Pictures of my first home/hand made knife. What do you think?

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TheBreeze495

Joined
Feb 20, 2012
Messages
21
Please give me some feedback for my first try at knife making. It is 1095. I built a Reil Burner and HT it myself. It is 17 1/2" long 2" wide. Paper micarta handle.


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I made it to fit my hand. I used hand files and took off a little at a time until it felt the best in my hand. I am building a belt grinder next. I did this knife with a saws-all, 4" disk grinder, hand files & a bench top drill press. It took so long to do everything with the hand files. halfway through I was wishing I had made a smaller knife. My next project is gonna be a 2x72 belt grinder. I was trying to copy the battle mistress.
 
And yes this is the first knife I have ever tried to make. Thanks for the replies. Is it a lot easier to make knifes with a belt grinder?
 
Very well done......for a first it is spectacular.
Might not be easier with a belt grinder............but it is sure a lot FASTER.
Darcy:)
 
TheBreeze495 said:
I was trying to copy the battle mistress.
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That's the first thing that went through my mind..battle mistress anyone;) Very nice job and even bigger props for it being you first. You know you can get a 1Xsomething belt grinder from Harbor Freight for like $40 or a 4Xsomething for arund the same price but I never see 2X's in their ads. Even a 1x would be better than hand filing, but again much props for taking the hard way. I'd definitely like to see pics of the next one and maybe some of this beast in action:D
 
My hand is still cramped up from all the filing. I think I am going to pick up the harbor freight 1x30. And thank you finally someone recognized the battle mistress inspiration for this knife. I thought that would be commented on right away. That's what it is a battle mistress copy. I am a big time DIYer and I would never spend that much on a knife even if I had it to spend. I would never want to use it after spending that much. I fell in love with that knife & so the only way I was gonna get one was if I made it myself. Ive always been a big fan of knifes. And I had a lot of fun researching and doing this so I will defiantly be making more.Thanks for all the positive feedback.
 
Awesome work! I would do your next knives with your own style. Its cool that you made a knife that looks like a battle mistress but you def have the talent! Make some originals and put your name on them proudly! You are a natural! I ll be your first customer!!
 
Striderco said:
Make some originals and put your name on them proudly! You are a natural! I ll be your first customer!!
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Thanks man...I would love to be able to do this stuff for a living someday. Its reassuring when someone tells you you have talent, I appreciate it. I did feel a little bad coping someone else s design. I just really wanted one so i just made it myself. I am going to do my own designs from here on out. Im gonna start with some steels that are more simple to HT for now like 1084, O1, & 5160. I was able to get the 1095 pretty hard I think. I did an edge quench and I even got a visible hamon line. But it took me forever and the last couple inches of the blade down toward the handle didn't get as hard. I now know this is because the blade was so long I had a hard time evenly heating the entire lenght ( I needed 2 Reil Burners I only made one) and 1095 needs a good soak once at critical and you have less than 1 second to go from critical to below 900F. So 1095 is a bit more fussy than 1084, O1, or 5160 would be. I think I would have been fine if my blade was smaller or if I had another burner. But the top 3/4 of the blade are very hard. I wish I had a Rockwell tester to know for sure. I'm gonna do some testing of edge retention and video tape it and post it on You Tube as soon as I get a chance. I think it will do pretty well though. I could tell when I was sharpening it. I'm thinking of doing a small hunter/skinner next, with a drop point and a handle with a couple different materials and some spacers and palm swells. Either that or some kind of dagger. Anyway thanks for the input. I look forward to making a knife for you someday.
 
That bad boy looks pretty darn good for a first knife! I was racking my brain trying to figure out how you did the spider webbing on the blade finish until I saw it was a reflection of the chain link fence in the back ground! Keep up the good work!
 
Good luck on future knife projects! It's a vicious cycle, buying/making equipment to streamline your knife making operations to save time and sweat. I've been making knives for almost 10 years, and still need more equipment. I had an advantage, being a welder & machinist I made most all of my stuff. You can see it on my shop tour on my site, sharpdecisionknives.com .......Jon
 
Filing maybe tiring, but it obviously yields far better results than an impatient angle grinder.

The talent is there, band grinder or not and I'm anxious to see if you'll develop your own style.
 
Jon P. Moore said:
Good luck on future knife projects! It's a vicious cycle, buying/making equipment to streamline your knife making operations to save time and sweat. I've been making knives for almost 10 years, and still need more equipment. I had an advantage, being a welder & machinist I made most all of my stuff. You can see it on my shop tour on my site, sharpdecisionknives.com .......Jon
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Nice! I really liked the High Carbon and Micarta
 
Gobbo_the_civet said:
Filing maybe tiring, but it obviously yields far better results than an impatient angle grinder.

The talent is there, band grinder or not and I'm anxious to see if you'll develop your own style.
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I'm gonna make some drawings and post them to see what everyone thinks.
 
I'm in the process of building one! I am planning on building a KMG Clone of sorts w/some extra goodies thrown in! I just turned my wheels the other day on the lathe. I still need to make the bearing seats and hog away some interior material. I work at a metal fab shop so I have access to lots of cut-off Pcs of structural material to work with! We also have a powder coating system so when I am done I'll be able to put a good looking durable finish on it!
 
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