my most made knife?

[disduster]

i call this my most made knife because it is the closest i've come to making a knife i believe. It's made from a really beatup WWII era cattaraugus machete i got at a local antique store for a few bucks. I actually had enough blade from the machete to make a few blade blanks. But the one i about to picture is the only one i have finished out, sharp sheath and all.

and some work in progress pics of cutting, profiling and drilling and after grinding and hand sanding.

Anyways the point of my post is on if i have made a knife or not(and to show off my work to build confidence in what i doing). I wanted to ask some of you knifemakers your thoughts. I deffently put a lot of work into this project, with my limited hand and power tools.
Some part of me feels that i haven't "made a knife" because i didn't heat treat, just preserved the existin one by very carefully not burning it out.

i have been edcing this blade and sheath (which i also made, my third sheath i think) for around a month now and it's been everything i wanted in a knife for myself. It holds its edge and has cut various materials up and down the scale. The only thing i would change is i was it was about a half inch longer and round the top shoulders of the handle scales more(which i did later on) but i guess that will me the next project

I see alot of the work and skill some of you guys do and i'm just blown away. I do plan on continuing to upgrade equipment and improve my skill level, hoping to eventually put something outthere with my name on it.

 

[Frank Niro]

I'm encouraging you to continue making more knives. I'll just bet if you do make that one with the blade an inch longer you will again think about another change or feature you will want to add. Not doing the heat treating doesn't mean you didn't make the knife. Perhaps one day you will do that too. Frank

 

[drlozier]

Congratulations !! Nice work for a first knife and the leather work is impressive. I encourage you to keep going.

 

[Hengelo_77]

yes, you´ve made the first jump in to knivemaking, just keep going!
If you can get more of those blanks, rehandeling them would give a nice result as well

 

[Remyrw]

It's a knife, it was a chunk of metal from another knife, but after you chopped that up it wasn't a knife anymore, so you made a new knife from old steel. You still made a knife.
keep plugging away, look at a lot of pics, play with designs on paper and then do some more. A little shaping around the front of your handle would go a long way toward making it look more refined, but that's for future projects.
Now accept that your life as you knew it is over, you're now a spark maker.

 

[disduster]

thanks for the comments and kind words folks

 

[Poop Fungus]

easy way to heat treat=regular charcoal, the kind you cook with that everyone always says not to use in a forge..briquettes... get a nice big thick bed of them burnin good, ashed over, glowing..even heat. bury the knife in the middle. check it often with magnet until its no longer magnetic and instantly quench=yer all done with hardening.. some prefer this method as the briquettes provide even heat and bring the metal to non magnetic slower than, say, a forge (harder for beginners to mess up)..and you can temper in your kitchen oven.. for a knife, i've heard 400-450 is good
i like the ones you made

 

[mgysgthath]

easy way to heat treat=regular charcoal, the kind you cook with that everyone always says not to use in a forge..briquettes... get a nice big thick bed of them burnin good, ashed over, glowing..even heat. bury the knife in the middle. check it often with magnet until its no longer magnetic and instantly quench=yer all done with hardening.. some prefer this method as the briquettes provide even heat and bring the metal to non magnetic slower than, say, a forge (harder for beginners to mess up)..and you can temper in your kitchen oven.. for a knife, i've heard 400-450 is good
i like the ones you made

If you're going to use charcoal use hardwood charcoal.. briquettes can and usually do contain lots of other contaminates that are not good for your blade steel, and hardwood charcoal isn't hard to come by. You can even make your own pretty easily.

 

[disduster]

easy way to heat treat=regular charcoal, the kind you cook with that everyone always says not to use in a forge..briquettes... get a nice big thick bed of them burnin good, ashed over, glowing..even heat. bury the knife in the middle. check it often with magnet until its no longer magnetic and instantly quench=yer all done with hardening.. some prefer this method as the briquettes provide even heat and bring the metal to non magnetic slower than, say, a forge (harder for beginners to mess up)..and you can temper in your kitchen oven.. for a knife, i've heard 400-450 is good
i like the ones you made

thanks, i think in time i will try forging and heat treating at home, i got a anvil already, and it does sound like fun hard work.