A few more...

As with many photos of knives, you can't see all of the problems. There's a slight bit of faceting on one spot of the ricasso, forward of the scales that I blended but was due to some poor grinding. In the photo above, you can see the scales weren't clamped just right and I got a glue line that I don't particularly like... What do you think about the termination point of the scales? Should they have gone further forward? Also, I think smaller pins will be in my future-1/8" seem a bit too big for me, makes my eyes go to them instead of the cool wood. There are also some small asymmetrical points on the handle. I worked on my first sculpted one at Bing's and this was the first solo go at it. I plan to continue doing them and hope to get more consistent with each one.

I've got a long ways to go, so please feel free to tell like you see it-I won't cry on my keyboard <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> . Thanks for any input.

Jeremy

Jeremy, it looks pretty good, especially for number six. I think the handle scale length is fine for the size knife. The thing that makes them look short is the length of the ricasso. Moving the plunge area back, say a quarter of an inch would look better. Yes 1/16 pins might look good on this handle. Good looking knife. It is good that you are noticing the things on the knife, areas to pay attention to. Nice work.

Brion

I forgot to add, nice job on the handle shaping. Just makes a knife feel much better in the hand.

Jeremy,

Very nice work! Beautiful wood, and I like the handle sculpting too. I do agree with Brion, more blade, less ricasso, and perhaps 1/16" pins. Overall nice knife <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

Thank you both for your thoughts. I actually had a fair amount of difficulty with this knife's design, particularly in regards of where to put the plunges. I hadn't done much with full tang knives and knew I wasn't going to have bolsters on it. This knife sure made me scratch my head on where to put the plunges, how much ricasso to have, curve of the "finger guard"/choil area, etc. I got some great advice (you should have seen the fairly painful original profile of this one...) that really helped get it more pleasing to look at. I think I got too nervous to pull the plunges back very far for some reason-not exactly sure why. But will definitely take that point into consideration the next time around. Thanks again for the input.

Jeremy

Jeremy,

It's all part of that crazy learning curve! One thing that has been helping me create better proportion and "flow" (that's for you, Lin <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> ) has been using the "Golden Mean" or "Golden Ratio" when I first design a knife on paper. It gives you a great place to start, from which you can make any needed adjustments for functionality or style.

Ed C.

Jeremy, It was a pleasure to have you for the weekend. Brion & Ed have giving you some great critique here. You have a great passion to learn and advance your knife making skills. That my friend will help you go far. We all look forward to seeing the next ones to come out of your shop.

Keep the passion.

Bing

Jeremy,

Something that has helped me is the book, Handles and Guards, by MS Joe Keeslar. It not only helps with the handles and guards, but has design ideas also. It's available in the web site store. I like the handles and blade shape. Keep at it!

Ed, Gonna be honest, I've read and studied the golden rule. Didn't do well in math, so I' m challenged, lol. Your coal heat treat vid was great. How about a design vid showing how you use the rule in knife design? Once I see something in application, I usually get it! I know it would be helpful to a bunch of us newbies

Thanks!

Bob

Jeremy,

Not bad for your sixth knife!

The blade to handle length proportions look good. The plunge lines could have been ground farther back, or move the handle slabs forward. Moving the slabs forward might have required grinding some length off of the butt, to maintain the blade to handle proportions.

For my tastes, the height of the handle behind the finger notch is a little short. Just an eighth of an inch taller there would have looked nice.

Bing did good, teaching you about sculpturing the handle. That is one thing that new makers struggle with. A lot of knives by new makers just have flat slabs installed. Got to get some contours on the handle. The knife looks better with a sculptured handle as well as feels better in the hand.

Looking forward to seeing your future work!!

Thank you all for the input, this was exactly what I was hoping to get from this. I find it interesting how as a pretty inexperienced maker, I can know something doesn't look quite right, yet struggle greatly at identifying exactly what should change to make it better. I think a lot of that might come with experience, which makes advice like given here that much more valuable to me.

Mr. Culver-

I VERY much identify with your handle comment <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//blink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' /> . Since first seeing a contoured handle, I've always wanted to be able to do them and Bing helped take the mystery out of it for me. (And if I can manage to do it, I'm relatively certain anyone can.) It seems to make a knife look so much better to me with curves in the handle material, as well as feel more comfortable. I still think of the first handful of knives I did and how clunky the handles all were. I think it goes back to not knowing exactly what to do on a certain aspect of the knife in order to look (and even function) better. That and maybe getting a bit anxious about removing more material... Either way, I'm glad that I'm making improvements and hope to keep doing so. Sites like this and honest, helpful input from great makers are the only reason I'm even close to making decent knives.

Jeremy