Additional pic

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additional pic

Hey Joshua! I can offer you a few tips that I've learned so far, but I am in no way an authority on the subject. First off, you should be very proud of your work. For this being your first knife, it looks pretty good, well done!

Hand sanding can be tricky especially with man made materials like the scales you used. I change directions of sanding every time I increase the grit. This way you can clearly see if all the scratches from the previous grits have been removed. Also, try using a flashlight or walking out into the sun with your work to get a better look from different angles. A lot of times micro scratches can "hide" if you don't alternate your light source to reveal them. I also use a hard backer when I'm hand sanding so I know that all planes are being sanded evenly. One thing to think about is the sandpaper you are using. I read somewhere that cheaper paper tends to have other grits mixed in, so a 120 grit may have particles of 60 grit mixed in and you end up putting scratches in your work instead of removing them. I no longer wet sand the blade because I feel the paper gets clogged too quickly and leaves marks like particulates in the steel. If I do wet sand, say resin scales, its only when I reach 1000 grit. One of the biggest tips I can give is to use the sandpaper like its free...as soon as the paper stops cutting, throw it away. Trying to get the most use out of it because you paid for it will waste your time and energy and can even cause problems that have to be fixed with even more sanding. I've noticed that 500 grit will almost polish the steel after it gets dull, and this area is hard to knock back down and can even show up in the etch if not addressed. The higher the grit the faster it goes dull, so as soon as you hear or feel it stop cutting just throw it out and get a fresh piece.

Sharpening is an artform in its own right, so this one is tough. The biggest thing is to make sure you hold the blade at the same angle every time. You want to be able to raise a bur that can be felt and even seen on the edge. Don't move to the next grit or step in your process until you have a bur on the entire cutting edge, and this can be verified by using the back of your finger nail. 

I noticed that the tang was pretty thick. You could try a distal taper on the tang of the next knife to add some strength as well as lighten it some. Fullers in the tang also lighten the weight without sacrificing thickness. I would recommend drilling extra holes in the tang next time to allow the epoxy to pass through. 

Just some things I've learned in my limited experience. Hopefully it helps, even if just a little. Keep up the good work. 

-Jesse

Always drill your holes and prep that tang and ricasso area before heat treatment.  There seems to be a progression in how almost all makers approach knife assembly and finishing.  Fresh makers tend to see the knife as a singular object and will do things like assemble and glue rough guard stock and handle blocks together and then try to shape a finish the knife as a singular object.  The thinking is often that there is no surer way to have a seamless fit than to have things all assembled already for the finish, but nothing could be further from the truth, and quite the opposite is true. 

An advanced maker will start with the concept, and overall design, of the knife as a singular object, but will then execute the creation, fit and finish as individual components to be brought together seamlessly at the end.  They will finish the blade entirely on its own, with as much done before heat treatment as possible.  Guards, spacers, pins and handle materials will also all be carefully finished, and precision fit, one at a time.  When all looks good, only then will the epoxy be applied and the individual components permanently brought together with almost zero finishing after assembly.   

On the sharpening issue- I actually spotted it before anything else.  But don't feel alone Joshua, almost all fresh makers have to work through the "beefy bevels at ultra-high sharpening angles" phase.  The fit and finish is much easier to accomplish than this one, as this one is literally one of the keys to producing a superior cutting tool that only comes with years of understanding the balance of optimum geometry to your given heat treatment for the steel you have chosen. 

Faced with the daunting task of removing all the metal to bring that edge down to a fine thickness, coupled with a fear of edge failure in the absence of optimum heat treatment, almost all newer makers tend to leave their edges way too thick before applying the sharpened edge. An overly thick edge grind will necessitate a very high sharpening angle, and no jig, tool or gadget will overcome that fact that the mere act of sharpening such a blade is actually an effort in completing the unfinished grinding job on the whetstone.  An edge left at .035" or greater will require massive metal removal to get down to desired sharpening angles below 22°, will be a pain to sharpen, and will never get quite as sharp as a blade with a thinner edge grind.  It is all actually just basic trigonometry when you look at it. 

Following these basic facts, grinding one's edge down to .025" or less will lead to a much sharper knife that is also much easier to sharpen.  But in order to go for those optimum angles, and much thinner sections, the steel must have the strength to support them.  Here is where simple shaping skills stop, and your heat treating skills start.  You must find your optimum heat treatment for your chosen steel at the given edge cross section, if this sounds like an awful lot of learning and practice... well, yes it is.   This is why there are top level knifemakers who have been working it out for many years and guys just starting out hoping to get there one day. Excellence is NEVER quick or easy, or it would not be worth having.

Have heart, the journey ahead of you is exciting and fascinating enough to keep you engaged for the rest of your life.  My advice on you first steps is to start grinding those edges a little thinner, and practice the flat grind, convex grinds make it too easy to underestimate how thick that edge still is before sharpening. Besides, once you have mastered a truly good flat grind, any other grind is yours for the taking.                  

Kevin, your replies are incredible. Thank you for the detail and care you put into each and every one of them.

Can I ask you a couple direct questions?

1) What would you do to fix this particular knife? I'm reading take down the stock quite a bit more, then work on the final bevel.

2) How did I do for my first knife? Be brutal!

After dropping it on the floor, the scales immediately shattered (pic attached) . I fixed a lot of the edge problems, but I see now the edge geometry is simply too far off. Once past the secondary bevel, the knife body will not push through. 

I'm hanging this one up and starting fresh tomorrow. Many useful lessons, and I am grateful for all of the help I received. 

Joshua, I am located in Evansville just about 3 hours South on I69. If you want to take a drive and spend a couple hours forging, grinding or finishing reply back to this thread and we can arrange a time to meet at my shop and show you how I make knives with the tools I have and how I did things before acquiring all these tools. Good luck on your journey. 

Sorry Joshua, I am running in circles getting ready for a show and juggling ABS duties, so this reply comes a bit late.  I think your overall design is good for your first knife, but the devil is in the details.  Work on those little points- nice clean lines, good flat flats, and train yourself to be absolutely obsessive about getting rid of every last grinder/file scratch.  There is no such thing as the "perfect knife" and those who have claimed to have made one always fail to impress me with their work, they can believe they reached that superhuman level only because their standards are all too human.  But, on the other hand, there is no such thing as "good enough" when aiming for the very best we can do.  "Good enough" can only apply to the last knife you made, never to the next one.     

1) I accidentally hardened the handle with the blade. I could not drill any holes but one (where you see the pin) in the tang. As a result, it's VERY weighty, and not balanced. I know that's not ideal.

Joshua, I've been there.  My first knife was a chefs knife for my daughter.  Foolishly I choose to start with D2 steel.  I cut a pattern from a kitchen knife and forged bevels, etc.  I went through 2-3 cobalt bits, 2 trips to store and said the F-word a few times and still had 2 of 3 pin holes unfinished.  1/4" diameter.

Some types of steel will "Work Harden" meaning they can become hard / very hard from the forging process, without quenching.

Solution:  Heat blade, orange/yellow color and use a tapered round punch to get the holes part of the way on one side and then punch out the bulge on the other side.  This procedure left me with a workable solution and holes in my tang that were nearly perfect.  Not precision from a machinists standpoint, but certainly usable.

Reapply heat treatment, which to me is EASY compared to cost and frustration of wasted time and costly bits.

Btw, as Kevin has already stated, take your time, keep your head up and always make your next knife your best, while having fun !!

I had similar issues with the edge of my first knife like Kevin mentioned. I was worried about warping the blade during heat treatment so I made a knife with a very stout spine like yours. Then I worried about grinding the edge of the bevels too thing, leaving me with a lot of sharpening to get any kind of edge. I actually bought one of those sharpening systems as well and actually wore out the first grit stone trying to get the burr on the edge before moving to the next grit.

I found that when I grind my bevels that I now take my edge to between .005 - .01 inch before i go on to the sharpening phase. It makes life a lot easier.

as for the scratches on the handle, I found that sanding to at least 400 grit on the belt grinder before moving to the hand sanding usually gets rid of all those scratches. I have noticed that I have to be very careful with the scales as the scratches can get filled up with dust and it looks like you have them all out so you move up a grit.

I now wipe my scales down with a wet rag and dry and inspect them before moving to the next grit. that has saved me a few times.

I am by no means an authority and find new mistakes I didn't realize that i have been making on my previous knives but that is half the fun of learning. keep it up that's a pretty nice looking knife.