My First Knife WIP

So I started the sheath last night got it cut out, dyed, and the belt loop cut out and shaped. I have to go back to tandy today to pick up the last few things that I forgot, such as glue and a stitch marker. I have been taking pictures so I will be posting them later. Thank God I bought a big chunk of leather, leaves me plenty of extra material if I screw up and have to start over:o

I got a big scare yesterday. I went to the shop to pick up the two Bowies I am working on so I could make out the lines to square up the tangs. I had gone to the grocery store too so I just threw the two knives in the bag and walked home. Well its only a block and a half to home, but when I unpacked the groceries, there was only one knife in the bag:eek: I instantly put my shoes and a coat back on and retraced my steps, hoping that I had just left the missing one at the shop. about 3/4 of the way there I found the missing knife. It had poked through the bag and fell on the side walk, but someone had found it. they didn't keep it though they stuck it into a tree. they must have thought it was a piece of junk because it had no handle and nothing resembling an edge. I could have lost all that work from a moments thoughtlessness. Any how its safe at home now cleaned up marked and will get squared up tomorrow or Monday, then its lay out the handle trim the tang and snd the two out for HT
 
Sounds like a close call. Glad you found it. I had a simular thing happen to me but I had dropped my wallet. But I had found it a couple blocks from home. Gets the heart racing don't it. You got lucky this time. John
 
Well first attempt at a sheath was a fail on two levels. So first off I just don't like how it is turning out, I can do much better:o. I have seen preschool projects looking better than this. Second fail was I lost all the pictures I took along the way. I was cleaning up my memory stick and didn't realized I had selected the folder with the sheath photos in it:eek:
I do think I know where I went wrong and have a nice long weekend to try again. Like I said earlier Good thing I bought a shoulder, gives me a few tries at this.
 
Sheath Part II
Well I decided not to take pictures of the sheath making, just wasn't in the mood. Its almost done, but I did something silly again with it. I made it right handed:o and I am a lefty, guess it may have something in my subconscious telling me to get use to using my right hand for a bit;)
 
Well I almost have the third attempt at making a sheath done. Was just doing a little wet forming on it and manage to get the knife stuck in the sheath, I gave it a good pull to get it out and managed to nearly cut the end of my finger off in the process:o good news is the knife doesn't stick in it now, guess blood makes a good lube:p
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not the best pictures, but they will do. I still have to attach the belt loop and strap, and I have to seal it. Not sure whether to go gloss or satin. I will figure that out tomorrow
 
Yes it is a sandwich type with a front and back panel and a welt all the way around. When I finish the little wet forming I didn't realize that I had put it down near a heat source and the leather shrank just enough to grab the knife hard. The cut is my own mistake, looks like its going to heal well without stitches just have to keep it clean
 
So I got the sheath finished, but I m having a serious problem with it. Within about 15 minutes of putting the knife in the sheath it starts rusting. That is with the knife oiled. Is this a problem with the leather? In other words I was sold something other than Veg Tan leather like the receipt says and I was told, could it be the dye causing rust from its chemical make up, or just the dye itself discolouring the blade? It looks like rust to me but I did use a reddish brown dye, tandy house brand if that helps.
Any help would be great on this one.
 
Leather takes some time to fully dry out. I would leave it out of the sheath for at least 3 to 5 days and finish it with some neetsfoot oil afterward. Just a light coat to condition the leather.
 
I just finished everything up, re polished the blade to get ride of what ever it was on it, rust, dye, who knows for sure. Going to get a friend with better photography skills and equipment take the final pictures of it. I never could get the blade as polished as I wanted though, but I am fairly happy with the final sheath
 
So here it is, the end of my WIP. Its been a learning experience and I would like to thank everyone that gave encouragement and advice. I would do it individually, but there are just way to many of you for that.
What did I learn from this? Well I learned that making knives with hand tools takes a lot of work but its worth every minute of it. I also learned that I am hooked on this. I have a couple more knives in the works and I hope to be able to not repeat the mistakes I made on this one. Over all I am happy with the knife. It does what I wanted it to even if it has some cosmetic flaws in it. So with that here are the final pictures, it will never look this good again. I had planned on it being a user right from the start, I just wanted it to look good to start its life off, and I think I did fairly good for my first knife.

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Once again thanks for all the help and kind words.
George
 
I think you did an excellent job on all! Congrats on seeing it through!
 
You sir, just piss me off.

That thing is AWESOME for your first job in everything. You did it from beginning to end - sheath and all. I wish my stuff looked like that my first time.

I would be very proud - if I were you.

TF
 
I know this is an old thread, but after reading all the progress, then getting to the end, no final pics!! Its like the movie crapping out during the big ending...

If there is anyway you could repost those pics I would love to see how things turned out...

I am about to build my first knife, and really liked this.
 
I had to organize my photo bucket account and somethings got moved around and deleted. Unfortunately I am in the process of moving accross the country right now and my computers are in the moving van and on the highway right now. In a couple of weeks once I get everything set up I will try to get the photo links set up again, but in the end I got a decent looking, functional knife that convinced me to keep going.

If I haven't got thing fixed in 3 weeks and you really want to see what the knife looks like finished, just pm me I could get bussy trying to get caught up on other projects.
 
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