Just found a nice red deer antler and with 2 old files i made these - Im still learning (2nd month) and i know they arent great - but id like to share for some feed back. and pointers please!

"Looks like you are hooked for good,,In fact you may indeed be in for a long bout of the blade illness..You asked for thoughts:At some point you may want to look more into fit and finish and blade designs. May be a good time to compare the overall look of the blade wiht wot some other makers are doing.How much you want to pay attention to that is up to you. If you plan on selling knives it will be more up to the buyers. Peresonally I don't think buyrs get to make decisions on wot I make. But if I stick with that thouight i will for sure how the largest collection of my knives around. And they will continue to gain numbers. Look at a few things that others do: like the bank end of your blades and the line where the ricasso meets the gluard. Does the blade butt up nice to the guard? is the hole for the guard fit real nice around the blade? Have you sealde that joint somenow?, Some folks solder the joints others use and epoxy. Both of them require a real nice clean up to look good when done. You may like to look at blade profiles. Tradition shapes seem to sell best. Although some buyrs will want their desires to be crafted. Knives posted on this site are good to reference. as are blade magazines. On line sales catalogs are great also. AG Russels Cutting edge, And ARizona custom knives on line sales on their web site have lots took at.,Maybe other folks on here have thoughts..Nice start on your knives.!

Thankyou sir, for the advice and kind words!

Very cool. (Hey, you're Iron-eye on deviantart, aren't you!)

Very cool. (Hey, you're Iron-eye on deviantart, aren't you!)

YES! - who are you on dev art??

Of the three knives you've presented, I really like the second and third a lot. They have very interesting profiles. I really think that the first knife would have benefitted by having a ricasso. Instead, the blade/guard junction seems less stout.

Robert

Of the three knives you've presented, I really like the second and third a lot. They have very interesting profiles. I really think that the first knife would have benefitted by having a ricasso. Instead, the blade/guard junction seems less stout. Robert

Thankyou very much! - the first one - was my first attempt at makeing a true high carbon steel - tempered knife - I made a tonne of mistakes - the seccond two where a bit more evolved from learning from the previous one`s mistakes - I still see allot of ways in which i can improove - both with design and the technical process of heat treating. Im glad you like the profiles - Im quite taken with makeing a few more of the 2nd one`s profile if i get any commercial interest in it.

I really like the shape of the middle one man.

kendall nice one - i think anyone prepared to enter properly and seriously into learning how to make blades will have what it takes to get them how he or she wants them, and to get them really good. i think they look great for your 2nd month !!!!! i have never made a blade and probably wont, but im interested in looking, good luck with your learning curve :)

Interesting profiles. They will get crisper in time. I might suggest making sure you've got all the file teeth off as they can cause stress risers and cause a break. What kind of files did you use. I just recently started using files and found that Nicolson's worked exceptionally well, Lennox files however I couldn't even get them sharp. The Lennox seemed to be made of 1070, that's what it tested like anyway.

Oh, sorry I didn't reply soon, http://monkeymitch351.deviantart.com/ is me :)