Hi Jesse,

Welcome to the ABS Forum! And thanks for asking for a critique of your knife.

Having your work critiqued by skilled makers is an important part of learning to make knives. Having your work critiqued can be a painful experience, if you are not able to listen to the opinion of another maker and view it as constructive criticism. An honest critique is intended to help you see what you can do differently to improve your skills. If the person doing the critique does not point out all of the deficiencies of your work, they have done you no favors and they have not given you the information that you need to improve.

I always tell new knifemakers to closely study knives made by skilled makers. It is impossible to make a good knife if you don't know what a good knife looks like. Go to knife shows and study knives that you find appealing to you. Look them over for design and dimensions. Pick up a knife that you like and feel how it fits in your hand and how the handle automatically tells you where the edge of the blade is. Learn about using quality materials to construct your knives.

I also encourage you to attend an ABS Hammer-In and set in on one of the ABS Judging Standards seminars. You will learn much about the does and don't of knifemaking in these seminars.

I like to begin a critique by asking the maker to compare their own work to that of skilled makers. A major part of learning how to make knives is learning to critique your own work. What do you already know that you need to improve on?

I just posted a photo of one of my hunters. You can find it in the Gallery images at the top of the Forum main page. Tell us how your knife compares to my knife. Of course, you will not consider the engraving on my knife.

I look forward to hearing back from you!

Hi Jesse,

Steve has given you some great advise. Whenever you ask for a critique of your work you should have a thick skin. If you get your feeling hurt easily, don't ask.

As for your knife, the first thing I notice is the handle pins. Try to center them in the handle, top to bottom. Way up at the top, like that, looks a little odd. You welding looks good, as far as I can tell. It'a a little hard to tell, but there doesn't appear to be any flaws. Is that a solder joint where the guard meets the blade or is it a shadow? Again, hard to tell. Anyway, if it is a solder joint, you need to get a tighter fit so that the solder doesn't show. As Steve said, look at all the knives that you can and strive to make each one better than the last. Don't settle for good enough. Go for the best you can do.

By the way Stever, beautiful hunter.

Dale

Thanks Steve, I do have thick skin, that's why I wanted the first knife I made critiqued. The guard is epoxy glued, not a solder joint. I had a rat tail tang running along the top of the blade since I only had 1/4"x 2" of metal to pull out of the blade, for the handle. That's why the rivets are where there at.I do know now, I should have centered the tang. Thanks for the info.

Jesse,

It's good that you recognize some things that you can do differently.

I looks better to have your handle pins centered on the handle material. It sounds like you understand how to accomplish that. A word about handle pins; on some handle shapes, if you center the pins vertically on the handle, there is an optical illusion that makes them appear to be too low. I often measure to find the vertical center of the handle and then place my pins slightly higher than center. The pins on my hunters are usually about .020 to .030 higher than the exact center. This is one case where the eye serves you better than a ruler.

Your photos are rather small and not clear enough to judge your fit and finish. But, you should have an even finish on all of your materials, with no sanding or grinding marks left from coarser grits than what you finished with. There should be no gaps between the parts.

Attaching your guard with epoxy is not a very secure method. On this type of guard, soldering is much more secure and durable. Also on this type of guard, you should put at least one pin through the guard and blade; two pins would be better.

I think your knife would look better if the handle was dropped a little at the rear. The point of your blade is slightly lower than the spine. It would look good if the handle was dropped at the rear to mimic the drop at the point. Just a nice flowing curve from the point of the blade to the rear of the handle.

Your guard looks a bit clunky. It looks better if you grind the guard below the riccasso, to thin the bottom of the guard. This avoids the appearance that you just stuck a piece of raw bar stock on the knife to serve as the guard.

Maybe it's just the quality of your photos, but if you used curly maple for the handle, it doesn't appear that you got the grain pattern in the wood to display well. Curly maple has a beautiful grain pattern that can be revealed by proper staining and finishing. Perhaps you need some help with how to finish a wood handle.

Unless you are specifically making a primitive knife design (of which your knife may fall in), copper is not the best choice for fittings materials. Copper is a soft material and it tarnishes easily. It is considered to be a "cheap" material by most buyers. Unless you have a good reason for using it on a knife, I recommend that you consider using a better quality material for your fittings.

Thanks for posting your knife up and asking for a critique. Getting advice from other makers is a huge part of learning how to make knives!