I've been meaning to post this for two months now. I always seem to have time to read 4 to 10 posts made by other people everyday, but can't find the time to make one of my own. The blade is 5160 and is 10 1/2" long with a distal taper. I made this one for a friend and it's the longest blade I've finished. I poured my own brass for the guard.

That is a beautiful first dagger! pretty sure I can't forge that quite yet.

 

Thanks! It was a blast to make! Its my fourth finished blade and leagues better than the first 3. 

Not bad but the handle is awfully round which makes it harder to index the blade's orientation without looking at it. Even as a thrusting weapon it's good to know which way the blade lays, it's much harder to slip a blade between ribs crossways.

I read that and it's solid logic, it's not an opinion born of experience. 

Frosty The Lucky.

39 minutes ago, Frosty said:

...Even as a thrusting weapon it's good to know which way the blade lays, it's much harder to slip a blade between ribs crossways...

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty and The Unlucky 

why not finish it?  the fuller needs sand paper too.....

Frosty, I totally agree, it was the part that I really wasn't happy with. The friend I was making it for is a short guy like me and he has small hands so he kept telling me to make it thinner until it was too thin for my taste but he loved it. You're right about it being too round, I'm chalking it up to inexperience and learning from it. The next two knives I made came out much better by knowing what to avoid and what to shoot for. I'll be posting them soon! 

Steve, I had planned on doing the fuller as well, I agree it looks incomplete. The guy I made it for was around the shop a lot while I was working on it and he told me he liked the contrast between the polished and unpolished metal. I personally think he got a real sense of how much time went into the sanding and finishing process and got a little too anxious to have his blade. Some people's kids....