My third knife....I gave it away

bladsmth said:
Excellent job!

Sure, the handle isn't a perfect shape for a knife....but that matters not. Nature makes very few things perfect for any purpose besides what Nature intended it to be originally.

It is a very nice gift, which I am sure he was thrilled to get.
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Thank you again for all the positive comments. I had some concerns about the antler handle. In hand, the handle is surprisingly comfortable. I cut off the brow tine and found that it left a natural palm swell that positions your index finger just behind the guard. The knife balances at the position of my index finger so I went with it. From a top view the handle is inline with the blade, no twist or bend.

Willie71 - I have to thank you for giving me the heads up on dyeing the antler. After some trials, I used a straight ebony dye and sealed it with many coats of semigloss clear instead of superglue as I could not sand in between coats well due to the natural texture.

I had a lot of firsts with this project including differentially heat treating with clay, making a guard (twice), etching and polishing a hamon (many times), straightening a warped blade, and working with antler. I have read a mountain of info on all of this from this forum and it's contributors and watched tutorial videos endlessly. It's a good thing I have a lot of patience because it took me forever to make this knife. I don't have a grinder so this was also made freehand using hand files. I will have a tough time parting with it but I will gladly give it to my buddy. I believe that if I were to make a knife specifically for someone that I could not have made it anymore customized than I did without their input.

I have started a sheath and I will post some more pics when it is done.

Thanks again everyone

Brett
 
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Very good looking, you did great! Working on my 2 and 3rd while always redoing others. I make multiple blanks and then work on each individually so it seems like forever before I finish one.
 
Dang Brett! We HAVE to get together now, no more just talking about it. All by hand with files. Amazing.
 
Travis Fry said:
Dang Brett! We HAVE to get together now, no more just talking about it. All by hand with files. Amazing.
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Yeah Man!! Come on over! I'll break out the hand files and we can grind out a few thousands of an inch in a night. Lol. Probably get tired and drink too much beer. Seriously though, we'll get it together soon. It'd be great to hang out.
 
NickWheeler said:
That sure turned out nice. :cool:

I can only imagine what #100 will be like!!! :eek: :thumbup:
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Thank you Nick. Like many here I am a huge fan of your work and I truly appreciate your efforts in teaching your methods. But honestly, if I made 100 knives I'd be a 100 years old at the rate it took me to build this knife. Lol.
 
Very nice work. Very clean, and the blade profile and guard are definitely very nice. I bet that was a lot of work with hand tools!
 
That's beautiful. Hard to believe it's your 3rd knife, I'm sure your friend will love it.
 
Quick learner. Amazing work for a start. Thinking back to my 4th knife makes me cringe lol. Looking forward to seeing more of our work.
 
Looks great!!!!! Very Very nice especially being on the 3rd knife you made!!
 
that is a 3rd knife.....I hope my 3rd (when I get around to making knives) looks half that good, I want to see your first 2
 
crazyengineer said:
that is a 3rd knife.....I hope my 3rd (when I get around to making knives) looks half that good, I want to see your first 2
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Here is my first and second knives...I think they're getting better with practice.

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