# My First Knives



## bench1holio (Jun 8, 2015)

Ok, I told Tom @Molokai a couple of weeks ago,I would show some pics of my first couple of knife grinds so here they are.
first pic is a little folder blade that I made and still havnt finished fitting to an old folder that I had laying around. The mosaic Damascus came from Mike egglington. Im gonna take the black scales of and fit with a bit of snakewood from Cliff @woodintyuuu.




Profileing a couple of blade on the bench grinder

 

 a couple ready to grind

 Establishing the grind

 a couple of others..

 

 

 The weekends work.

Reactions: Like 5 | Way Cool 6


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## NYWoodturner (Jun 8, 2015)

Ben - Hard to believe those are firsts! Great job!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Strider (Jun 8, 2015)

If these are your firsts, I can't wait for the seconds! :D Great job maan!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Kevin (Jun 8, 2015)

One of them is his fourth. 

Excellent job Ben!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Funny 4


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## manbuckwal (Jun 8, 2015)

You make it look easy lol . Look forward to seeing the finished product !

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Molokai (Jun 8, 2015)

I like how you shaped them, very good for first knives. Awesome grind also, are you planing on hand sanding them ? Do that prior HT. What steel are those ?
now, i see that you struggle at ricasso start of the grind. Thats always a problem with beginners. Dont worry, you will get better. Also, dont know why you made that secondary false swedge grind on two knives, thats something you should avoid for now, first learn to flat grind.
Does that grinder have some kind of platen under the belt ?

But all that combined, your first are far better than my first knives. I can tell that we have a new knifemaker in our ranks. !!!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## bench1holio (Jun 8, 2015)

Thanks for the encouragement guys.
@Molokai Tom these will be hand sanded, heat treated and timber handles fitted, Im hoping to pickup a drill press this coming weekend to do my pins with, and then hopefully have a friend to heat treat them for me as I don't have a forge.

The first knife I did (right hand side in pic of four) was from 01 steel the other three are from 1075. 
Your right the ricasso is a bit tricky, I was thinking of using a file to clean them up a bit.
as for the swedge grind it was just something I was experimenting with.
The machine I use is an Australian made 'Radius Master' it has a flat platen to grind agaist

Reactions: Like 2


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## robert flynt (Jun 8, 2015)

Ben, get some blue masking tape and wrap around the blade to remind you where to stop the grind as well as have both plunges even with each other. If it was me I would leave the grind a little thick to help prevent blade from warping, you can finish the grind and hand sanding after heat treating. It would help if you over lapped the platen then take a piece of steel and break the edge of the belt on both sides. The Trizac gater belt also works very well to clean up the plunge. When you get your drill press, get some one with a set of dial indicators to help you square the drill press table with the chuck it will save you a lot of head aches. Keep the blade cool while grinding, this will also help with warping. If you will get the $50 knife book by Wayne Goddard. It will show you how to make a one brick forge ( soft fire brick } which uses a propane torch for heat. This will work just fine until you can get a heat treat oven. An old toaster oven will work great for the draw.Welcome to the craft, practice, practice, practice!!!

Reactions: Like 2 | Thank You! 1


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## bench1holio (Jun 8, 2015)

Robert, thankyou the advice is much appreciated.


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## Strider (Jun 9, 2015)

Or, if you want to cheat a bit on your skills, clamp a piece of flat file or hardened metal to the plunge area where the grinder should stop. Easy.
BUT! Don't polish it too much as it will cause a pattern much like hamon troughout the blade...and it is damn hard to take down! 
And listen to Flynt and Tom :)

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## robert flynt (Jun 9, 2015)

Forgot to mention, You can buy pieces of carbide from Inco and glue them to the face of your file guide. Then you can clamp file guide to blade where you want to stop the grind. Using the carbide will prevent you from damaging the guide when using the belt grinder. Doing it this way, the plunge will be very square and you will have to use the belt with rounded edge or round file ( chain saw file ) to blend the plunge. If you use the belt, be sure to overlap the platen a bit and use a belt with a J weight backing or such.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Informative 1


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