How far have you travelled on the Journey?

[Bill Schmalhofer 70]

54 minutes ago, Pieter-Paul Derks said:

I had to dig quite far, but I managed to find a picture of my first knife, now 6.5 years ago.

mild steel of course, and the picture is horrible too, but we all have to start somewhere.

 

On the bottom a knife I finished earlier this year, which I'm quite proud of,takedown construction, my own damascus and leather sheath. I also got a lot better at taking pictures.

 

 

And you got a HELL of a lot better at making knives Pieter-Paul!!!! Inspiring. That's where I hope to be someday...

[Bill Schmalhofer 70]

All of these posts are so inspiring. WOW!

[Alan Longmire 2,465]

I totally forgot about my first stock-removal-only knife.  Made about a year before my first forged knife, about a year after I started smithing:

 

Bandsaw blade and walnut with brass pins, hardened in the fireplace.  I made it to replace my grandmother's favorite paring knife she'd had since around 1935 after it finally died in 1999.  She loved it, and I got it back when she passed on a few years back.  It looks just like the old one, except for much less embedded grease and a full-width blade.  The old one broke because she'd "sharpened" it into a hair-thin sickle over the 64 years she used it.  

But it also looks like crap.  

 

On another note:  One of our members has suggested this thread be pinned, and I agree.  There's a lot of inspiration here.  I recalled that a thread of this sort comes up from time to time, but the only one I could find on short notice was this one from 2017:

 

However, if you REALLY want some humbling inspiration, enter the following text into Google:  "first knife" site = www.bladesmithsforum.com .  

 

That will give you 8 to 10 pages of individual "my first knife" threads dating back to the beginning in 2003.  Happy looking!  You may be surprised by a few of the names you see from the early years.

[Rob Toneguzzo 629]

Pieter, I cant see how you can improve on that last knife.

 

Thanks for sharing Jaron, good work on that multi bar and carving.

 

Alan that First knife thread has some old gold. I really enjoyed that and seeing the work on this one too.

[Alveprins 178]

Alright, as this is a quite interesting post - I thought I'd throw my progress into the proverbial basket as well.

 

Four years of progress.

 

First blade was a full tang cooking knife in san-mai lamination with folded and twisted 15n20 and high carbon tool steel. Handle in african Ebony. I folded this steel entirely by hand as I had yet to aquire my pneumatic hammer at that time. Damn, I really punished my arms and shoulders with this one. 

Latest blade I suppose is known to most of you as I posted it quite recently here on the forum.

 

I was thinking the other day, and discussed with my wife in fact - how I feel I am wasting my time at my dayjob. I feel that I instead should focus on my forging and knifemaking, improving amongst other things my drawing and engraving skills. I want to do gold and silver inlay, as well as gems... But, there are only so many hours in the day. I really feel as if time is running away from me. 

I wonder where my skill level would have been at today if I had been doing what I love for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week instead of riding this damn keyboard at work for the past 9 years. 

 

sincerely, Alveprins.

[kidterico 36]

Thanks to everyone. It sure is nice to look at all these pieces. KT

[Dallas Kroeger 1]

I'm barely starting now. Later in line than I wanted to. But I'm putting with towards it. So all I have is really early work at the moment. Stuff I just am trying with. My first knife was all grinding no forging from an old file. This is my second knife I ever made also all grinding and no forging. I have a third one also from a file but it's not done. I've been working on my actual hammering skills more than anything right now. It's a slow process but I hope to get as good as some of the stuff I see on here some day. But I'm definitely motivated to be able to do it

[Rob Toneguzzo 629]

Great stuff fellas, 

Alveprins, I love that blade but that handle is what gets me fired up!