First knife

[Minion]

First attempt at a knife with the hammer and anvil.



Need to do a little more sanding I think but its getting there.

[MRobb]

Very nice for your first! (or second...) What's it made of? Dimensions?


Mitch

[Messerist]

You got it, keep at it. Very unique chopper/big skinner design.

[otto]

Thats one brute of a blade I like it keep it up.

[kevin (the professor)]

good start. My first blade was ugly. Yours is not. Good sign. The main thing is to share pics and pay attention to what you like in other knives ( and what you don't like). Most of all, listen to the guys on these forums. I only have 18 months of experience. many of these guys have more years than I have months in this craft/art.

Luckily, they like to teach and share.

If I were you, I would focus on hand-sanding. Take sand paper and wrap it or attach it to something hard and flat. I use a bar of brass or a bar of steel. Then, use this sanding implement like a draw-file. Spend about 5 times the amount of time you think you need with 80 or 100 grit and then move up through the grits. With the first grit, you are actually taking dips and waives out of the steel, as well as any scratches from filing and grinding. After the first grit (there are no maching scratches and there are no dips or waves in the blade), then you are just polishing. You only need to use each successive grit long enough to remove the scratches from the previous ones. For the final two grits you use, make sure that you always start each pass as far up the blade toward the handle as possible and run the entire length of the blade. This will take all swirls and stuff out. Everywhere you change direction while sanding with the paper touching the blade, there will be a little swirl scratched into the blade. You need to get rid of these with the last two passes. Come to think of it, your last several passes at each grit should be full-length, too.

There is no way that scratches and dips will come out of a blade on their own. Sadly, as you get better, you will become better at finding these imperfections, which means you will spend more time doing this part.

Don't try to sand without a hard backing, it is terrible for your fingers, and the paper just follows the dips and such in the blade.

good work. keep showing your progress.

Kevin

[LouieIV]

Good looking first.

Nice tips Kevin, thanks. I'll be using them before too long when I get to my first knife.

-LouieIV