Knifemaker 1st's maybe even Then/Now

My "first" knife really was when i was about 16 and I made a tanto out of a piece of mild steel. What a POS. I hammered it into a tree and its still someplace up in the white mountains thought I cannot remember where.

I did quite a few kit modifications before trying it from scratch...then picked a design that was well outside my ability. It looks better in the pic than it does in real life!

It seems recently, peoples' first knives are much nicer than some of the old-timers. My guess would be that is due to the endless amounts of info available, good tooling and supply companies, etc etc....not many are starting out with the file and sandpaper method and instead are starting out using a briugeport milling machine, a watercut and drilled blank, and a nice belt grinder :)
 
ddavelarsen said:
Here's my first knife,

01a.jpg
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That s-shaped guard/bolster on your first knife really caught my eye. I'd like to see more like that!
 
David Schott said:
That s-shaped guard/bolster on your first knife really caught my eye. I'd like to see more like that!
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And I like the "V" created between it and the opposing ricasso angle. Very effective visually, not sure about its practicality though.
 
Farmer Phil said:
And I like the "V" created between it and the opposing ricasso angle. Very effective visually, not sure about its practicality though.
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Agreed. I tend to flare all of mine the opposite way, curving towards the tip to give more girth under where your thumb goes on the spine during cutting.
 
the knife i posted was the first that ever went to another person, my true first was when i was about 9, it was a premade blank, i think from a flea market.

green river style and it literally had a piece or broom handle for the handle, and a hex bolt ground flat to hold it on. used the old mans wood working shop to hold the whole thing together.

i can remember grinding on it and how it went through about every color in the rainbow ....well almost, and still i thought man this is gonna cut great......h haa haahaha

andrew
 
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the first knife that I made that went to someone else
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The First one I ever made
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My latest fixed blade
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I've been making Knives for about a year and a half now.
 
Ivory Micarta handle.jpgMy first was made with Paper Ivory Micarta for the handle, steel is AEB-L with brass furniture complete with Loveless style rivet screws. Brings back some memories.
 
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atakach said:
very nice stuff ......maybe one day i'll be half that good....and i mean that sincerely.

Bruce ya got anything to offer?

andrew
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Andrew, I have a bowie from way way back but my first knife never had a photo taken. I do know who owns it though maybe someday I will track him down.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Andrew, I have a bowie from way way back but my first knife never had a photo taken. I do know who owns it though maybe someday I will track him down.
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nice i'd love to see it sometime, you do beautiful work, it'd be nice to see that you started out where we did.

andrew
 
OK, here is one of the first bowies and the last bowie. The first bowie was on my table in the 80s at a gun show and it came with a custom sheath made by Manuel Frietus. I had a price tag of $75 on it and a gentleman walked up and looked it and the sheath over real good and handed me the $75 and I handed him the knife in the sheath. He took the knife out and gave it back to me. I asked why and he said "I only like the sheath". Until now this bowie hasnt seen the light of day. I'm man enough now to show it here. Moral of the story......never give up making em, they will get better with practise.
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excellent bruce .....thanks for bearing your shame,.....though it's pretty nice.

that latest one is amazing!!

andrew
 
Here's my first completed knife. I finished it around April of last year. It started as 1/4" thick and ended as 3/16". Lots of draw filing. LOTS!

5160 w/black micarta scales

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Bruce Bump said:
Dave I dont see much differance from early to late knife skills. Both are sweet.
BTW that last one has one of the most gorgeous handle material I've seen. Is it ivory? I cant tell.
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:D Bruce, I'm not sure whether that's a good thing! :D Actually, there are pretty big differences as best I can remember, in fit and finish. But I really liked my first knife. It was stolen from my house in 1991 when my roommate had a party. Been looking for that knife ever since. You guys please keep an eye out for it on eBay or wherever - you never know where it might turn up. I'd pay pretty much any price to get it back. It's marked "DCL" on the personal side and "1" on the reverse.

Yeah, that's mammoth ivory in the handle for the last one. I liked using it.
 
Bruce I gotta say, there's a big difference in your knives! :D I'd sure have kept the knife though. :cool:

You guys make some awful fine knives for your first ones! I'm really happy and impressed with these pictures.
 
My still have my first knife I ever made. I took 3 pieces of 1/2" wire rope gotter red hot, twisted it all up and forged welded, Jeff Davis helped me with that. Made some cable damascus. I used cow shin bone to make the handle and an old piece of copper fuel line to make the rivits... the hendle has huge gaps in it where the bone warped. as well as inclusions and cold shuts in the steel.

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As you can see I'm still working on my grind lines so now I forge them in! :D:thumbup: as you can see in one of my most recents...

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Your newest one is STUNNING Bruce. If I had a better pic of it I would make it my wallpaper on my comp.
 
David Schott said:
That s-shaped guard/bolster on your first knife really caught my eye. I'd like to see more like that!
Click to expand...

Farmer Phil said:
And I like the "V" created between it and the opposing ricasso angle. Very effective visually, not sure about its practicality though.
Click to expand...

Sorry guys, I completely missed this somehow in all the flurry of looking at everyone's pictures! :D

David I think it was you who said you tried something way beyond your skills for your first knife, and that guard was the same for me. Not matching the scales to the bolsters so much as getting the bolsters (because that's what they are) to match the "guard" part of the knife. Anyway, I still like it and a few years later tried it again with less success. One of these days I'm going to make that knife one more time to try to get it right.

Phil, that angle thing was intentional, and just for looks. Particularly at that time but even now, I don't always consider the usefulness of some design elements. Still learning. ;)

For what it's worth, I called that my "Nick Adams knife." I don't often name any of my knives but when I do it's usually taken from a character in literature who might have been expected to use that knife. Nick Adams was Hemingway's loner outdoorsman, kind of psychically bruised from war, featured in a bunch of his early short stories. I remember being completely wowed by those stories. I should probably read them again some day, just because I remember them being so good.

You guys have all made some really great knives! I dig this stuff and feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of it. I think David has a point that people today are starting out better than makers used to, largely because there's so much "how to" support out here. If it weren't for this forum I'd still be working in a vacuum, with far too little concern for / understanding of heat treating and design, to name just a couple of facets of the work. We are really lucky.

A dealer that I occasionally work for has an old Gil Hibbon Arkansas Toothpick. I'm amazed how poorly made - by current standards - that knife from the 1960s is. Yet its balance and overall form are stupendous. There's no doubt the guy was making from his heart and with a proper sense of physics from the beginning. Notwithstanding his current esthetic. ;)

Keep the pics coming! I sure never get tired of threads like this. I love seeing where everybody's coming from and where they're taking themselves. It's cool beyond my meager words.
 
Here's my first knife (2005):
FirstKnife.jpg



And here's my first folding knife (December 2008). Come a long way, huh?
Slipjointbuildoff015.jpg
 
I'll say. Looking good man. I only recently finished my second. So I'm not advanced at all. But I love seeing how people started. (Although I'm still intimidated by some people's first pieces.)
 
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