it's my first semi complete one. I'd love some feedback
 
I couldn't even tell you what my first knife looked like. I didn't think it was coming out good enough so junked it and started over. I did that 2 or 3 times before I finished one. So I don't even really have a first knife. I deeply regret it now. Finish your first few and keep them for yourself, you'll be happy you did.
 
If you haven't sent it off yet, I would drill a few more holes in the tang to lighten it up and give the epoxy something to hold onto. They can be bigger than the pin holes you have, but with just those 2 holes, your scales may eventually fall off or start to separate from the tang.
 
Jrmysell said:
If you haven't sent it off yet, I would drill a few more holes in the tang to lighten it up and give the epoxy something to hold onto. They can be bigger than the pin holes you have, but with just those 2 holes, your scales may eventually fall off or start to separate from the tang.
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ok I'll do that today thank you for the tip
 
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