My Daughter’s First knife

T

the possum

Joined
Jul 31, 2002
Messages
2,954
My daughter is already 10 years old now, and has been asking me for a knife of her own for quite some time. I try not to force my hobbies on her, so I waited a while to see if her interest faded, but I guess she sees me use my knives often enough that she hasn’t given up on it.

So what sort of knife should a kid get for her first? I’m sure everyone has their own opinion on that. Lots of folks make a good case for something that's simple, durable, and cheap, because there’s a good chance it will get lost or broken. I totally see their point, but it’s not the direction I took. There’s also a good chance that it will not be destroyed or lost, and be kept into adulthood. I hope we form a lot of fond memories together in the outdoors now, and this knife will be a part of those memories, so I want it to be good enough that she can still enjoy it in its own right later on. So I decided to make one for her.

The blade is stainless Damascus (Damasteel- RWL-34 and PMC-27) at 60-61 Rockwell, heat treated by Peter's Heat Treating.
Bolsters are 416 stainless, and the handles are mother of pearl with red fiber liners & stainless pins. She absolutely loves mother of pearl, so that was one of the main requirements for this design. I'm terrible at leather work, so I bought the sheath (here: http://www.knivesshipfree.com/full-cover-sheaths/) and just wet molded it. I struggled with the design quite a bit, trying to decide on things like a guard or guardless, blade shape, etc., but finally just settled on a general purpose utility design.

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Classy and beautiful. The more time she spends with you and watching you make knives, the more she'll realize how special this piece is.
 
Your Daughter has a GREAT KNIFE and EVEN A BETTER FATHER.
A BEAUTIFUL KNIFE with a lot of special meaning for many years to come.
 
That's a good looking blade. I'd be proud to own that as my first knife.

Are the pearl scales contoured? That is to say, did you grind a palm swell or depression in the scales? Or is it just the pattern in the pearl making it look that way?

Hoping you two have many experiences together in the outdoors. :thumbup:
 
Wonderful on multiple levels.
I bought my 2- 1/2 year old granddaughter a Jim Rodebaugh piece and every time we have guests she marches them over to the cabinet and shows them which knife is hers.
 
Very good looking Knife that everyone would have liked to of had for there 1st. Knife and now to add to there Collection of beautiful well made Knives to look back on and to admire with pride at what Dad did for me.!***
 
Thanks for the compliments, everyone. Hopefully this weekend we'll get some time to do a little whittling with it, and start making fond memories with it.

Are the pearl scales contoured? That is to say, did you grind a palm swell or depression in the scales? Or is it just the pattern in the pearl making it look that way?
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That's just the way these pieces of pearl look. There's no palm swell, though of course it's oval/egg shaped in cross section since the edges are contoured. Pearl this big gets expensive pretty quick, so I got some "B grade" scales, and they had too many flaws to put the normal side out. So I guess you're actually seeing the inside of the shell here. If I were making something like this for myself, I would have used a different material so I'd have enough room for palm swells. I would have also tapered the tang (instead of skeletonizing it under the scales), used a carbon tool steel, and so forth. :)
 
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