What did your first knife look like?

[Wfulbrig]

I didn't see a post about people's first time forging a blade. After I finished mine I really wanted to hear about other smiths first knife experiences. 

 

So after throwing together a blow dryer, some 2 inch pipe, and a xxxx ton of coal in an old grill 3 months ago I made this hideous knife. Thanks to a few too many silver bullets I over heated it when I went to quench and she was just too far gone. Rather than throwing it out and starting over I decided to salvage it and hang it up in the shop. It is my first knife after all. She is ugly as xxxx but I'm a proud father and have to show her off. Behold the R.R. spike knife in all its glory.

Edited July 22, 2017 by Mod34
Edited for inappropriate language

[Wfulbrig]

And I forgot about the language policy. I apologize readers.

[jmccustomknives]

A few months ago I was going through a box and found a couple of "first" knives.  Far right was made from a bed frame by stock removal, center one was forged from a leaf spring and the far left one is a current one.  It represents 10 years of practice from the others.  That one was forged from crane cable.

[Wfulbrig]

Wow. Ten years of experience goes a long way. Do you hand forge your Damascus or use press/power hammer? Or is it even feasible to hand forge Damascus?

[Will W.]

17 hours ago, Wfulbrig said:

Or is it even feasible to hand forge Damascus?

Seeing as how they've been doing it for *thousands* of years, I would say it's fairly viable, yes. 

Nice blades, JM. 

[Wfulbrig]

I guess what I meant is, nowadays people crank out damascus blades with power hammers like it's nobody's business, so is it possible for a full time bladesmith to do this process by hand and produce enough blades to profit? 

[ThomasPowers]

Yes or No---depending on your reputation and prices.

[Will W.]

And depending on your skill. I hand forge my Damascus out of necessity (don't have a power hammer or press) and while it is more time consuming than if done with those tools, it doesn't take exceptionally longer. From stacked billet to knife ready to meet the grinder, it usually only takes a few hours (depending on # of folds and desired layer count.) A more skilled bladesmith could probably do it faster by hand, but the point is, it doesn't take days to do.

[jmccustomknives]

On 7/25/2017 at 1:12 PM, Wfulbrig said:

Wow. Ten years of experience goes a long way. Do you hand forge your Damascus or use press/power hammer? Or is it even feasible to hand forge Damascus?

If you get on youtube, I have a bunch of videos.  It's all hand forged.  But with it being 100F outside, swinging a sledge isn't a lot of fun.  lol.

10 hours ago, Will W. said:

Seeing as how they've been doing it for *thousands* of years, I would say it's fairly viable, yes. 

Nice blades, JM. 

Thanks Will.