Well, that certainly is a looker. What are the stats? (length, width, thickness, blade steel, wood, etc.)

When you say "I think John got tied of helping fix my mistakes," what were your biggest challenges? How did you resolve to avoid them on future projects?

I couldn't find the drawing and the knife is out having a sheath made. But if I remember correctly the blade is 3-5/8"X1" out of 1075, wrought iron guard, titanium spacer, and a curly maple handle with a length of 4-1/2".

The mistakes were mainly with the forged blade, and not planning ahead on the rest of the knife. Up until this point I had only made 3 piece hunters via stock removal and not very many of them. On 3 piece knives almost everything is laid out before heat treat. The thing that became very obvious while at his shop was 95% of the work on a knife like this happens after heat treat. After one week in his shop I gained more knowledge than 2 years of making mistakes at my home shop. Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead.

Ty said: "Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead."

Every knife I make starts with a full scale drawing. Everything is laid out. Dimensions of the blade, spacers, guard, everything, even the tang. All the materials are preplanned (this can change) as well as any embellishments (this can also change). The point being that there is a sold picture in my mind of exactly what I am going to do. For me, the crux of this art is focusing my intent. So I start with "What do I intend to make?" and I get as detailed as possible.

If I do not already have a template of the blade, I photocopy the drawing and cut the blade (tang included) and superglue it to a piece of 1/8" flat mild steel. Grind the profile to shape and keep the template at my anvil while I forge. I will trace the outline on the anvil and hold the forging over the tracing. This shows me exactly where I have to draw a little more, compress a little more, etc. to get the shape I want. I always forge a little larger so I have room to grind the profile down and smooth it out.

You will develop your own method (I'm sure John has told you his). You are off to a great start.