My 1st Nearly Finished Knife, Go Easy On Me

Joined
Dec 24, 2014
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To start. My boss sort of directed me towards this hobby, now I'm hooked. This is one that he drew up and, I'll tell you what I won't make another one. lol. Anyways all thats left is to do a little finish on the wood, and maybe a little high grit touch up on the blade. Other than that this is it. I'm not too excited about it but, I guess it is my first.
Sorry about the bad pics. I plan to set up a little photo station in my shop to take a little better pics.
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It's an interesting design, but what the hell is it for? Your fit, finish, and grinding need work, but for a first knife, it's pretty good.

Tim
 
Is that supposed to be a gut hook?

If you're planning on making another knife, make one with fewer angles. A simple drop point is a good design, and will be plenty challenging to you without adding extra design elements into the mix.
 
That's not bad at all for a first knife. I'd recommend for your next one the you go for a much simpler blade shape and shape your handle to fit the hand better. Put your drawing up here for feedback before you start cutting out metal.
 
Make your handles taller and less thick. Ever see a scalpel? There's a reason they are shaped flat but tall spine to edge.
 
I agree with everyone in regards to the shape of the profile. Too extreme. I never understand why a lot of new knife makers make weird designs. You can still add unique flare to a knife without being so radical. There's a reason knifes have reoccurring patterns and lines. It's because, not only are they more pleasing to the eye, they balance and function better too.

My recommendation to all new knife makers would be to focus on making a knife based on a traditional design first. Coming up with a good knife design is actually VERY tough. The more you make knives, or spend a ton of time using them, the more you will become aware of this. Just making a knife is tough enough. Take a tried and true design and make it to the best of your ability. This will help you focus on your technique and not run into weird problems. With skinners, hunters, fighters, etc. there is a ton of advice out there on how to make them and how to deal with certain problems incurred when making them(i.e. grinding a clip, edge thickness, bevel height, handle length). All this info is there to reference.

On this knife I'd say thin the handle a little bit but try and keep the shape. I prefer contoured handles. You could maybe flatten them a little towards the front so you could get a pinch-type grip with your middle finger and thumb(with index finger on the spine) when skinning. Looks good for your first knife though. You might just try and focus on doing a more traditional design next time and invent new ones later. You'd be surprised how personalized/unique you can make a generic design. The devil is in the details.
 
Again this is for my boss. His design. He likes it. I hate it. I have a few drop point blades I will be finishing soon.

And yes the hook was done with files.

This definitely was not a fun knife to work on. And IMO it turned out pretty terrible. I know I can do better. He wanted it thin, with a thick handle. He also told my drop point hunter blanks were a waste of steel, thats why he wanted it so thin. I told him to,f*ck off lol. I hope very soon I will have a few more finished knives and a crazy design like this more than likely wont be seen again.
Thanks for everyones input. Tell me it sucks. Tell me its unusable! Ill use this info to eventually be a better knife maker.
 
I'm more interested in the other details.

What kind of steel did you use, and are using going forward?

How thick is the steel?

How was it heat treated?

It looks like there are a couple of newbie design errors, but that's okay. I like that you did it in the first place and your attitude is good.
 
I'm more interested in the other details.

What kind of steel did you use, and are using going forward?

How thick is the steel?

How was it heat treated?

It looks like there are a couple of newbie design errors, but that's okay. I like that you did it in the first place and your attitude is good.

.14" 1084 from Aldo. Was suppose to be 1/8" but I'm not complaining.
I have a 12" stock piece of CPM154 but I dont think I want to mess with that quite yet, and have to send them out for HT. I'd rather keep it all in house for now.
Heat Treated in my home made forge.

And please, explain the newbie errors. I would love to know what "not" to do next time.....
 
.14" 1084 from Aldo. Was suppose to be 1/8" but I'm not complaining.
I have a 12" stock piece of CPM154 but I dont think I want to mess with that quite yet, and have to send them out for HT. I'd rather keep it all in house for now.
Heat Treated in my home made forge.

And please, explain the newbie errors. I would love to know what "not" to do next time.....
Well, first allow me to explain that I meant no disrespect with that comment. Also, I'm not a knife maker. I've made a couple of knives and have used plenty, but the others here are far more qualified to comment on proper design. That said, the scales are very typical for a new maker, regardless of whether the end user specs them or not they show what many consider a new maker error of sorts. The pin placement could be better and the others have already pointed out what I think are new maker errors.

One really nice thing is that you went with the proper steel ht'ing with limited equipment. You also used a good thickness. My first klo was 1/4" which is, to me, an almost universal mistake. My next klo was 1/8". If I didn't already have bars of 1/8" 1084, 1095 and o1 I'd be buying even thinner.

I've seen a few examples of first knives from people that aren't really into making sheaths for them, so they send them to me. Some are very good, some not so much, but I can appreciate every one of them. I always smile at how people package their knives. The guys that send their own work usually take great care in that regard. If nothing else making my own knives has taught me how much work it is (I do everything start to finish too) and I have a lot of respect for all levels of effort and capability.
 
Most new makers try and re-invent the wheel on their first knife. Then the discover that the "new" wheel shape doesn't fit anyone's car or even roll well.

Look a the gallery and see what the knives made by people who sell knives look like. That is what functional knives look like.

Stick with simple shapes, straighter lines and curves, and spend most of your time on the fit and finish. The blade should flow from butt to tip rather smoothly.

Avoid radical sweeps/curves/dips, unnecessary features, and strange shapes.

Lastly - Do not have sudden transitions where the blade width drastically changes. The knife you made will almost surely break at the handle because all the force of cutting will be concentrated at a very narrow spot. Try to never have the ricasso area much narrower than the blade bevel on a regular knife. And never have a narrowing from both the top and bottom there.
 
No disrespect taken Omega. I like learning more and will take any info I can. And thanks Stacy. This particular knife is going to my boss and he can do what he wants with it. lol. I hopefully will post pics soon of my other blanks. Very simple designs that I hoped to finish first but I just wanted to get this one out of the way. I originally told him that if he wanted a knife that he's at least giving me the cost of materials but, I may just give it to him. (btw, we are actually good friends). So we'll see.
 
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