Here's the first dagger I've ever made. This was a birthday present for my younger brother whose birthday was at the beginning of September, but life happens and I wasn't able to get this finished up and to him until a couple weeks ago.  

In its previous life the blade was 3/4 inch coil spring.  Guard and pommel pieces are brass.  Handle is elk antler tine with some dyed and stabilized burl spacers with some copper for accent.  It's certainly not perfect, but I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out. It's about 16 inches overall and about 11 inches from guard to tip.

Comments or constructive criticism that can help make the next one better are always appreciated.

 

 

Wow, this is amazing. Especially as a first attempt.

I'm sure you now have a most happy brother.

Beautiful work Buzzkill. 

That is one lovely blade! I am rather jealous with how that looks, from the finish to the shape, and do not have any real criticism to offer. Excellent work!

Beautiful and flawless!

Thats nice work in general.  Good job on the dye for the antler too, its so easy to over do that.

That's a great first knife . I think you found your calling. 

 

Really nice work; well done. The only thing I would suggest is a small detail: the brass guard seems to be a constant thickness and a little on the thin side, like it's just a piece of flat bar bent to shape with a hole for the tang.. It would be nicer visually if it were about 1.5-2 times as thick in the middle and tapered down to the current thickness at the tips. It's a little thing, but I think it would improve the overall look and proportions.

Thanks for all the compliments guys.  I appreciate it.

21 hours ago, Hammerdom said:

Wow, this is amazing. Especially as a first attempt.

I'm sure you now have a most happy brother.

Well, he went out and bought an acrylic display case for it.  You'd have to know my brother to understand how much of a compliment that actually is, but yeah I'd say he's happy.

 

15 hours ago, Steve Sells said:

Good job on the dye for the antler too, its so easy to over do that.

The antler was pretty much sun bleached out, so I browned it gently and slowly with a small hand torch and then lightly sanded it to bring the lighter colors back through.  I'm not sure that's the preferred method, but at least visually I think it worked well.

 

1 hour ago, Biker Bo said:

That's a great first knife .

I wish my first knife looked that good!  I've made a few over the past few years.  That was just my first dagger.   It was definitely a learning experience.  Some things I thought would be much harder were not, and others were more troublesome/tedious than I anticipated.

20 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Really nice work; well done. The only thing I would suggest is a small detail: the brass guard seems to be a constant thickness and a little on the thin side, like it's just a piece of flat bar bent to shape with a hole for the tang.. It would be nicer visually if it were about 1.5-2 times as thick in the middle and tapered down to the current thickness at the tips. It's a little thing, but I think it would improve the overall look and proportions.

You nailed it.  That's exactly how I made the guard, and I agree with what you've said.  I'll have to get some stock that's more suitable for the next one or get set up for casting. Thanks for the input.

That's pretty... Makes my first few knives look like a family of inbred savages.

Inbred savages?! Have you been hanging out at my family reunians?

Boy we used to look *up* to the folks who were inbred savages at our family reunions....Ozark Hill Folk; Shoot I have a friend who's his own uncle!

6 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Shoot I have a friend who's his own uncle!

I'm my own half-eighth cousin. 

4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Boy we used to look *up* to the folks who were inbred savages at our family reunions....Ozark Hill Folk; Shoot I have a friend who's his own uncle!

Haha... I can't say I'm much more refined. Old North Fork, LI farm family trees tend to resemble pachysandra patches on paper.

Not the dagger in question here though, that's a blue blood!

1 hour ago, NFLIFe said:

Not the dagger in question here though, that's a blue blood!

Thanks again for the compliments.  There are a few things that haunt or motivate me when I'm creating a knife.  One of them is a simple phrase I found on this site in Steve Sells' knife making classes - "Excellence is a decision."   If it's not the best I can do at my current skill level with the tools and materials I have then it's not good enough.  Fortunately I'm a hobby bladesmith.  If I had to feed my family based on the work I turn out we'd all be a lot thinner or I'd have to get a lot faster.

Very nice grind lines!  I use a file to get lines like that.. Nicely done!

 

how did you keep your grind line so straight? i am having trouble in that area.

The first step was to have the bevels in good shape from forging.  I spent more time and heats on that part than I would have preferred, but the results were decent. Learning to "uncorkscrew" a blade took a bit of trial and error.  After that I ground each of the 4 bevel surfaces on the flat platen of my grinder in line with the belt rather than across it.  I use a fairly strong magnet to help hold the blade while grinding.  After the rough grind and the heat treatment I went back to the flat platen and again ground each bevel surface in line with the belt.  I think I went to about 320 grit that way, then it was a lot of hand sanding using a flat bar and a lot of sandpaper strips from 400 grit to 2000 grit.

Great job and your brother is lucky. You have some talent.