Your first knife

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Richard King

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I recall making a Plexiglas knife in metal shop ..had to have been in 1967.....Then using a powe hack saw blade in my dads shop to make a fillet knife for my dad....I haven't made one since...but I am curious about you and what were your first knifes...? I bet many of us would love hear your stories...do any of you sell your knifes? Thanks in advance. Rich
 
I'll have to drag up some pictures later. My first knife was a tiny thing, with a blade of about 1 inch. I made it from a piece of spring steel I found by the railroad tracks, and shaped it with a file. I never could get it quite hard enough. That was when I was in my early teens.

Fast forward 20 years or so (wow, it sounds scary when I say it that way) and I have built a small shop for myself, and someone has turned me on to 'Knifemaking Tuesdays" on Youtube. After watching for a while, I realize "Hey, I could do this too".

The first knife after that was a carving knife for my girlfriend (an amateur woodworker). I ground the blade by hand on a bench grinder (NOT RECOMMENDED) from a piece of D2 flat stock I had purchased. The main purpose of this one was to test out my new kiln, and to see if I could actually heat treat D2. Worked great.

After that I started on a gift for my father, a slip joint folder I have posted here before [thread]7850[/thread] (check out the thread for pictures).

That was the last knife I made. I keep thinking I need to make one for myself, but too many projects are waiting in the queue, and there is just never enough time.
 
That is so cool! I am going to read that several more times.....Thank you, that is exactly what I was talking about!!! Rich
 
My first BSO (Blade Shaped Object) was a letter opener. I was finally given permission (at about 10 years of age) to use the power tools in Dad's shop and was going to town. Bandsaw to cut strips of oak from the old schoolhouse desk armrests, and the disc sander on the back of his Craftsman radial arm saw to shape...

I made 4 IIRC. My grandmother and parents still use theirs. I have one. I have no idea where the last one went. I didn't touch blademaking for another 20 years.

My first real knife shall remain safely anonymous. It is really not 100% complete. I needed something to do when my wife was in bad shape (rough pregnancy) to get my mind off the medical problems, so I bought a piece of 1/8" 1095 and scrounged some bronze for a guard and mesquite from the woodpile for handle slabs... The shape is totally off...WAY too blade heavy/wide/thin with too little handle by a good stretch, but I learned a heckuva lot. More importantly I connected with some knifemaking forums and got LOTS of help and good advise. My second one (the first really completed to usable condition) is a nice kitchen knife that is still a go-to for my wife.

Fast forward 10 years and I have a 2 year backlog because I don't take orders except from close friends and I work "when I feel like it". I do sell, but don't make enough each year to pay for the tools I use. If I made more, it would seem too much like work!

- - - Updated - - -

Aw what the heck, I'm too old to get embarrassed at how bad that first knife was.

Then, blades 1 and 2:
knives_03.jpg

Now:
2012-02-04_20-35-52_208.jpg
DSC01757.jpg

knives_03.jpg 2012-02-04_20-35-52_208.jpg DSC01757.jpg
 
Nothing as fancy as the ones shown. My first knife was one I made in high school. The shop teacher supplied an old file, which I normalized in the shop oven. The teachers had a conference one Friday, so I spent the day wearing down my Dad's grindstone shaping the blade. The steel was left in the normalized state.
P8240973a.jpg

The sheath is made from sheet steel and holds the knife securely, without any additional fasteners. The original handle was cast from polyester (fiberglass) resin shaped to fit my hand - a lost-wax casting. I hadn't added any length to the file tang and the end soon broke off. Replaced with a chunk of cherry wood and later reinforced with tape.

The second one, I made a couple of years ago. A Nepalese koukri, made out of the traditional material - a piece of leaf spring. Normalized in my foundry, then shaped with an angle grinder and pedestal grinder. Hardening and tempering, in the traditional fashion, is a one-step operation. After the blade is heated to red, the cutting edge is quenched with water poured from a teapot. Residual heat from the mass of the blade tempers it.

It is an excellent survival knife. It holds a very sharp edge and the forward weight makes it easy to cut branches for firewood. The wooden sheath is quite secure, yet easy to remove the knife.

P8240973a.jpg
 
Love the koukri Hawkeye. Looks like it would cut a small tree clean in two.
 
Thank you for sharing your stories as I bet many of the new members and old ones like are getting excited about your work. The teapot hardening is so cool... I hope more of you hobbyists will step forward with your craftsmanship. This why I asked you to share your stories.

When I was in Oakland CA last spring I saw a artist create throwing axes on his hammer forge and by hand. He is an American and went to Germany to learn Blacksmithing. His name is Jim Austin and has several You Tube vidio's and has classes too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQaaS71yfvM
I hope you enjoy the You Tube video, I did and do everytime I watch it. Thanks again for sharing your hobby and trade. Rich
 
The other videos on that channel are also fantastic. Watching a skilled blacksmith at work is like magic to me; start with a chunk of metal, then squish, squash he's made a flower, or a hammer head, or a punch.
 
I made my first knife in 8th grade shop class out of a file, with a brass guard and a mesquite handle. Gave it to my big brother & several months later found it rolling around in the back of his pickup. It took him a lot of smooth talking before I made him another one. Still making them & loving it, sell them all over the world. I'm hoping to get my grandkids into making them.

Dwayne
 
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