My first knife almost finished. Lots of pics.

M

montana guy

Joined
Dec 18, 2009
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472
So I learned that getting a good picture of a knife is not easy. Don't have a real great camera so they are what they are. Love it or hate it don't be shy about saying it, won't hurt my feelings any.

It does have some flaws I know. The handle has a crack in it and the handle is off center a little. Tried to forge weld it together and lost my center in doing so. The crack is from my own lack of thought when I put in it a vice to shape the end. I wanted a hard handle but made it a little to hard, put it in the vise and I heard it crack, as you can imagine I said about every foul word I know. This knife is 100% Damascus.

It is a little heavy in the handle,a nickel and 2 dimes on the tip and it will balance on the finger guard so it is not that far off but off none the less. I should have milled out a little more of the inside of the handle but too late now. I put a ton of time into it and learned A LOT.

I still have some light sanding and clean up to do on it but it is close to done. Still need to get the final cutting edge on it also. Killed 2 diamond sharpeners on it, once I do get the thing sharp it should hold and edge for about forever.
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Can really see the crack in this one...
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Tape measure is still MIA so here it is next to a pack of wides and on a sheet of printer paper to give you an ideal on its size.
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looks good for a first blade.using damascus for a first blade is a little expensive for learning on though.
 
What do you plan on doing for a handle? Is it a really thick chunk of metal or some kind of sheath. It looks to be about 3/8" thick and kinda unshaped. I appreciate the shape of the blade and really like the guard. The handle leaves me with a feeling that it was an afterthought and semi-unfinished.

As to photography: get a lamp and put a good 5100k sunlight CF bulb in it. It will render the colors much better than incandescent or cool-white fluorescent.
 
Now that I know I can match a pattern fairly well I will make a better handle when time permits, this hand was kind of a test piece. The one I am going to make will be a little bigger, have a better shape and have more of the inside removed to keep the weight even. I put it on so I can get it sharp and test my edge. I am stuck on this knife staying 100% Damascus so the new handle is probably a ways out cause my time is very limited. And yes this handle still needs some work, probably will not put a whole lot more into it since it is going to come off once I get the new one done.
 
OK, i'm confused. Is his handle welded on to the tang or bolted on somehow? Or, is it one solid piece that you forged to be much thicker than the blade?
 
zaph1 said:
OK, i'm confused. Is his handle welded on to the tang or bolted on somehow? Or, is it one solid piece that you forged to be much thicker than the blade?
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JB Weld, wanted it solid enough I could test edge holding and fairly easy to get off when the time comes.
 
I think the all damascus steel is a cool idea. Granted it would make it heavier but it sure does look cool. To bad the handle cracked on you. Thanks for sharing. John
 
Yes, I love the look of the handle. It needs something on the pommel, though. It seems kinda unbalanced. The handle needs something on the pommel to balance out the blade.
 
Thanks for the feedback all. Getting pretty much the same feedback here as anywhere else, some people love it some are kinda ehhh its ok. Most people who love it are the ones who get to hold it, it really does feel pretty good. A little heavy in the handle but not bad. It is big thus kind of heavy but I like a good size knife.

I threw it the other day while it was still dull and it went clean through a 1/4" piece of plywood. I wanna try 1/2" and see it if will blow through it. (used to throw knifes for fun, don't really do it anymore, just had to toss this one once....maybe twice) :D

The handle I am designing for the final handle is much different from this one, this on was mainly for practice in pattern matching and so I could test the edge. Finally today I got it sharper than a butter knife. About 12 hours to get an edge on it, still amazing how good Damascus is I think. It will cut paper but I cannot shave with it yet, not a real clean cut in paper but getting there.
 
the only thought I have on the knife is that it would be totally impractable in very cold weather. One splash of animal blood and you would be married to the handle till spring.
 
i think the reason you r not getting the sharpeness your looking for is because your edge angle is too big. try a angle of 15-17 degrees or even 20 if you do that i think you will get the sharpness your looking for
 
Looks interesting.....nice job for a first knife.
It is my opinion that blades should be tested BEFORE handles are put on, also before doing any hand finish work. Why the hell would you want to do all that work to find out you missed a bit on the heat treat.
I would say the reason it is taking so long to get an edge on that blade is because it's too thick....the flats need to come down a lot it looks like.
Keep makin em!:thumbup:
Mace
 
Thanks Mace. I got it sharp but cannot get it any sharper so I am thinking I need to take it down some, will cut paper but can't shave with it, been thinking that for about a week now... Don't know if I will though, being my first knife it is not going to get a lot of use, a few sharped jobs to see how my heat treat is and not much more.

Really did not have that much finish work to do, just some small scratch removal and not very many of them on the blade. Handle would be the only place I would have a lot to do and since it is going to be replaced I'm not going to do a whole lot more to it. I will probably keep it for a handle for something else.
 
bob levine said:
the only thought I have on the knife is that it would be totally impractable in very cold weather. One splash of animal blood and you would be married to the handle till spring.
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No worries. It's never cold in Butte, right? (The other night, the radio forecast was for a "cool" -6F.) Maybe when it's cold you could tape up the handle (I realize it will cover up the damascus). It's amazing what a little tape can do to warm up a handle. My ice axes have aluminum handles, and they're almost untouchable without grip tape.

Montana Guy; when you get it all finished up, I'd be glad to snap some photos for you. Just send me an email.

Phillip
 
It is never cold here, only hit -42F this winter. Was a real nice 7F when we took the kids to James and the Giant Peach last night :). Thanks for the offer Phillip, I'll look you up when it is done. If you ever want to sit down and talk knives or whatever shoot me an email. rmt677@hotmail.com
Ronnie
 
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