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I found this forum the other day while looking for ways to improve my multi-tool grinder attachment and decided I should stick around for a while since you all seem to be a knowledgeable group with a great collection of skills. First picture is of the knife that inspired my design. I actually made a knife for my wife that very closely resembles the drawing I made based on this knife. I then traced hers after I got it roughed out because I liked it so much and made a slightly larger version for myself. I intended for it to be a more exact copy but ended up leaving more material on it all the way around. As with my first round of knives I made most of these were intended to be Christmas gifts so I was a little limited on time which is why I'm just now getting back to working on mine 9 months later. You can see I loosely based the shape of the handle around the inspiration but I changed up the blade shape a fair bit (IMO). I really like the way that the scales projected into the oversized choil and ran with that as the focal point of the overall design. I like how it affords a good forward grip on the knife for choking up on the blade. Overall I was pretty happy with how hers came out other than the handle needs some improvement/ refinement. (I'll try and remember to get some pictures of hers to add to this thread for reference. It didn't come out bad but it would have been better if xmas wasn't fast approaching when I was finishing it.) Below you can see the group of knives I heat treated in that batch, all O1 steel that I bought precision ground. I had a good mix in there, everything from a pry tool bottle opener thing to hunters and a kiridashi like blade. A keen eye will note that in my haste I forgot to file the jimping into my hunter although my wife's is jimped. I've been using WD-40 when hand sanding the blades and it seems to help the paper last a little longer. Strange stuff happens with suspended metal particles in oil on a magnetized blade. Do blades often become magnetized like this? Scale cleaned up after heat treat. Polished (I've since sanded the blade again, I think it looks better than the polish did. Possibly because the polish was less than perfect.) This is some prelim design work for the handle. I've decided not to attempt to copy the carving on the scales but I was playing with the idea in the below sketch. IIRC the scale material I picked out for this knife is Gaboon Ebony I got from Bell Forrest. Up until this point those are all pretty old photos from either late 2018 to early this year. From this point forward you're seeing what I've done in the last week or so. I decided that the black scales on the polished blade might be a bit boring and decided to add a liner to them. I thought about just doing a layer of brass but I decided to go ahead and add a layer of red micarta between two layers of brass. (.010" brass, .030" micarta) I spent some time getting the scales flat on one face and gluing up the liners (is that the correct term?) then brought them to work to drill on the mill. I don't have a drill press at home and the last ones I hand drilled came out a little bit off. The blade now has a 600 grit finish on it but I'm not sure how far I'll end up taking it. Beginning to rough shape the scales. Where I ended up last night. This ebony is a filthy wood to work with, makes an absolute mess of me and the shop. I screwed up a little bit last night. I got a little ahead of myself and glued the scales on after I got to this point. It would all be fine and dandy if I didn't have more sanding to do on the blade. Oh well, it will just take a little more work to protect the scales and not make swirly scratches where the blade meets the scales. I doubt I'll make any progress tonight as I have some other errands planned but I'll keep you all posted as I make progress. Thanks for checking out my project let me know what you think.

Hi, I'm new here and new to knife making. I had been considering having a go at making knives for some time so a couple of months ago I jumped into it. I'm absolutely hooked! I've used O1 for these blades and recycled/native wood for handle scales. These are my first three knives. My first attempt is a general purpose hunter or camp knife with a 4" blade and recycled Teak handle. The next two I built simultaneously. The largest one I built for my workmate who wanted something to stick wild pigs. It's a 7" blade again with Teak handle. The smaller tanto style knife is a utility/EDC with 4" blade and recycled NZ native Matai wooden handle and sheath. I've already gained a lot of valuable information from the forums here, so thank you all very much.

Hi guys, I have a question I'm only getting D2 and O1 steel in Mexico where I live to make knives has anyone made knives with this type of steel? Is it good? Do you recommend them? Should I keep looking for other types? What are the pros and cons of these types? If they are good which one of these would you use? Any other info you'd like to share? Are they any good for damascus? If they are good for damascus Do they work well with 1095? Thanks!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/486149591/purpleheart-explorer?ref=listings_manager_grid 10.5" of O1 steel, some purpleheart, and leather. Sold.