My first knives

P

psycho78

Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
1,108
Been practicing on the ol' Coote for awhile, and this is what I came up with. I'm experienced with tsukamaki, so Japanese styles are going to be a natural choice for me to make.

The inspiration for these knives came from a trip to the Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton. I love aviation, and my hands down favorite plane in the world is the SR-71 Blackbird. I became emotional when I saw it for the first time in person. The local people in Okinawa, upon first viewing this plane at the AFB there, nicknamed it the "Habu" after a venomous snake. I had just ground out these two knives a day or two before. I wanted them to be wicked, stealthy, fast, concealable....and it hit me right when I was in the museum. I decided to name them after that plane. I thought it was appropriate.

Heat treat and cryo was done by texas knifemakers supply. Both are chisel ground (for a lefty....I didnt know any better...lol :p) The knife on the top is a strange one. I initially ground the bevel too high, which left the edge thick. I tried grinding a small secondary bevel, but that got botched up too.....The result is a double bevel, which I think looks pretty interesting. Almost like a weird hamon. I'm happy with it. :)

I wanted to give a special thanks to Pohan Leu for helping me out and answeing all my n00b questions. What a man :thumbup:

Hope you guys like them. Criticisms and comments are always welcome.

FINISHEDHABU1.jpg


FINISHEDHABU2.jpg


FINISHEDHABU3.jpg
 
A little modern looking for me, but I like the Japanese style handle wrap and they look well constructed for the style. I don't think the double bevel looks bad at all. Very unique.
 
Thank you! These are definitely a non traditional neo Japanese style, and thats pretty much what I was shooting for. The double bevel was purely accidental, and a result of me trying to save a mess up. I guess it taught me to never give up.
 
Good Job! You did right by not giving up on the first one. The creative problem solving will do you well in the future. I am currently working on my first ones and hope they come out as nice as yours.
 
Actually another option on correcting the first one would have been to put a bevel on the other side of the blade and make it asymmetrical and work better for right handed people.
 
Thanks everybody for the nice comments. I worked pretty hard on these.

Hope to continue to improve and get more predictable results. I think I have my formula worked out pretty well.
 
I'm REALLY digging those! And first grind? Seriously? What I would do to have a grind that straight & clean now.... :o

Keep it up, and keep sharing your work. Good looking blades!
 
Never be able to tell that those are your first grinds. Look like they could've been your 110th and 111th grinds. Great work. :thumbup:
 
I first thought they were machined bevels. For free hand ground blades it shows You have GREAT eye hand skills.
Nice Work.
 
A little clarification....lol. :o These are definitely not my first attempts at grinding, but my first heat treated and completed knives ready to be used.

I've been tool collecting and studying for well over a decade now, but I just actually started grinding on my Coote a few months ago. I cut my teeth on a Craftsman 2x42, and I have burned up, screwed up, wept over and cussed at more knife shaped steel than necessary. I have never been able to send anything out for HT, or assemble any attempt before these two.

I am very very new at this thing, and you guys just don't know how much your kind words mean to me. I'm definitely bitten hard by this bug, and I'll continue to post my work here.
 
Either I had forgotten you're pyscho78 or um yeah...damn my memory must be slipping :D Great job bro!
 
I actually like the look but I question the durability of such a long fine tip. What is the intended use?
 
Thanks again Pohan. Hopefully here pretty soon I can get the mods to upgrade my membership and I can use my full name.

Redrum - I made these and even I have the same sentiment as you. I love the look, but I know that tip ain't holding up to any heavy cutting chore. The Spyderco Civilian has a fine tip too, and it's said to be designed strictly as a SD tool. I still love them and think they can be very useful. Like I said in a earlier post, I think I have painted these into the Self defense/necker corner. I admit.....I was going for cool/wicked factor more than utility. I jumped right in without really considering anything outside my original drawing. I still have alot to learn. In the future I will probably shorten the angle, or the grind height to make the tip more substantial.

mtnfolkmike - thanks for the kind words man. :D
 
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