7" hunter/ first attempt at basic filework

[Crex]

While there is nothing wrong with striving for perfection, most of us do, you are just getting started in this game. You will make many, many, many more knives and many, many, many more "mistakes". I recommend following through and finishing this knife as there are a lot more lessons and techniques to learn just completing this one.
It's not a catastrophy and when you complete the HT, handles, and final finishing, you will have a knife. Even more important....you will have experienced the process and learned. You will know more about what does and doesn't work.

Another recommendation, if I may, take what you have learned, leave out the more difficult and/or nonessential efforts. Work on straigt forward simplicity, the less distractions with these "sides" will allow you to focus more on the basics and finishing issues, greatly improving your skills.....and satisfaction with results. You will find that just doing a simple clean well made knife is much more difficult than you might think, but also it is doable with the tools you have on hand. You can build from this and add the "bling" later.

I have found in teaching adult students, that it is very difficult to convince them to keep it simple and focus on basics.
Adults usually want to use high dollar materials/do a lot of embellishment/make damascus.
Teenagers always want to make big knives such as swords/sacrificial goat knives/bowies.
Young kids seem to be most practical and are happy with just getting a knife completed that works like a knife. They also learn the quickest.
Note - This is based on "mental" age not "physical" age.

You have a good start, so don't mess it up by quitting before you hit the finish line.

[cbsmith111]

I'm nearly as new as you are, and I can tell you from very recent experience to not count your blades out until you try all the way through.

I recently completed two knives out of a batch of three that was the first batch I made from known steel and actually had heat treated properly. I realized after the first that I had left the grind too low and sacrificed edge geometry and cutting ability, so I ground the other two the rest of the way to the spine. One of them I ground way too thin toward the tip. I semi purposely broke the tip off in a piece of wood to confirm my concerns about its strength. Ruined, right? I threw that one aside and finished out the third one. Other than the tip these were pretty much identical, and I didn't want to mar up the one I finished out, so I decided to use the broken one for testing. I sharpened it on my belt sander and it went magical. I didn't even regrind the tip it just kind of evened out as a sharpened it. The tip now looks better, in my opinion, than the original design.

The point is I could have just reground the tip from the start and finished this knife out and it probably would have ended up being the nicest of the three. Now I have a sharpened knife with no handle and still needing a lot of hand sanding. I may still dull the edge a little and see what I can do with it, but just think if I had made myself finish it anyway instead of giving up on it.

If you don't think the knife is going to turn out, just go el cheapo with the handle materials and stuff and finish it anyway. I scrapped a lot of blades before I completed these because I didn't like how they were turning out. It wouldn't have taken all that much time and money to finish them, and if I had I would have much more practice with handle scales under my belt than I do now.

[hondo76]

In the end this one is almost finished now it's sanded and ready for heat treat.not sure What I'm gonna do for scales yet but..... we will see

[hondo76]

Well guys its just about finished except for cleaning up some boo boos and sharpening actually pretty proud of this and its IMO opinion my best one yet.

ended up salvaging some blue dymondwood for the scales.




12

[Crex]

Can't help but notice all the clamps. Just a precautionary...over-clamping can be just as bad as under-clamping. You can force too much glue out of the joints and not get a good bond. If everything is flat and even so that you get smooth contact between surfaces with a dryrun fitting, then light apring clamps will do a better job (and are much easier to use).

Not saying you did this, but it happens a lot with students and beginners. They often gorrilla clamp to "force" the scales flat, putting some micro tension on the scales. This will often cause separation failure later in the life of the knife. Best is to take time to get that completely flat even contact. Next best is to let the epoxy fill the gaps. Built in tension is only good in springs not handles.

That one is turning out nicely (my wife would like it just because it's got a blue handle).

[Ray Rogers]

That did come out nicely. You have a good start on your filework there too. The vine part seems evenly laid out but where are the thorns? I assume you're finished with it since the scales are on but you'll want to work on adding the thorns to that pattern the next time you do it ...

[hondo76]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

That did come out nicely. You have a good start on your filework there too. The vine part seems evenly laid out but where are the thorns? I assume you're finished with it since the scales are on but you'll want to work on adding the thorns to that pattern the next time you do it ...

I figured it looked good enough that I did not wanna push my luck and make a really ugly mistake. So I just left it basic. But yea I'm gonna practice that on some junk steel and get it down.

[hondo76]

Originally Posted by Crex

Can't help but notice all the clamps. Just a precautionary...over-clamping can be just as bad as under-clamping. You can force too much glue out of the joints and not get a good bond. If everything is flat and even so that you get smooth contact between surfaces with a dryrun fitting, then light apring clamps will do a better job (and are much easier to use).

Not saying you did this, but it happens a lot with students and beginners. They often gorrilla clamp to "force" the scales flat, putting some micro tension on the scales. This will often cause separation failure later in the life of the knife. Best is to take time to get that completely flat even contact. Next best is to let the epoxy fill the gaps. Built in tension is only good in springs not handles.

That one is turning out nicely (my wife would like it just because it's got a blue handle).

It was all flat and fit well. I was just under the assumption that it needed evenly applied pressure. I promise one thing..... those scales will never come off. Ever.... I tried every way I could to get them off without destroying them. When I put the pins in I ended up with one Mosaic and one brass that I had been using to test fit. By them time I figured it out the epoxy had cured already...... oh well another lesson learned......

[hondo76]

Originally Posted by Crex

Can't help but notice all the clamps. Just a precautionary...over-clamping can be just as bad as under-clamping. You can force too much glue out of the joints and not get a good bond. If everything is flat and even so that you get smooth contact between surfaces with a dryrun fitting, then light apring clamps will do a better job (and are much easier to use).

Not saying you did this, but it happens a lot with students and beginners. They often gorrilla clamp to "force" the scales flat, putting some micro tension on the scales. This will often cause separation failure later in the life of the knife. Best is to take time to get that completely flat even contact. Next best is to let the epoxy fill the gaps. Built in tension is only good in springs not handles.

That one is turning out nicely (my wife would like it just because it's got a blue handle).

It was all flat and fit well. I was just under the assumption that it needed evenly applied pressure. I promise one thing..... those scales will never come off. Ever.... I tried every way I could to get them off without destroying them. When I put the pins in I ended up with one Mosaic and one brass that I had been using to test fit. By them time I figured it out the epoxy had cured already...... oh well another lesson learned......

[cbsmith111]

I use a bunch of the small plasic squeeze clamps. They're about a buck a piece at a discount tool store. They're easy to preposition quickly and there's no risk of over tightening. C clamps also have a tendency to twist things out of alignment if you're not careful.

[hondo76]

Yea I'm gonna have to pick up a few of those them C clamps are a PITA to deal with.