Your first knife

I've given almost all of my knives (including my first) away to family. I kept my 7th knife, a crappy dagger that I'm vaguely proud of.
 
Gave my first to my dad. Then gave my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th to friends. After that....sold to family/friends/customers. Didn't feel like the first ones were sellable quality! Still don't, really!
 
I only recently completed my first knife while I was at Johnny Stout's class. I gave it to my wife since it was she who bought me the class as a gift. She has become somewhat of a collector since I dragged her to a knife show several months ago. I have several blades at heat treating right now and most of them will also be gifts when complete.

Bob
 
If I found someone willing to buy my first knife, I wouldn't sell it to them. A person exhibiting such poor judgement doesn't need to own a knife. ;)
 
I've still got my first knife, and also the first slipjoint and first framelock I made. The rest have all been sold or given away.
 
Im not sure I could pay someone to take my 2nd and 3rd knives a crude folder and a crude frame lock ( functional and butt ugly) i've given my first 4 fixed blades away and the people were happy to get them ;0)
 
I'm giving my first one to my Dad. I'll use the mycarta he and I made goofing around in his shop this past winter.
 
I think everyone should keep their first knife. I have mine and still use it occasionally, of course its far from perfect but holds an edge very well and has sentimental value!
 
My father has my first knife. He loves it but will never use it. He's such a sentimental guy. I love the guy more than anything but it bugs me that the knife won't get used. My brothers have numbers 2 and 4. I have number three. My nephew has number 5. I am in the process of finishing the sheath for number 6 which will be gifted to a friend of mine. They are all decent but I still don't feel right about selling them yet. I'm a bit of a perfectionist but more for the fact that I would like to see some real world feedback from users before I am confident enough to sell to strangers. In any case I don't really need to look back. I'm too busy looking forward to the next one. In 10 years I'll look at my first one again if I need a chuckle.
 
When I look at or think about some of my very early knives 2 words
come to mind---- DEAR GAWD!
Ken.
 
The first knife I made is in the second picture. I heat treated in a charcoal grill starter with a blower and used old motor oil as a quench . That was almost a fire if I remember correctly . The first picture is when I thought I was really getting "good" another crappy knife. I still suck but someday it may sink in . I figured you guys could use a good laugh at my expense . I doubt anyone can trump these ! :o
 

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This might not have been my first but very early---1972, probably about 6
years before I ever sold a knife. You can see where I went thru to the epoxy.

This one was earlier this year, Ats-34, Ivory.

Its been quite the long road, and a memorable trip.
Ken.
 
It's really interesting to see some of the makers first knives on here as a tribute to where they started at to where they are. I'm a horribly slow working hobbyist and have yet to sell a knife. Fortunately with the help of this site and the many fine members on here I think it greatly helps shorten the learning curve and allows handmade knives as a whole to really be taken to a better levels of craftsmanship.

My first two in order: Sill have the first second was a fathers day present.



 
I just found the first liner lock I made and hard used the small blade. I decided I would put it back into my pocket. This will be the third blade. It never did have a detent. The side pressure of the leaf spring keeps it closed. I'm pretty sure I sold some that were the same way back say 15 years. It was a very safe in your pocket knife but of course you now have to have a detent or you wouldn't get many sales. Frank
 
Made my first way back in the 60's and still have it.
second from the right, quite ugly with perspex rings for the handle.
But still works well.
Richard

 
I still have my first fixed blade and my first folder.

The fixed blade is a little rough, but the folder is actually quite nice.
 
I still have several of my early ones - or pieces of them, if they were water quenched. They can all be found in the scrap buckets. A lot of them are 1018 Knife-Shaped-Objects from my teen years, before I happened across this forum and realized that there was this thing called a "heat treatment".:D
 
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