My 2nd Knife

G

gudspelr

Well-Known Member
A friend helped me get into this and we made my first knife together, a little bugger I gave my dad. Being addicted after that, I'm now about finished with my 2nd knife, the first I've done all myself. I don't have any belt grinders, so most all of this was done with hand tools and a LOT of elbow grease. It's 12" overall and a little under 7" is in front of the finger guard. The guard and steel spacer are both from the same rasp I forged the blade from. Handle is Cocobolo with some Danish oil and a little wax from a friend's buffing wheel. I still need to sharpen and buff the blade, but will do that after I finish the sheath up. There are a lot of things that could be much better on this knife and I certainly learned a lot (mostly what not to do...). All in all, a success, I suppose. Maybe someday I'll get good enough to make knives like you all.

The start:

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In progress:

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After a LOT of draw filing:

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More or less finished:

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Any suggestions/constructive criticism is very welcome. On a side note, anyone know what kind of steel Heller Red Tang rasps are? Can't get anyone from their company to tell me.... Thanks for looking.


Jeremy
 
No idea on the steel, but the overall knife looks dang good for a second attempt.

The only constructive criticizm I can offer is to pay close attention to the "Flow" of the design. It may just be the angle of your photo, but it appears as though the handle is slightly raised from the spine of the blade. I would recommend dropping the tang a bit on the next blade you forge so that the line of the spine extends at a slight downward slope through the line of the top of the handle.

For the record, it looks a heck of alot better than my second attempt.
 
Well First off Welcome.

Second how did you heat-treat it? If I’m not wrong, which often I am just ask my wife, most rasp are an A series steel = air hardening. Which means you had a bugger of a time forging it for your second blade, Good Job:thumbup1:

I have to agree with Murph on the flow, very important. To me, by the photos, it looks like the cutting edge is a little off center. Probably because you had a heck of a time forging it.

Take all of this with a grain of salt but the very best advise that I can give you is to look at knives made by a lot of different well known makers for ideas and direction and always ask questions.

The Best advice I have gotten, which was from MS. Lin Rhea, was to draw the idea of a knife out and look at it at different angles, and change it on paper until it looks right and then make the knife to fit your drawing.
Not that I always do that it’s just tooo much fun hammering hot metal and then trying to make a knife from it.

Have questions; just ask you’ve found a Good home.

By the way very good second knife:35:

Todd
 
Very good for a second forged blade.I have never forged anything,
but,I could tell you,it would not look anywhere close to that good.
Keep at it,

God bless,Keith
 
Thanks for the comments. I quenched the knife in Canada oil then tempered. A friend knifemaker checked it and thought the hardening was good...? I totally agree with the flow/design. I've also exchanged some emails with Mr. Rhea and I tried drawing it out. Odd enough I had a hard time with the handle on paper too... Hopefully that stuff will get better as I do more and study other guys' knives. Guess part of the 'success' is learning from each knife.

Jeremy
 
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