First Knife Finished

[Walt-]

My first knife finished. Now I need to figure out how to make a sheath. I am pleased with the outcome of the knife. Any and all comments welcome.

[cnich]

I love that style and your workmanship is top notch whats next

[Ray Rogers]

Walt, if this is your first knife have you tested one of these blades yet? It is very good looking and the workmanship is fine but are you sure it's a knife? Most first timers find it very difficult to take that pretty knife out and put it to the test but ya gotta do it ...

[Walt-]

Ray,
I don't play around with cardboard, 2x4s, trying to break it with a vise or any of those other girly things. This weekend I am out looking for a rabid Honey Badger or maybe a female Grizzly protecting her cub to take on with only the knife. If I survive I'll sign it off as a knife. If I don't survive thats the way of the knife maker. Thats the way I roll.

Actually I haven't had the need to use it yet.............

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by cnich

I love that style and your workmanship is top notch whats next

It will look a lot like this one but the indentation for the index finger will be more pronounced, the handle will be a little longer and the but of the handle is a little more rounded. My buddy at work has a Dad who is retiring and he wants me to make it for him so he can give it to his Dad as a gift.

[cnich]

it may not cut jello but it is a very nice LOOKING knife keep posting

[metal99]

Looks good Walt! Your off to a great start!

[WynnKnives]

That is a very good looking first knife, heck good looking knife period. I wish I would have found this forum and other resources before I made my first couple. The next step is like Ray said... find out if it works like it looks, because you don't want to give somebody a piece of metal that looks like a knife that doesn't work like one.

[Walt-]

OK, here comes my ignorance. If a knife is properly heat treated and is sharp what can be wrong with it? Are you talking about the ergonomics of the handle / blade relationship or testing to see if the hardness stands up to abuse? What do you guys do?

Thanks

[Walt-]

Originally Posted by WynnKnives

That is a very good looking first knife, heck good looking knife period. I wish I would have found this forum and other resources before I made my first couple. The next step is like Ray said... find out if it works like it looks, because you don't want to give somebody a piece of metal that looks like a knife that doesn't work like one.

I was thinking the same thing the other day. Before the internet if you wanted to learn something new if you were lucky you could find a good book about it and if you were even luckier somebody would help you. The amount of information readly available now is incredible.

[WynnKnives]

Of course the ergonomics and such play a big roll, but that is easily and pretty quickly decided whether it is good for what you want.

The biggie is the the blade, there have thousands of discussions of the following issues and I won't delve to deep but give a good overview.

Properly heat treated can be a broad term, once again it's all in what the blade is to be used for.

-But in a general sense you can get the blade very hard and you can create a very sharp blade that holds an edge for a long time. If you leave the blade too hard it will be brittle and it will chip/break and the like.
-Or on the other end of the spectrum, you may have hardened it but not enough, it will be easily sharpened but won't hold an edge very long but can stand up to some bending without breaking.
-Or ideally you get the right mix and you have a blade that's hard enough to get and keep a good edge but won't chip out and break.

Now there are all types of hardness in between that can be obtained which make it ideal for what the blade is being used for, but I think at this point it's getting beyond what we need to worry about (for this discussion). So basically what you are trying to get is a knife that is in the middle, not too hard where it will break/chip, but hard enough to hold a good edge for an extended period of time.

So it's good to test it by cutting rope, cardboard ect. for your easy everyday use, then take it a little further do some chopping with it, cut some bailing wire, and harder materials like that. The idea is to abuse it a little, because someone is eventually going to do it. Drop it on cement, because eventually someone is going to drop it. Things like these that happen in everyday use (even if unintentionally) will tell you if you have a tool that someone won't be disappointed by.

We make knives, not fine china, these are tools that are and will be abused, so we have to test them as such to make sure you make a product that's worth the time you put into it. Now I don't know if bending it at a 90 is really necessary, I would consider that neglect. But it's not a bad idea to break one in half every once in awhile to make sure you get your grain restructuring correct (heat treat), but I think this can be done with a knife that is made for this purpose, I'm not going to pull a finished knife off my shelf to do this to.

[Naboyle]

Testing shows you that your heat treat IS right. If you don't test how do you know? Just because you can shave hair on your arm doesn't prove much of anything. I just recently tested my first real steel knife. I amazed myself. I learned a lot. I never thought a knife could hild an edge like it did. Start cutting anything you can get your hands on. And yes it'll show if your design is right. If your handle has any hot spots. If your grind is right for the blade. Cut, chop, and cut some more.

[WynnKnives]

Originally Posted by Walt-

I was thinking the same thing the other day. Before the internet if you wanted to learn something new if you were lucky you could find a good book about it and if you were even luckier somebody would help you. The amount of information readly available now is incredible.

Well, I had the internet available when I made my first one (I'm probably still wet behind the ears to a lot of guys here), but I went into it with the ignorance that no one ever made hand made knives, it was all on an idea and a whim. Little did I know that there was an entire world out there dedicated to the works of art that are created. Suffice to say, at least my first 5 knives were at best laughable (and I mean really really bad). I still have my original knife laying around remind me how far I've come, and how embarrassed I am of it lol.

[Walt-]

Thanks for taking the time to provide all of the great information guys. I will give it a work out and see how it holds up. I probably should do that before I take on the badgers and bears though. Trying to drop these animals with just a stub of a knife handle is extremely difficult.

Thank you

[Cthulhu]

Nice solid work Walt. Welcome to the addiction.