The buffer warning was slightly off-topic and yet most would never think you might be killed using one!
More to the subject. You have been given good advice. Here is another, when you feel like that is the best you can do and you have no desire to improve. Then you are done! When you look at one of your knives and you see the flaws and your mind is working on how to keep that from happening to the next one, well...…… you got the fever then!
I once showed a knife to a MS,
View attachment 67919not knowing he was a master smith!! He looked at it and turned it over and turns and says
that is a good user! Little did I know that was the kindest thing he could have said about. The guard was silver soldered on and it showed badly. The handle was walnut but it had a
pitiful fit! But I was oblivious to all that! He could have been brutally honest and told me it looked like $@*#! However he let me keep my dignity and then he showed me one of his, and I knew I was out classed a 100 times over.
Most first attempts are like that! You should learn from each and every knife you make! You should strive that each subsequent knife is better than the last!!
After you have a design you like.
Then start with getting it on to the steel of choice!
Grind is a very important factor as well.
Fit and finish if you know it could be better, then you are being honest with yourself!!
I received some advice a while back that you should sketch out your finished knife!! One it gives you a chance to play around with what you the final knife to look like. Most of mine had all been something in my head. The problem with that is you have to work on the fly! Sometimes that is not a bad ability but, with knife making t can leave you boxed into a corner, your not sure how to get out of.
To me a knife should the look that draws you in! It should make you want to handle the knife and once in your hand it feels so good you don't want to put it down!!
Now this is my opinion and many makers do not like doing it but a knife should have a sheath!! Whether you build the sheath or get someone to do it for you. The knife and the sheath are synonymous! They should look like they go together!
One thing you will find out about knifemaking is that there is no one formula. All makers approach doing things in there own way! Also there is now one pat answer for knife making. Steel choice, HT, materials, sheaths all have a whole slew of variables that have to be factored into the making of each knife!!