My First Knife

[lambertiana]

I visit Ray Laconico regularly, and he graciously offered to teach me how to make a knife. So yesterday and today I spent some time in his shop, and made an EDC under his direction. I used 1/8" 1080, the handle is Ipe. I couldn't duplicate Ray's beautiful full flat grind, so I settled for a full convex. Here is the result, it makes nice curls on the fuzz stick:

Hmmm, maybe I should make an entry for the Bushcraft Challenge. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out OK for my first knife.

 

[tknife]

I think it turned out great. Color me jealous! That is really cool that you can learn from Ray. I would probably make a nuisance of myself if I lived closer to him

 

[CoyotePhysics]

I think that it looks better than OK for a FIRST attempt. I'm jealous. Knife making is something that I've always thought about trying, but never have gotten around to.

 

[Snakedoc]

Very cool!!

Nice work, can't believe it is a "first blade"

 

[PayetteRucker]

gorgeous. Looks like a heck of a slicer.

 

[jds1]

Nice job! That's quite a first knife. :thumbup:

Jeff

 

[John G]

Nice knife!

 

[jurisprudence]

Great job. I really like how it turned out.

Kudos to Ray for offering up his skills and instruction. Ray makes simplicity look so good.

 

[mtnfolk mike]

wow... nice work John.. that came out great..:thumbup:

 

[JCavSD]

Pretty damn nice for the first go-around...well done.

 

[DennisStrickland]

hell of a job for a first knife, i think you may find yourself getting a new addiction.
dennis

 

[stingray4540]

Crap, for your first knife, that came out awesome! I like the choice of Ipe for the handle too.

 

[pitdog]

Awesome work buddy, that came out great and looks a real practical shape.

 

[KuRUpTD]

Looks good to me ... if you don't want it I'll take it off your hands

 

[BA_Colt]

Looks good!!!

 

[dialton]

Really sweet!! You will keep and cherrish that one forever. Larry Chew did the same thing for me in his shop one day. There are some great guys out there who are willing to share a bit of their time and knowledge. Hats off to them!

 

[raylaconico]

That really turned out great! I just want to add that while John got directions from me, he did the actuall work on this. He did it all from profiling, grinding, heat treating, and finishing. I have fun teaching. I'm not a very good teacher and I don't think I'm the right guy to learn from (bad habits) but I enjoy sharing what I know and watching someone proudly make his first knife.
Don't ever get rid of this one. I made the mistake of getting rid of my first knives. Whenever I made a nicer one, I'd thrash the one before. I had to learn on my own and I don't think my first try turned out as well as yours. Keep up the great work. Your first knife turned out really nice and you'll only get better.

 

[s7brad]

Great job! Came out better than my 1st kit knife and all I had to do was make the handle. Awesome

 

[WILLIAM.M]

First??

Hell--I would take about 20 times to make one that good

 

[Jeff H]

Nice - VERY nice!:thumbup:
I love the grind.:thumbup::thumbup:

Nice teaching job too, Ray.:thumbup: