YAFKP(Yet Another First Knife Post)

[KnifeHead]

This is really a request to see a picture of the first knife you ever made. I mean your FIRST one, not the first one that you wanted show people.

I was rummaging around the old machine shop at my dad's and found this relic from my past. I made this knife out of necessity when I was 12yo because I wanted to have a knife that was all mine to clean fish with. Note the handy hook remover and hacksaw blade "appearance". It really wasn't a very good knife to use but it is the first one I made....38 years ago.

 

[KnifeHead]

OK...where's that ugliest knife thread?

 

[Matt Shade]

Ok I'll play. I've posted this before, but I guess not everybody has seen it yet....not that they would want to

It was made with a prehardened blank I got from woodcraft. The end was ground like a skew chisel. I reground the blade to make it a knife on a benchgrinder and then spent months trying to clean it up. Couldn't drill holes for the handle pins so I had to cut slots in from the side of the tang with a dremel. I think it ended up being a lot more work than just learning how to heat treat!

 

[deker]

I'll get some pics of mine later today and post them...

-d

 

[Tom v S]

Edit: I don't know how to get it smaller, sorry for that . It's made from a Nicholson file. It was a good knife, but i lost it in the woods...

 

[Justin.Mercier]

First 'knife shaped object ' I ever made was a letter opener, from a railroad spike. (i made it a little more than a month ago)

the first knife is still a work in progress I started last weekend.

It's made from (obviously) an old file I had lying around. I picked up some 1084 last weekend but didnt want to use "the good stuff" for my first one.

 

[KnifeHead]

Looks like you have a handle on it:thumbup:...forging that is.

Since "works in progress" are definitely allowed in FIRSTS....this is my first forged knife, also from a file. This was a HUGE file from Britian that a friend of mine found at a flea market. Must have been at least 20" long and over 1/4" thick. This knife is from a piece I cut off from it that was maybe 12" long. The knife as it sits now, after about 6 hours of forging, is 13 1/4" OAL. The blade is 8 1/2" long and 1 1/2" wide at the choil. I have to knock down the end of the tang a bit and reduce its width top to bottom. I am doing what some people call a "Moran Grind" or convex grind so that this will be a tough chopper.

BTW, the guy that got me this file is a an addicted flea market goer and buyer of knives and similar items and I have sikked him on all sorts of material like files, chisels, etc. anything that I can use to make knives. Hot tip...get other people to look out for cheap stuff you can use in your knifemaking and make things for them in return. I made a sheath for him and put new handles on an old dagger.