Lets See Them - Your First Knives

[Laredo7mm]

This could be a fun thread. I am posting it here but please feel free to hijack it and make it an ugly knife contest or what ever. It might be kind of cool to look at your first knives and the ones you are making now so we can see how much they have changed.

Here are my firsts. I don't have a first complete knife made from my first blade so I will show my first blades and then my first complete knife. Cool, clear as mud.

The first one is my first blade and first damascus. It was supposed to be a ladder pattern, but did not turn out so well. It is 1095 and pure nickel.

The second blade is my second attempt at a ladder pattern, also in 1095 and pure nickel.

The third one is my first multi-bar, also in 1095 and pure nickel.

And finally my first finished knife using my fourth blade. It is a chevron twist blade made of 1095 and 15N20 with forged, heat colored guard and pommel, and wire wrapped grip.

Most of my improvements over the past three years has been in fit and finish, the quality of my damascus, and trying to find my own "style." The grinds on all those knives are about horendus (sp?), especially the top bevel on the second blade, you can see the grind change in depth and location along the length of the knife. :barf:

 

[Frank Eaton]

I don't think your gonna win...the worst first blade.

 

[dfarmerknives]

I hate you...in a good way.
That damascus looks beautiful. I think they are awesome blades. I agree with Army Ranger.....

 

[HKG36]

Wow! Thats one hell of a first knife!

 

[Frank Eaton]

Here is my third, my first 2 look pretty much just like it. Done it in Jan 04'. Flat ground bevel, or atleast it was sort of flat. Frank Eaton

 

[jonvalblades]

heres my first
steel= junk
handle=spraypainted ductape
finish= 60
guard is 2X4 wood/ ductape

middle knife is last compleated
top is my current project ( no ht 60 grit grind)

thanks for looking
Joanthan

 

[basknives]

My early knives:

Thanks for looking!

 

[rlinger]

My first attempt: http://riflestocks.tripod.com/pics.html

RL

 

[F. Allin Kahrl]

I posted it here at the time, but here it is again. The first one I finished:

-Allin

 

[David Schott]

Mine:

Came out better than expected....tons of research pre-build.

 

[Angelus1781]

I posted it here at the time, but here it is again. The first one I finished:

-Allin

I could use one of those!

 

[Laredo7mm]

Definitely some nice looking stuff being posted here! Looks like you all jumped right out of the gates with nice fit and finish. When I first started all I wanted to do was make damascus and play with fire. Fit and finish was not much of a concern. Now that has completely flip flopped. Go figure.

Lets see some more!

 

[blgoode]

Here is the first one I ever made. Heat treated by Bear Claw in Texas. Still an awsome chopper!
http://bgoodeknives.com/images/purpleheart.jpg

 

[Tom Buchanan]

ain't no way.someone may be eating their lunch.

 

[AwP]

None of you are in the running at all. Here's my first, I think I got good odds of taking the prize with this one. What is the prize anyway, everyone gets to laugh at you?

 

[Dawkind]

Don't have a pic of my first, but here's my second knife and first attempt at Damascus........

Here's my third knife and second attempt at Damascus.....

 

[Matt Shade]

Here's my very first knife:

Made from a pre-hardened blank (somewhere around RC64 ) ground on a 6" bench grinder. Couldn't drill pin holes, had to cut slots from the edge of the tang with a dremel (reason for the huge handle, had to hide the cuts). Handle is a couple slabs of black cherry finished with Arm R Seal.
I don't even know how long ago that was. Almost 10 years. Then I didn't make anymore knives for awhile and when I started again, I jumped in big time and never quit.

Here's a more recent piece. Still not as good as some of the stuff posted here but a long ways from that first thing.

Its a scaled down (slightly dressed up) version of the knife I gave to adoptasniper.org. Has a 4" blade, made of 3/16" O1, handle is cocobolo. Still needs sharpened and a little bit of clean up. Haven't been getting much shop time in lately :grumpy:

 

[Matt Shade]

Heck, I'm bored I'll stick some folders in here too.
Here's my first successful folder (5th knife):

Here's the last folder I finished.

Unfortunately, this was still a year ago. I got busy with orders on fixed blades, and then got into a slump on the bendy ones. I've got one in progress that will be my new EDC though. Doing some experiementing with new stuff on it and trying to get good enough at them to make it more of a habit. Got to get moving as I have a handful of requests from customers for these things now

Good idea for a thread sean

 

[raker]

The first one was made in 64, a paring knife for my mother. Started again in 89 and this is the first one I made, traded it for the equipment to make some more.

 

[basknives]

My first Damascus blades: