Second knife - first "real" knife. Critiques welcome.

[Antlerhog]

Well here is my first complete "real" knife. The first one I posted a month or so ago was a simple Kiridashi that took me very little time to make.

This knife is a blade filed in my homemade filing jig out of 1/8" O1. I heat treated to non magnetic in my home firebrick forge  then quenched in 120 degree canola oil. Tempered 2x 2hr at 400-420. Scales are cocobolo, red fiber washers, with nickel silver hardware.

I chose this profile with finger grooves due to difficulty and the fact my all time favorite knife is my slim outdoorsman made by Bob Dozier. It also has finger grooves. I know they are not a real popular handle profile but I wanted a challenge. Please feel free to critique my work. It will only help me to improve.

Thanks guys........your all a big part of this first knife as I trolled a lot of info and used you all as a huge source of helpful info.

Jay  

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[Antlerhog]

Not sure why I called my fiber liners "washers". Sorry!

Jay

[ymountainman]

Looks very good to me, I been trying to make a knife for 2months and still can't! Nice job!

[gudspelr]

Overall, I think it looks VERY nice, especially so as only a second. Yours is vastly better than my second....  

From the pictures, here's some of what I noticed and why it's good:

-It doesn't appear that you have larger holes than your pins/lanyard tube, which is very good.

-It looks like there are no spaces/gaps between the liners and scales or the liners and tang, again, good.

-One thing I've found challenging is to get the curves and transitions of the steel (like the finger grooves) nice and smooth, with no facets. This can be tough, especially at the peak between the two curves (at least for me   ).

-The scratch pattern on your blade also looks pretty good. Having that attention to detail now should make knife #10 really really nice   .

How did you finish your scales? The shape looks nice-I struggled to get away from the blocky/chunky look. The only thing that sticks out to me are some of the open pores and shiny spots on the wood. When using Cocobolo, I've wet sanded it with oil when I get close to finished shape and the slurry it creates fills in the pores, making it all look smoother.

Thanks for posting this and great job on the knife. Anyone on the sidelines that has some interest should look at this and know they can make a great knife with little in the way of tools. Great work    


Jeremy

[Antlerhog]

Thanks guys! I love a good critique. It's only my second knife and I'm really stoked to get after a few more. I've got a couple started.

Yeah the voids in the grain really bother me. I may use the above idea of sanding with oil to fill them as over on bladeforums another maker told me to try that also.

Jay

[Track]

Looks good to me. Nice work.

[team fudd]

Masterful job for a second effort

[just_a_hunter]

Looks nice! Keep after it, they will only get better.

Todd

[Bladepeek]

I think you did a great job. I'm not a fan of finger grooves (other than the front one) but I also own a Bob Dozier with grooves and it's not as uncomfortable when used edge up as it looks. I think you handled (pun intended) it very well.

Nice, graceful curves and it will be one you will use a long time I bet.

[NittanyRider]

Great job, Jason... I hope my second knife looks half as good as that one!

[Stalker58]

Great looking knife. Good job.
Looking into making my own, hope it looks as good yours.