There it is! My first knife! Finished it about 3 months but just didn't take pics.
Black Diamond file, ground to shape but heat-treated in the forge...
African padauk handle (I think?) and copper pins. I think I like the feel of it..





Basic and uneven filework lol



Notice the "white stuff" in the pics. Pretty cold here..


Thanks for looking!
Simon

Looks good.. Much better looking than my first knife, in fact I think it looks better than my first file knife!

Keep 'em coming.

Very nice first knife. Much better than my current projects!

Mark

I like the knife. You can keep the white stuff. But, keep the pics coming.

Cool knife! Where did you get the pins from?

Thanks everybody! Pins are just plain old copper wire, cut with a bolt-cutter and kind of straightened on the anvil.
I didn't manage to grind a sharp tip though. Any advice on that? Also, for my next knife, should I rivet a head on the pin?

it was hard for me to get a good sharp tip on my first few knives. then when i was trying to forge a thrower i gave up on hammering it into place and just started to sharpen it. i was using a slow wheel sharpener, and i somehow sharpened it into having a sharp tip. still not sure how that works, but it's worked every time since.

Ah, nothing like a simple file knife...still remeber my first. Great job on that piece mate!


A word about the point: Practice! You will get the feeling for it. But thats a pretty darn good point for your first knife.

Cheers!

On the point. Forge it first using the upper spine of the knife placed against the anvil and start forming the point. As the metal expand, hammer the sides of the blade to draw out the point. The point doesn't have to be perfect from the forging. If you want a false edge, sharpen the knife without the false edge, the cut down the spine for the false edge, file the false edge and you will have a fine point. If you do not want a false edge, use a belt grinder to sharpen and as the pull the blade across the grinder, pull the blade a slight bit back towards you as you get close to the tip and it will make sharp tip. If you pull the blade back towards too much, it burns off the tip....so practice with something useless.