Your First

[Izzy]

I am usually good for an hour or two a day of looking at knives online weather it be at home or in my car. Not just here, I frequent 2 other largely knife centered forums. One thing that I have observed is that some if not THE best smiths frequent this forum.
     
  I appreciate the generosity of knowledge shared here as well as just a free peak at your inspiring creations. My hat is off to you all.

  I cannot begin to point out the rise in talent from some of you as witnessed here in your progression from your early, beginning posts to what many of you have become in the way of blade smiths. I think it would be great to see a bunch of you post photos of your earliest Trad Gang knife submissions. I don't think it would be bragging on your behalf but more than anything it might be inspiration to get some folks in the game of creating their own knives.

[Sam Harper]

Here's my very first knife.

 

And here's some of my most recent ones.

 

 

I've made 27 knives so far, and I'm working on 28 and 29 right now.

[Izzy]

Looking real good Sam, from 1st to last.

[KSCATTRAPR]

Cool Idea. Here is my first, Made in 2010.

 

Here is my 100th knife made in the spring of 2014. Knife making is addicting and frequenting this forum doesn't help the addiction. There is a wealth of knowledge that can be learned here and everyone is more than willing to help guys out and share information. Great place!

 

[Bodork]

First 2 I made were Helle blades.

   

Look at this beauty! Handle size and shape fits the blade perfectly! HaHa!

   

  This is my first stock removal knife:

   

  And a more recent knife:

   

[Lin Rhea]

I was going to let this go by but it wont be fair. I made my first knife in 1983. One of my boys was a baby and I did not know much at all about making a knife. I just did what I thought I ought to do. I couldn't afford to buy one and wanted to give it a try. It don't look like much but I carried it a lot of miles and skinned elk and deer with it. It started as a planer blade as they often do. I ground it with a 3 X 24 belt sander held upside down with my bare foot through the handle. I have not held it in years. I just realized it is a mortised/hidden tang handle. I didn't even know the term back then.

The pins are nails and the wood is white oak. Just something I had. I made the sheath too. I remember how good it felt after it was done.

I was pretty proud. That's why I try to help anyone I can.
   
   
   

[gudspelr]

This is an interesting thread. I got my start with a weekend visit to a guy's shop where he showed me the basics of forging and knife making. This was the knife from that trip.

   


After I got home and made a forge, found an anvil and all bought some files, I made this one. It was my first knife pretty much on my own.

   

And some more recent stuff:

 

 


Jeremy

[Izzy]

Great stuff fellas, just what I wanted to see. It gives folks hope and inspiration. I don't believe that just anyone can do it but for those that have a desire to make beautiful, useful knives this may be the push needed to begin.

[DANA HOLMAN]

This is one of the first one i did, My Dad still carry's it today.
 
This is the last one i made
 

[Bladepeek]

I don't have any pictures of the first couple I ground from a bar, but this is the first knife I forged.

I made this one in a Hugh Bartrug blade forging class and i believe it was the last class he taught before suffering a stroke which ended his forging career.

It's my first forged blade made with a piece of antler from my younger son's first whitetail buck.

Not much to look at, but it carries some memories.

 

[Bladepeek]

This is a lousy picture, but a later knife I made for a Safari Club International fund raiser about 4 years ago. This year, the guy who bought it came up to me and asked me if I would re-sharpen it for him. Really does a guy good to know his knife is being used and not tucked away in a drawer somewhere. That handle (which you can't see much of) is a piece of ostrich leg bone. I was shocked how thick those things are. No wonder they have a reputation for being pretty tough kickers.

   

Found a second picture (not much better) showing the whole knife.

 

[Doug Campbell]

Way back in about 87 or 88    this was my first from an old sawmill blade. I was welding for a living then and actually tig welded the guard and butt plate on. The thing seemed like it weighed about 3 pounds.     used it a couple years on several critters.
 

[Kevin Evans]

this was my first ,went out to shed and ground out of old file heat treated much to my surprise it got real  sharp with 4" grinder   seems like a long time ago  

[tippit]

I started April 03, 2005 11:55 AM when I sent a PM to a fellow Trad Gang member about learning how to forge a knife.  I only knew him by reading his hunting posts and purchasing one of his caper knives...Doug Campbell.  He taught me through PMs on Trad Gang before there was even a Knife Forum!  I had sooo many questions and Doug answered them all.

I kept all his PMs...here's a funny reply on my first attempt to buy steel from Kelly Couples and asking how much I should purchase...

"Hmmm... Depends on how serious your gonna get I guess. I think if you order $25 worth he'll ship free which can add up on steel."

Doug was great always encouraging even when they looked like crap.  It has been a fun journey.  It is so nice to see extremely talented bladesmiths doing the same thing here for newbies.

My firsts compared to my Campbell Caper.  I wish I still had one of those as I gave almost everything away (I still have Doug's Caper).  Even though they looked like crap, they did skin a bear    

Thanks Doug...tippit

   

[Sam Harper]

Bodork, that sure is a pretty piece of walnut you have on that last knife!

[tomsm44]

Ok, I'll play.  I made a fair few from kit blades when I first started that I don't have pictures of right now.  My profile picture is actually my first knife where I made the blade as well, I believe it was early 2012.  It's 1095 and stabilized amboyna burl.  The first one below is from later that same year, 1084 and whitetail antler.  Both were hollow ground on a 6" bench grinder with an 80 grit grinding wheel.  Then several hours of hand sanding to get the grinding marks out.  

 

These two are a couple of my most recent ones from fall/winter 2014.  Both are 1084 and koa.  I made the sheaths that are pictured as well.  

 

 

[Izzy]

Awesome stuff fellas!

[Fallguy]

Still working on mine I will post when I Have the handles done.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great Idea Izzy.

I am loving this thread!

[Chromebuck]

Yep!  I have more knives than bows currently and most from this site.  This forum has all the typical and desirable attributes found in other forums.  Trad Gang... where knowledge is shared!