My first knife - be kind ;)

First, sorry about the lousy photograpgy, I'm discovering it's a lot harder than it looks. My camera has done some starange things, you can't see the filework at all, the turquoise stone spacer is almost a whiteout, it's a little more "orange" than IRL and it's picked up a lot of contrast from the bonding agent which is hardly visible at all in normal light - ahwell, lots to learn.

Anyway, the blade is hammer forged, cable damascus, cryo treated and double tempered. I didn't forge it myself, I bought the blank from Gene Osborn and dressed it. It's a beauty. Guard is bronze damascus (a peice Geno gave to me gratis - thanks Gene), bufalo horn spacer, turqoise stone spacer and bookmatched, stabalised Amboyna burl handle slabs. The mosaic pins I made myself, and a nickel silver thong hole.

Be kind, it's my first knife
[Edite: picture updated with some better ones shot in daylight]



Just a word of thanks to everyone in this forum for sharing your knowledge and inspiring me to make my first knife. I've had loads of fun putting it together and I'm sure it wont be my last - I'm already wanting to do another, so I can try out what I've learned from this one. A particular thanks to Gene, for forging the knife, but particularly for being a gentleman. Thanks Geno.

I don't even have to try to be kind. You did a great job. Very nice indeed. Love that Amboyna Burl too.

Terry's Website

Very very nice knife I wish that my first one had been that good, nothing to be ashamed of, keep up the good work. Gib

Thanks gents, preciate it

My camera does a better job in daylight, I'm gonna try and get better pics tomorrow.

I'm delighted with the knife, I had some reservations about the finger cutouts, but I've shaped it to match my hand pretty well and it's a dream to hold, really comfortable, though the missus says it feels awkward in her small hands. I guess thats why not too many production knives have finger grooves. It has a nice weight, 9" overall and it takes the hairs off my arm with ease. I decided to make a knife, rather than buy one so that I would have that personal touch in the knife I use. Big mistake - now I've got to build another one. You know, you guys should really warn folks about that.

That's not only better than my first knife. It's better than my 50th knife too.

Great work!

Very nice indeed!!!

Geez Martyn, theres nothing to be nice about, you have done an awesome job. How long did you spend on it?

Would love to see a picture that shows the turqoise up.



ghostdog

Martyn,
Well done mate!

That's a great job, you should feel chuffed to bits!

For a first knife, it's brilliant.
What's your second gonna be?


Colin

That is a great knife for a first knife, you have no idea. There are some seriously envious folks here right now!!

Thanks again chaps, I am very proud of it, though it makes it a lot easier to make something nice, when the blade is forged by someone like Gene Osborn - the rest is a little like guilding the lilly. I'd be more deserving of your praise if I'd forged it myself - maybe in 20 years or so

I've updated the pics with some shots I've taken in daylight, they are much better. You can see the veins running through the turquoise. I have no idea how long it took - seems like ages, but then every bit was a new step, so I had to keep comming here to check how to do it. I just took my time and was as carefull as possible. I shaped the damascus guard first, I blued it in the oven and it looked great, but I couldn't figure out how to make it fit so I didn't heve to grind it up after. In the end, I put it on first, it's slotted onto the blade (which is also slotted) and glued with JB Weld. Then I wanted a curve behind the guard to take my forefinger, the damascus was too thin to shape it out of that, so I cut a slice of bufalo horn and made a thick spacer out of it, pretty much matching the damascus guard. It was pretty easy to shape up with a dremel. The turqoise was a nightmare. I originaly laminated two peices between thin sheets of nickel, but it kept comming apart. So I abandoned that idea and went without the N/S spacers, it's worked out OK. The Amboyna was just a dream to work. I filled my filework in with blackened epoxy, but it doesnt seem to have cured too well, sort of rubbery. I had to fill little pinhholes with superglue and it looks OK now. The mosaic pins worked out amazingly easy. Same N/S I used for the thong hole with three brass rods inside, filled with blackened epoxy. There was some twisting with the brass tubes inside the N/S tube, so the faces of the pins dont align perfectly, but they're not far off. My biggest problem was sourcing the materials. I'm in the UK, so import costs really stung me. It's also ####ed hard to find a 1/4" drill bit here, 6.5mm was the closest I could get, a thou over size, but worked nicely.

Overall, I'm chuffed to bits.

I think a Bowie next

You deserve to be very proud of that knife Martyn. Gene's blade looks excellent, a great start and I can see why you wanted to do it justice.

I'll bet the rest of us started with simple carbon steel blades, brass pins and plain wood slabs with no guard.....you just had to start off the hard way, now top that

Of course you are hooked now, welcome to the club :

Roger

Thanks Roger! Shame I couldn't figure a way of bluing (rather bueing and attaching) the guard tho'. You can see here...



...where I blued it up to test before I shaped it, that the little brass flecks contrast really nicely with the blued steel. But I just couldn't build the knife and put this on last - at least not *and* have it contoured into the hadle.

Just seen new pics,

Fantastic job!

Looks like the Brit collab knife will be Martyn & friends

Martyn, YOU did this.
I just gave you a challenge and you took it.
It is a dream of mine to help improve the custom knife world.
These blades abd blanks are going to help lots of people test their limits. The hard part is getting started.
I just offer the parts they are uncomfortable doing.(forging, heat treating, and plenty of technical support to accomplish what would be a dream)
The more you do, the more comfortable you will be. Soon you will be able to grind your own, ect...
The hard part, like I said, was getting started, and Buddy, your HOOKED now. hahahahahahaha
Let me know when you start seeing them in your dreams at night.
I like the sheath and filework too, a nice touch.
You have reason to be proud, well done.

Well Martyn, life as you knew it in the past is over. You'll find yourself looking at peoples furniture and trying to figure out how to get that highly figured piece of wood out of it, I've been looking at my mother-in-laws dining room table for some time now. Every piece of steel you see is a potential knife, your fingers will be burned and sore all the time. You will crave expensive machinery, all your friends will be knifemakers, and you'll want to spend all your time in your shop. Ain't it great?