I hope this is an appropriate place to post pics of my first knife and to welcome comments.
I started with a file, a moose shed, some hard rubber and brass.
I rough cut the blade with a cutting wheel and then normalized with my webber charcoal grill and tested with a magnet (pretty cool).
I did the shaping with a hand and bench mounted grinding wheel and then a hand file.
I was able to cut a slot in the handle with the cutting wheel and then hand work it to get the tang to seat close to the final shape of the handle.
The blade is not yet affixed to the handle, because I have to get most of the scratches and such out of the blade before heat treating and tempering.
I plan to leave some of the file marks for effect. I am thinking of leaving the oxidizing on the blade to keep it rustic looking, but I'm not sure if that is even possible. Will it just rub off? Don't know.
The overall length is 7 3/4" and the blade is 3 7/8".
I am really enjoying this.

I would really like to use clay to get color variation in the blade, but think that might be best left to another attempt.

Thats a great first knife, make sure you use the heck out of it, you'll learn alot.

Thanks, Josh. I plan to use it a lot.
I'll need to make a sheath so I can keep it with me.

alpha would that happen to be a mill file by nicholson? those make good knives. and tooling bellies from tandy leathe factory (or co. i cannot remember) are gereat for sheaths the 5-7 ox are great. i cannot speak for the 8-10oz bellies but the are probably better for axe sheaths than for knives. better then my first knife! good job and good luck.

Edited April 19, 200917 yr by steve sells

I started using 9 oz shoulder leather for sheaths and it works pretty well. Thick enough to be rugged and still thin enough to add an overlay and not make it look chubby

good job,
welcome to the club. this stuff is a whole lot of fun, and you can get as far into it as you want. I like what you made, and you will just get better.

Kevin

Thanks guys. I'll look into that leather source.
I would like to get hold of some old saddle leather source.

Yes that is a nicholson file.
I've got a bunch of old files and rasps on the way, but I thought I'd start with one of these, as I had read that they make a nice blade.

alpha would that happen to be a mill file by nicholson? those make good knives. and tooling bellies from tandy leathe factory (or co. i cannot remember) are gereat for sheaths the 5-7 ox are great. i cannot speak for the 8-10oz bellies but the are probably better for axe sheaths than for knives. better then my first knife! good job and good luck.

Edited April 19, 200917 yr by steve sells

That's a great first blade. Only thing that I really have to comment on, would be spend a bit more time finishing, it makes a world of a difference.

was that a brand new file you cut that out of ???

was that a brand new file you cut that out of ???

that's the first thing I thought of. I love using old worn out stuff to make knives, but try and avoid destroying new Nicholson files.

Did you normalize before you started grinding or after? If you anneal a file before you grind you'll save yourself a lot of time since it will be easier to grind on.


Looks cool, nice job

Congrats on the first knife. It sounds like you used the right file. I once forged two beautiful utility knives out of Simonds 12" files. They were looking NICE too. Wouldn't harden to save my life though.
You're on your way, man! Keep it up!

You might get some grief from leaving the file teeth in before quenching. They can provide some serious stress risers.

yeah its a bit pointless to buy a new file for a blade. worn ot ones just are fine. and come lets see a sheath. i recomend brass snaps (solid not just plated. if you test with a magnet and it sticks its plated) and some edge coat. traganthic gum or somthing is great and non toxic if you have kids or are a kid. good lick on finding leather.

It isn't finished in that picture and the blade is not epoxied into the handle yet.
I did normalize the steel after the initial cutting to shape.
After that pic, I have done final beveling, sanding and polishing with 2 rouges.
I just finished hardening and quenching in olive oil and tempered for 2 cycles of two hours each at 350 degrees.
The charcoal left an interesting oxidation or something.
I'm trying to decide how much of that to remove. It looks pretty nice removing only an 1/8" at the edge. The handle is now epoxied on.
I'll post a final picture when I've finished.

Thanks guys.

That's a great first blade. Only thing that I really have to comment on, would be spend a bit more time finishing, it makes a world of a difference.

Good lookin' Dog too - French Brittany?

very nice first knife. keep up the good work