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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 02-18-2011, 08:29 PM
AdamDCrum AdamDCrum is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 3
First Knife

Well, this is my first knife. I made this for my graduation project for highschool, and man was it a blast. At the moment, I've ordered a bit of steel, wood, and rivets, I'm just waiting on a belt sander I'm really glad my dad gave me this idea for my project, I was really stumped as to what to do. But one of my dads friends decided to help me out, and he was the greatest mentor I could have asked for, he was a huge help.

At any rate, the steel is 1080, and the handle material would be Fiddle Back Maple*(Thanks Woodchuck Forge). So, how did this come out for a first try?




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There's obviously a few places I messed up, namely I should have sanded the rivets down a bit more on the handles. But, it fits my hand perfectly, so I decided to leave a bit of the groove.

Last edited by AdamDCrum; 02-18-2011 at 10:05 PM.
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  #2  
Old 02-18-2011, 09:44 PM
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Woodchuck Forge Woodchuck Forge is offline
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Looks like you caught the bug. There is no turning back now. The main thing is does it cut and do you like it? Yea it's a bit rough but not bad for the first try. Keep at it and you will go far.

PS the wood would be Fiddle Back Maple. Birdseye looks like little eyes in the grain


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  #3  
Old 02-18-2011, 10:03 PM
AdamDCrum AdamDCrum is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: North Carolina
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Oh yes, I've been interested in knifes and swords for as long as I can remember, and have a small collection put together of each. So making my own knives is very appealing to me. Yes it cuts, and yes I like it. hahah

Ah, thanks for the correction. My mentor didn't see the wood after I sanded it, so the grain didn't stand out nearly as much, I guess he just got them mixed up.
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Old 02-18-2011, 10:05 PM
Doug Lester Doug Lester is offline
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All in all, not a bad first knife, I keep mine in the back of a junk drawer and I have no intention of ever posting a picture of it. I just keep it to remind myself how far I've come when I get discouraged about how far I have to go. You seem to have started out like it did hitting the steel too hard and leaving dings that are too deep to grind out. Just ease up on the hammer and try to make sure that the face of the hammer comes down flat. That has a lot to do with the height of the anvil. You want the face of the anvil to just touch your knuckles when you're standing straight beside it with your arm at your side. Also, if you have any sharp lines on the hammer face, round them off. You might also try to forge out the dings by tapping them out.

You did well on the general outline of the blade and the handle was really well done. You did much better on the plunge line than most first timers do. I take it from the statement that you are waiting on a grinder that you made this knife with files. I can't tell from the file marks on the blade. Did you draw file the blade or did you use a push stroke. If it was the latter you might want to google up draw filing to see some illustrations of it. Even when you have a grinder it's a good skill to develope to make fine adjustments, which is something that power equiptment is not always good for.

If you don't have any reference books on knife making let me recommend "The Complete Bladesmith" by Jim Hrisoulas. It's aimed at the beginner knifesmith and deals with most of the basics from tools to steel to design to heat treating. Ed Caffrey, who's a master smith, put out a video "Basic Bladesmithing". It's nice to see how things are done. One of the most important things that a knife maker can have is a good library of reference material.

Doug Lester


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Last edited by Doug Lester; 02-18-2011 at 10:10 PM.
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Old 02-18-2011, 10:15 PM
AdamDCrum AdamDCrum is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: North Carolina
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Ah, thanks for the tips and compliments. And I was using a ball-pen hammer for the spine, would that go too deep easier than a standard hammer would?

Oh no, no, I made this one with a grinder at my mentors house. I'm waiting on a grinder for my house so I can start making a few more.

And Thanks for the reference book suggestion, I'll definitely have to take a look at it. The only books I have would be '$50 Knife Shop' by Wayne Goddard, and a catalog.
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anvil, art, blade, files, forge, knife, knife making, knives, mentor, newbie


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