Progression

J

John T Wylie Jr.

Rockstar and ACE vBulletin troubleshooter
How many of you keep knives you make at random to look back on your progression ?
I kept ( from left to right )
*the first one I ever made from O1 tool steel , hollow ground ( 4 or 5 years ago )
* my first S30v blade I ever finished
* an S30v Henchman blank given to me by Neil that I finished ( hollow ground )
* a D2 Henchman , that I never bothered finishing till a few year ( this was my practice knife for the S30v above )
* 1095 blade that I profiled and ground years ago , but reground and finished last year
* one I finished recently in ATS-34 ( sold this one - but have another I am making for myself ).

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Thanks , you guys are funny. :)

Each knife is still a struggle to make it presentable , I just don't make enough knives to get a rhythm going.

How many still have the first knife they made ?
 
I only have a couple of the knives I've made but I do look back at photos every now and then to check to see if I'm getting better. I have been able to determine that I now have a kind of personal style to my knives and I am getting a little better.
 
After sustaining much water damage in the shop late last year , it has slowly getting fixed ( and I mean slowly even in knifemaker time ) , the shop is almost back to having all 1100 sq ft useable again. Wife's bout with cancer put the breaks on the remodel.

My wife of 21 years is definitely back in full swing now though....

Today after coming home from a long day at work , wife sends me to the shop to check and see if she got the right bulbs and heads for my track lighting above my Bader.

I run out to check , not only did she install another head on the track , but replaced a few burnt out bulbs , and on one of the walls I repainted over the weekend , she did this:
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After 21 years of marriage ( 25 together ) , she never ceases to amaze me in her strength or support.
 
Bless her heart, obviously she has a lot of courage and love!

As to your original question, I don't have a single knife I made from the ground up. I do have a couple kit blades I put handles on, but that don't count in my book. Keep meaning to make one for myself, but so far every one that came out decent has been sold, and all the rest are ummm disposed of.
 
Glad to hear your wife is back to full swing. She did a great job on the shop wall 2thumbs

As to your original question, I keep lots of firsts. I have the first knife I ever made (a 1084 hunter). I usually keep the first or a particular design or steel. I have my first 1084 fillet knife, 154CM fillet knife, 154CM kitchen knife, 154CM utility knife, and 154CM small bolo knife. I think of it as part of the perks of being able to make knives and we all know, you can never have too many knives :D
 
I've only made 3 knives so far so I have all of them. I don't see that much of a clear progression though but that could be because my 3rd knife is such a different design as the others.

The progression I do notice is that Misfit (2nd knife, named so because of the un- porportioned handle) has a better fit, finish and cutting ability then the first. The 3rd knife had a heavily curved (scalpel like design..I was trying to "reinvent" the letter opener) blade..so I didn't do that well on the grinds.

My 4th and fifth knives are too early to tell other then the reflective finish I managed to get on the 4th which is the best finish I ever done so far. The 6th wip is most likely going to the scrap pile..messed up on the larger blade's grinds big time.
 
John, Glad to hear you wife is doing better now! I bet that was nothing but a struggle.

As far as first knives go I still have mine plus most of the early ones. Your knives look real good!
 
Thanks Ray , yes she is doing much better now. It was quite a scary 6 months , but she spent 4 days this weekend out there in the shop cleaning , painting , rearranging and helping me get organized. I am pretty close to having all of the shop back in action...now to order some blade steel and start designing an area outside to set up a small forge :)
 
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