My first attempt

Nonprophet

Nonprophet

Joined
Dec 22, 2010
Messages
231
So I have finished my first attempt at creating what I would say is my own knife. The only thing I didn't do is the heat treat and basic shaping of the blade. I put the finish and the scales on it, weak I know but I don't have the tools yet to do the heavier stuff! I want you all to know I had NO IDEA what I was doing and learned it all from reading things here and trial and error. Six months ago I couldn't even sharpen my own knives!



Here it is as I received it with the pins
Beginning.jpg



Next is my exhausting attempt at a satin finish. I kept screwing up the scratch pattern and having to start over!
WetSand.jpg


Here is the rough shape of the scales which were non acrylic stabilized claro walnut. I wanted stabilized scales but made a mistake in what I bought.

scalesrough.jpg


This is immediately prior to epoxy. I roughed the surface of the tang and the wood as well as the pins in hope of getting the best possible grip. I never thought of the epoxy color when it dries and so that gray shows up later on, oops!
preglue.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here it is all clamped together. I owned no clamps when I started so I had to buy them and wasn't sure what I needed. I call this Franken-clamping!
clamps.jpg



After drying and some rough file work

roughcut2.jpg



RoughCut.jpg


finished shaping and sanding to I think it was 320 grit or maybe even 400 by the time I was done.

prefinish.jpg
 
and the final product


finish4.jpg



finish3.jpg



wanted to show the polish on the actual edge, I spent WAY too much time on this edge :D

finish2.jpg


finish.jpg



I made a lot of mistakes along the way and like I said I had to figure it all out for myself but I think it turned out rather well. Any input would be appreciated but be gentle, I just spent slightly over 2 months doing this!
 
I, for one, think you did a damn fine job. I especially like the pin in the lanyard hole. How's the balance?
Would've been good to do one shot with a scale or tape measure to get a better idea of the size.
 
The balance slightly behind where the finger groove is. I like it that way as it feels like it settles into your hand and in that name I tapered where the palm of the hand sit so it would be comfortable to grip and it really is and is solid in hand. Knife is exactly 10" from tip to butt. I'll take a pic later tonight and post it.
 
Thanks for posting this. I am about to embark on a similar project with my first knife. Gives me a bit of confidence !!
 
Awesome first attempt, or even 40th attempt! It's a good using design, and I like the way you contoured the handle.

The only thing I personal don't like is that I think it needs the front pin further forward to strengthen the handle slabs. I am not sure, but without hidden pins or some other method of bracing the forward section of handle it makes for a week handle joint and possible glue joint failure there. Granted it would probably only happen during what most people would term abuse, but I try to outwit Murphy. In any even it's a great looking knife and I bet it's a joy to use. And if six months ago you couldn't even sharpen a knife you have defiantly come a long way. Good job.
 
THanks guys. Will52100, I would probably agree because it makes sense even though I don't know for sure but I never thought of hidden pins. Good idea!

Daniel, man I thought when I got the idea to do those contours "I'm definitely going to screw this up horribly" but it worked out, even if it was mostly by accident. 1000 monkeys on 100 typwriters for a 1000 years....basically came out with that. As for the pins I would love to take credit for the choice but the guy I got the actual knife blank from sent me a free set of mosaic pins and lanyard hole pin (Thanks Gene Martin!) for free with my first one so I used what I had.

Astro, only thing I learned for sure is that you can't give up and have to keep at it until you get it right. Honestly I call this the Buffons blade because thats how I feel about how I made it. There are scratches where, in putting the edge on I had to use a dremel and a grinding blade cause I don't have a sander and I nicked the blade (barely noticeable but I can see it), you can see the epoxy in several places and also where I didn't drill the holes right. Compared to these other guys I'm not very good yet but for a first knife, from what I've heard it's a fair attempt. Good luck!
 
Will52100 said:
Awesome first attempt, or even 40th attempt! It's a good using design, and I like the way you contoured the handle.

The only thing I personal don't like is that I think it needs the front pin further forward to strengthen the handle slabs...
... Good job.
Click to expand...

It looks REALLY nice. I agree that the front pin could move forward a bit, but if you had put bolsters on (I see there are holes drilled for them) then it would have been just right. I would have put the front pin in line with the point that comes comes down from the finger notch.

My thought process is that this is a thicker part of the tang so a hole here won't weaken it as much and also less likely that I would have to do much serious shortening of the pin. The narrow part at the top of the finger notch usually has more sculpting done there, as you did. Why make it more difficult by placing a metal pin where you have to remove a lot of wood.

- LonePine
Alias Paul Meske, Wisconsin
 
I want to apologize, I posted this as well on another forum on this website that I spend a lot of time on. I was so happy and wanted to share with the people that helped me through it and that I learned so much from that I didn't realize you can't post the same thing in two different places. It was a n'ettiquette mistake and I didn't mean it. Since I am apparently not savvy enough to figure out how to delete the thread I changed one to be entirely different from the other and I hope this satisfies the mods as I am really not trying to do something I''m not supposed to. oops :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top