What do you do with first knives?

[David LaFerney]

My first knife is in my back pocket every day.

The hole is kinda cheesy, and the choil is wrong, but I'm not too ashamed. Yet. It cuts pretty good anyway.

 

[Randydb]

My first knife disappeared before many of you chaps were born, then re-appeared a few years back in a box of old tools. It makes me feel really old to think that it was made nearly 55 years ago. What makes me feel better is to see how much better I make a knife today

Blade is made in GGS ( Grandpa's Garage Steel). Handle from a deer dad shot. Rivets from 16 penny nails. Handle "antiqued" with a blow torch.

Okay, I hope you realize I deeply respect you Stacy. You are incredibly helpful knowledgable and kind. But your first knife here makes me feel much better about my first knife! I thought how bad could any knife by Stacy be...clicked on the picture....Ohhhh. Of course I just did the handle on my first try. Maybe my first build from scratch will put me back in my place Thanks
Randy
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[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Yep, at 11 I thought I knew it all. I could do that...no problem! I was pretty proud of that knife until I made a few more, then it started looking more and more "wrong".
Today, I pull it out to show someone I am teaching who thinks their first knife looks bad. The first knives today, with all the help available from the internet and places like Bladeforums, are miles ahead of what kids could do alone back in the 1950-60's. Back then, even Bill Moran was trying to figure things out by trial and error.

A look at the past:

Many of the members here have no idea what the world was like before the information revolution.
In the 1950's there were no books on knifemaking. Most info was just a short reference in a blacksmithing book.

There were no knifemaking clubs, no societies, no groups. There were less than 50 custom knifemakers in the USA. Hobbyist knifemakers numbered less than 1000.

A few books on metalwork may have been found in a public library. Most of those were written in the 1800's to early 1900's. Many make no reference to electricity.

If you were lucky, a nearby blacksmith would show you how to shape and harden a blade.

If you were really lucky, a maker like Bill Moran would show you a few things. Even those makers may have been doing things the hard way ( or the wrong way) because they had no one and no books to show them any different.

The choice of knife steel was limited to found items and a few basic industrial steels. Terms like German Steel and Silver Steel meant quality ( even though no one knew what was in those steels). Instead of discussing the attributes of carpenter 5160 vs Admiral 5160, they argued Ford vs Chevy springs.

The few makers there were closely guarded their secrets. Many had very wrong HT processes. Almost no makers had any understanding of metallurgy or what happened to steel during knifemaking.

HT was close to magic only 60 years ago. We joke online about doing it at midnight and pointing the blade north....but that wasn't a joke at one time.




Today you can google any topic, reference, data sheet, etc.
There are tens of thousands of experienced makers and millions of hobby makers worldwide...and they can all talk to each other on the web.
Info can be found in seconds, not days or weeks...if at all... as it was 60 years ago.

 

[Bufford]

It was not that much different in the early 1980's. I came across a couple of knifemaking articles and happened upon a copy of Knives Illustrated and from there I learned a little about knifemaking. Beyond that it was trial and error, and waiting for weeks for steel and handle material to come from Knifemaker's supply houses down in the states. A knifemaker by the name of Tim Ross near Thunder Bay helped me get going with pointers on shop tools, I was discouraged by the price of the proper equipment but it did not deter me. Some people thought knifemaking was a weird hobby, but once they saw the knives they started buying them

 

[JN7556]

Yep, at 11 I thought I knew it all. I could do that...no problem! I was pretty proud of that knife until I made a few more, then it started looking more and more "wrong".
...
A look at the past:
...Info can be found in seconds, not days or weeks...if at all... as it was 60 years ago.

Wow, and I thought I was young starting at 15. Though I guess 4 years isn't as much of a gap as it feels. This also gives me a whole new respect for all the modern technology and fancy toys that we've got available today that can be used for research.
-John

 

[David LaFerney]

It's true. The internet has brought many crafts back from the brink of being lost arts. At one time people who knew these things tried to keep them secret to protect their own status, now we gain status by passing on information. It's the greatest revolution in human progress since the printing press.

I don't even count the couple of knife shaped objects that I made (one out of a flat pry bar) pre internet as "real" knives - they are almost like the facsimiles of scissors and things that Amazonian tribes sometimes made out of bamboo to communicate that they valued the real objects that they had been given at early contact with civilization. Maybe that's not right though - they did have a handle end and a pointy end so I guess the back pocket knife in my previous comment is really my 3rd knife. First one this century though.