My very first knife

[Brandon Bearden 6]

I just wanted to see if I could do this thing before going down the rabbit hole. After this, I was hooked and bought a forge and welder. I have a cutting torch, grinder, belt sanders and other tools for my other hobbies. I sure went off the deep end from this one success. I look forward to many more to come. I as so worried I was going to fail that I just used a piece of low carbon weld steel from the hardware store. The handle is purple heart and apricot from a branch that fell nearby. I wish I would have used better steel... oh well. Next time.

 

[Alan Longmire 3,878]

That's better fit and finish than a lot of fifth knives.  Well done!  

 

What blade steel are you thinking about for the first real knife?

[Welsh joel 83]

Simple clean lines, pinned & layered handle, jimping pretty even and clean...

 

Very respectable first effort.

Go ahead and pick up the hardenable steel to start scratching the itch to "make it right".

 

You got this.

 

The only crazy reaction?

Omg- you sure you had enough epoxy on there? Think you missed a spot! 

 

You did a hell of a clean up effort on that sander.

 

Very clean look.

[Brandon Bearden 6]

Thank you for the comments. Yeah, I mixed up too much epoxy and just said, whatever :)

 

I was thinking 1084 steel. I have some s30v, but I know I would need to send that off.

[Welsh joel 83]

Making your first blade- and having the knowledge & experience... (heat treating, etc.) can be two different things.

 

And without knowing that/your level of experience-

 

Until you get some more practice in, 1080 series steel is a very good starting point. It's much more forgiving for a home smith to heat treat. 

 

I'm only a couple years into forging myself- and am still always reading & researching... learning.

 

You seem to have pretty decent tool and use experience- easily seen in your work.

 

Make a few more, screw several up, and get some time in making something really sweet you'd like to have for yourself to keep... then bust out that s30v or make your welded pattern... etc. Then it's worth sending out for a professional heat treat.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Oh- and welcome to the madness!!

Edited April 6 by Welsh joel

[Ben Potter 4]

Well, done!

Way better than my first or second or third...

[Doug Lester 408]

Of course you're going to make mistakes.  We all do?  Just figure out where you went wrong and fix it on the next blade.  BTW, not bad at all for an early blade.

 

Doug