Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades What was the first knife you made or tried to make??

Taking the thread about what was your first knife a little further, surely there are those here who are not professional knife makers, but you are like me, you have tried your hand at making knives. I made my first one from a large circular saw mill blade that was 01 high speed tool steel. It is easy to work with and makes a dang good knife.

I always wanted a Bob Loveless knife, but couldn't afford it. I saw a photo of one of his knives in a magazine and decided to make one like it. So I did, but it was 20 years later that I saw a real Loveless Crooked Skinner knife and realized that the one I made was bigger that his. No matter, it has worked fine for many years.



This is the only one left of the four saw blades that I had like this.



This is my big fat version of a Loveless Crooked Skinnwer. Don't laugh!!!! It works just fine thank you.




I also did the leather work on the scabbard.

Looks like one heck of a start up job. Nice.
And then you just walked away from the fever??????
Tim

Uhhh, about a hundred knives later I said I was not going to make any more. And I think I almost mean it. Unless that urge comes over me again. Making knives is not rocket science and most guys who can weld or have good eye hand coordination and an interest in learning a little can do it. I have been a wood worker, so am familiar with tools and materials and how to do things. It just takes different tools and methods to work with metal. Well, it does help if you have a little talent and it is especially important that you have some experience past skinning and butchering more than a couple of bucks. Knowing what works and what does not is critical to knife design. Ask me how I know. I made several that didn't work at all. But that is part of the learning curve in knife making.

The problem with that approach is that most guys do not have the required amount of cutting /gutting/skinning time and paying attention to how a certain blade / handle shape works. They get all excited about how a knife looks. Looks never skinned and butchered a buck . The heart and soul of any knife is the STEEL it is made from and how that steel is shaped, ground, hardened and stress relieved. Once you get that part right, you can wrap the handle with duct tape and it'll work fine.

But so many people today just want a PRETTY knife and they don't care about those things because they are not going to use it anyway. They are going to DISPLAY it. Nothing wrong with that, but when those people begin trying to dictate knife materials and design, the wheels start to fall off . There are a lot of people making pretty knives because they KNOW their knives are not going to be used. I would rather make my own and know what it is designed to do, what materials it is made from, how those materials were heat treated, how hard the blade is, and how well it CUTS! If it will not do those things, far as I am concerned, it is useless. I have made knives like that, but I only did it once and tried to learn from that experience.

Knives are such personal and individual items, you almost have to know the man you are making it for. You need to know how he uses it and he needs to be involved with the design and construction of it. That way, he gets a useful knife. But if all you want is a pretty knife that you can brag about who made it and how much it cost while you show it off, then none of that matters. What matters in that case is how well it is polished out. But what the heck?? If that makes you happy, then you have a good knife and it is it's doing what you want it to do. I just don't make those kinds of knives because I don't use them like that. To each his own . But I have never been able to get over some guys coming to camp with a fancy knife and bragging about it and the next day when a buck is hanging on the skinning rack, they hide because they don't want to get blood on their knife. I just don't get that part.





I made both knives used in the upper photo.

When you are elbow deep in skinning/gutting/butchering a buck/hog/elk, that AIN'T the time to discover your knife blade is too long, too short, too wide, does not have enough belly, has too much belly, will not hold an edge, or the guard is getting in the way. But don't ask me how I know.

Bob
Nice post, and a lot of good experience and common sense observations. But be careful treading on such sacred ground by letting the cat out of the bag.
ie: "Making knives is not rocket science.." ---OH, NO!!!

I believe in function first also, but will not hesitate to take money from a guy who likes a knife just because it is "pretty".

Question. Do those old saw mill blades need to be drawn back in Rc to work with and then re hardened? Are they hardened throughout the whole circular blade, or softer in the middle?? Just curious as I have one. I usually buy sheet stock to start, but am thinking about doing something with that circular saw mill blade.
Tim

Tim

I do not know about the unform hardness on those saw blades. I took two of them to the foundry and they cut them up into smaller, more useable sizes on their big shear/break. I had a friend who was a machinist, tool and die maker that had a shop right next to the foundry. He had a paragon oven to harden things. I always annealed those saw blade blanks before I started working with them. It just made things a lot simpler. Once I got the blade shaped and ground the way I wanted it, I took it back to his shop and hardened it according to the metal charts and then tempered/stress relieved it according to how hard I wanted it to be. Even though you can make a certain steel go really hard, you don't always want that in a blade.



Here is what I came home and made after killing my first elk and trying to skin, gut, and butcher it with a 3 1/2 inch blade knife that all the gun writers were using back then. Never listen to gun writers about your knife because they let their guides do all of that business. I did not have a hatchet with me to split the carcass or break the pelvic bone and you dang sho can't do it with a little knife. I call this one the "Bear Skinner." It has enough weight and heft to do the job of a knife and hatchet. Don't laugh at the bevel I put on that blade. I was learning.

Thanks Bob
Is that sun burst pattern around one of the pins something you normally do, or just for yourself. Looks cool.

Yeah, a lot of guys tout the 3"-3 1/2" blade. You can do a lot with that, but personally I do not like to be under knifed in the field.

But as you said, it is a learning curve for what works and what does not and that is as varied as users are. For makers, you work with what you got and end up where your thoughts and the steel takes you.

Tim

I only do that pin pattern on my personal knives and then only on micarta or smooth horn handle materials because it is too much trouble to do on stag. But I like stag because it is a traditional hunters knife material. It is on my favorite knife and the one I use most often.

I have never sold a knife and never will. I made many for my hunting friends and their sons and gave away those I made that I was not satisfied with the way they worked. It takes me so long to make a knife that if I charged minimum wage, it would be cost prohibitive. It is a labor of love far as I am concerned. I want it as good as I can posssibly make it and if it does not meet that standard, I don't keep it around. I guess if I did it for a living and had a shop all set up to do it I would get better at it and do it faster, but it's just something I got interested in as a hunter who owns his own camp and kills more game than the average Joe out there. And I usually end up having to skin, gut, and butcher game for friends who come to camp because they don't know how or are not prepared to do it. I am amazed at how many guys come to deer camp and don't even bring a knife with them. WTF??? I was not happy with the Buck knives (not to pick on them because I have a Buck Stockman) or most of the other mass produced knives that are available with the exception of Puma's made in Germany. I have and use two big Puma folders. They will take and hold an edge. I couldn't afford a Randall or Loveless, so I had to resort to making my own. As they say: Necessity is the mother of invention.

I am not sure if what I do is right, but it works. Other than what my friend with the machine shop taught me about different steels and their properties and how to harden them, I have not had any instruction. I took a series of photo's building my last knife. (I say it is my last knife. Maybe that is right and maybe not. ) If you are interested, I'll post a few and you can comment on how I did it and maybe help speed up how I do things. Or not. Right now, the itch to grind steel is not upon me, but it is always out there ready to jump on me when I am not looking.

I am sure some in process pics would be enjoyed and appreciated here and some others are sure to chime in. I have said enough for now.
Thanks
Tim

Well since you and I are the only two people on the Camp Fire that has any interest in making knives, and you already know how to do it, maybe this is not the place for that. Most of these guys seem to be collectors with little interest in knives that will get blood on them. Knife collecting is a neat hobby and I attend the big knife show every year down in Atlanta. I see some of the most beautiful stuff down there and it obviously was never intended to be used. And smart collectors are making money on some knives. I am not smart enough to do that. I just make'm and use'm or give'm away.

There are plenty of guys on here that have and I am sure will add their input.
Several on here have given me their thoughts and desires on what works best for them in various situations. I have made some knives for them and together we tweaked a few.
I only know a little, but can add my comments to most anything.

According to Waylon, Bob Wills is still the King. Any connection with your handle???

Yep. Only I don't do Western Swing. I play the blues because if it ain't BLUES, it ain't music.

Uh... no.

Okay, but there are a lot of photo's so I guess I'll just take it one thing at a time showing what I did. The knife in these photo's is the only forged knife I ever made (actually helped make) or ever will make. I have a friend who is a black smith and a pretty good one. He has been trying to get me to do blacksmithing, but I am not going to. He knew I made knives, so he said for me to come over and he would show me how to forge a blade and I had always wanted to try that anyway.

So I drew out what I wanted to make and we threw a piece of round stock 52100 in his double burner gas forge and heated it to the color he said it should be and we both took turns beating it out into a flat piece. Then we started working on shaping it with the hammer and that was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. He would have to correct all of my mistakes. So we finally got it to where he was happy with it and he asked me if I wanted his touch mark on it and I said sure, so I stamped the blade.

You forgers and black smiths all know what a touch mark is, but for those who don't, it's an identifying mark unique to each forge sort of like a trade mark. My buddy's is a buffalo skull with the initials BMF which stands for Big Medicine Forge. You'll see it in the photo's.

I did not even take my camera with me when we made the blade, but there wasn't a lot to see in that process anyway. Just imagine two guys beating on a piece of hot steel for about three hours and then using a file for the finish shaping. Then we quenched it in pre heated oil. He examined it and tested the hardness with a file and pronounced it ready.

Now I know why people use the stock removal method for knife making. That forging is hot and a lot of work and it ain't pretty and the knife blade ain't exactly flat or square like a piece of flat stock. But it is what it is, so I am going to finish it.



Everything is laid out here to begin. There is the micarta, the nickel silver metal and the nickel silver pins, heat blocker, and various sized drill bits.



Here is the blade on a piece of paper ivory micarta. My original idea was to make the handle half black and half white, and I did that but it looked like dog dung, so I took the white off and made it all black. That is the beauty of making your own. You can change your mind if you want to.



Here I am cutting the nickel silver flat stock into the proper sizes for what I am going to pin and silver solder to the tang. Nothing fancy, just a common hack saw with a new blade and careful sawing.



These are the nickel silver pieces that I am going to attach to the tang.



These pieces need to be cut pretty close and then touched up with a file.



Now clamp the nickel silver to the blade with a vice grip or something similar, and use the holes in the tang to guide the holes in the nickel silver. Be careful here because that nickel silver will climb up the drill bit then swing out and cut you if you have your hand where it can get to you. These are 1/8 inch holes for the pins. You have to drill both sides this same way.

My fancy anvil is a piece of rail road rail, but it works fine. Here I am peening the pins. Do this slowly because nickel silver is three times as hard as brass and if you rush it, you'll break it off. What you want to do here is to make the whole pin fat and make it tighten up in the hole, but BEFORE you do this, first thoroughly clean the tang and the nickel silver and apply soldering flux. I keep everything clamped tightly with a vice grip to make sure it stays in one place while I work on it.



This is what it should look like when you get finished.



Here I have re applied the flux under and around the bolster, applied Heat Stop or Block-It to the blade to keep the heat from running, and am heating the tang behind the bloster. When I apply the silver solder in front, it will run to the heat and under the bolster. Make sure you get a good solder joint becaue if there are any holidays in it, they will show up when you finish it off.



The joint should be completely filled all the way around like this. You do the other two nickel silver pieces the same way and be careful to not let the heat run back on your last solder joint or it'll melt the joint and you'll have problems. Keep a lot of Block-It in the required places and be sure to clean the joints and apply solder flux to get good joints.

Hang on, we have just got started. More to come unless you boys get bored with this. I can stop any time. Does anybody see any major errors so far or see a way it could have been done better or faster?

You mean you actually get blood on your knives?

Do tell.

That might ruin the collector value!!!!


JAPPFT,


GWB

We are going to get to this, but there are a few things to do first.



This is the same knife as you see in my hand in the buck skinning photo up above. That was my first and only use test of it.

Blood on a knife?

That's just crazy talk.

It's a lot easier to pose for and take pictures of yourself than go to all the work of getting a knife bloody. Or so it would seem...

I can't post a picture because I'm away from home. But I made a skinner knife I still use from a truck spring. I was about 14 years old. My best friend's father was a genuine anvil pounding blacksmith, and of course we loved to play around in his shop, heating pieces of scrap in the forge and pounding them out on the anvil. The only tool we were forbidden to use was the electric power hammer he had built. (It had cut off three of his fingers). I worked that knife ever chance I got till just before deer season. Then my friends father took it and tempered and hardened it for me. It's not a pretty knife and it is very heavy, but it works great and will chop through bone and still be sharp enough to skin with.
I wish all kids had the same opportunity to learn a few things about the old ways like we did.

Ain't dat da' truth. LOL

BW,




I prolly skin +/- 60 critters a year, give or take, and most of em' with a different knife each time.





Just don't always post pix of every one.

JAPPFT,


GWB

So you're a collector?

I've been called worse names! LOL











[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e129/glenn1221/Blades/IMG_0268.1_zpspripebnr.jpg[/img]

Ya' know, after lookin' I really need to update. Lotta stuff ain't there. Dowell's, Winston's, Honeycutts, Ingrams,Hendrix, Mike Miller, Slaughterville, Doziers, Howe Mountains, May, Lloyd and Rossi to name a few.

Ya'!


GWB

PS: I guess I've stepped on this thread a plenty. Off to the
"Petting Zoo" in the AM. Ain't killed nor skint' a critter in 12 days. Starting to itch and scratch. SDD (shooting deficit disorder)is settin' in.

See ya'll next Monday.

GW is not a collector. He is an Accumulator and needs some professional help as he noted in his shortcomings of what ain't there.

Enjoying the OP's pics and storyline.
Tim

Morning boys, or is it girls? GEEZE, reading those rants above you would think somebody around here is having PMS problems. But there are always those on every forum who hijack threads and go off on a rant that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the original intent of the thread. I don't know if that is because they do not read what is in the thread, they do not look at the photographs, or they do not comprehend what they read and see, but they obviously missed it. Yep. It went right over their heads. Either that or they are just common jackasses who like to hijack threads.

And what is always common to those kinds of people is that they never seem to have anything to contribute to the original intent of the thread, but they make snide comments designed to show they are superior to the OP. I already said I am not a smart knife collector, but that is one more thing they missed.

So for the benefit of those silly sumbitches around here who can't read, this thread is about how a common man who is not a professional knife maker nor a knife collector can make a knife using ordinary hand tools and common materials like old saw blades and have a knife that works very well. These are WORKING knives made to be used and not intended for collectors. You boys with the menstral problems need to chill out because there are people here who might like to try to do something besides bitch, piss, moan, and make smart assed comments. I get it. You have a knife collection. You don't get it. This is about MAKING knives.


I gotta go to a funeral this morning and won't be back until this afternoon. I'll continue with the knife project then. And Tim, this sort of crap is exactly why I didn't want to do this here, but FCUK'EM and their PMS issues. I am going to do it anyway.

I like to work with Axis antler. Parts of the antler are
relatively straight and not too pithy. I use old carbon steel
butcher, boner or paring knives. Reconfigure the blades (turn a 10-12" blade into 5 1\2"). I make sheaths for 'em.
People really go for that Axis antler.

I like stag too Poboy, but never tried Axis. Elk antler is soft inside but I just fill it with epoxy and it seems to work okay. Sure would like to see some of your work and hear your comments on what I do and how I do it because I am always looking for ways to improve outside of buying more tools. I am not going into knife making so I don't need them.

But to continue with the project for those who might be interested:



After you have pinned and soldered all of your nickel silver, put it on your belt sander and take it down to the steel in the tang. Now you can see why it is important to get a good solder joint. There are no holidays in any of these.



Clean up everything so you can now mark the micarta to cut the panels that will go in the handle.



I use a carbide blade on a powered miter saw to make the cuts, but you could use about any saw. This just allows very precise cuts that make good, tight fitting pieces.



Then drill the micarta for the pins just like the nickel silver using the holes in the tang for a guide.

Mark and cut all the panels and fit them close. Then glue them in using epoxy and lightly peeen the pins. Don't do that much or the micarta will split and don't do it at all on wood , horn, or stag because they split easy.



I use the tilt bed on the Delta belt sander to true up all my cuts on the nickel silver and micarta, but before I got it, I used a file. The sander is just quicker.



After the epoxy has set up really well, take a saw and hack off as much of the extra micarta as possible to cut down on the amount of grinding you have to do. Be careful and don't get over into the handle area though.



Then grind it down to the tang. I dip it in water while doing the grinding because it causes a lot of heat even using an 80 grit belt.

Now use a rasp and file to shape the handle. Some people use the belt sander, but it will eat micarta and nickel silver so quick, I don't use it. It takes longer using the files, but I don't make any mistakes because if you do at this stage, you have screwed the pooch.



This is at the 320 grit finish stage and already, I don't like it. It looks like dog poo. It would have been fine all ivory or all black, but this does not work for me.



So I took out the ivory micarta and put in the black.



Then I rasp and file it to shape, sand, and buff out with jewelers rouge with the buffing wheel. I use a small wheel on a Dremel tool to do that because I don't have a big buffer. It takes a lot more hand sanding to get it ready for buffing, but what the heck? I'm not in a hurry.

This is the end product. I got a little fancy with the sheath, but it seems to go well with that knife.

When you have curves in the handle and multiple panels, fitting the odd angles on them is more difficult than when you have a straight handle design. I didn't draw that handle like that. It just worked out like that in forging and I was so tired fooling with that business, I didn't say a word because I was ready to quit. We also didn't start with a big enough piece of stock, so we couldn't draw it out far enough to make the blade as long as I drew it on paper. Like I say, it was my first and only try at forging a blade and I'll never do it again. waaaaay too much trouble.

Sure will appreciate any comments about what I did from those of you who know how to do it correctly. I am just a common guy with no training and few tools, but I do enjoy messing around with this kind of stuff and happy with the result. Knife collectors will poo poo it because it isn't up to the standards they are accustomed to. I get that. But it will do fine for the average man who just wants to make his own knife and use it to skin, gut, and butcher his game and that is all I ever wanted to be able to do.

Nice work and report on that knife. Don't see much to make a suggestion on---if it works for you, then IT WORKS!
There is a ton of ways to skin a cat, or so I am told.

This was my first (and probably last) effort at forged blades. Geedubya talked me out of the black handled skinner and I kept the other one.



Thanks for looking.

I like your stag handle knife better anyway, so you kept the right one. I notice you use a guard on your knives. I built some like that but discovered it got in the way. Maybe it's just me and the way I use it. But it is traditional and looks great. I like traditional stuff and it's why I like stag. It just seems to be right on a knife.




Well that is the problem you see and part of the learning curve you have to go through because that knife didn't work for me at all and that is why you don't see my sun burst pin pattern on it, but boy it sure would have looked good on that knife. I don't put that pattern on it until I have tested it. I am sad to have to report that after all of that work, I took it to camp and managed to kill the buck pictured way back up this thread. My buddy and I skinned, gutted and butchered it and packed it in my big cooler. Just as we finished, the guy who helped me forge that blade rode in on his 4 wheeler to hunt with us for a couple of days.

Of course, he was interested to see the knife because he had not seen it since I left his shop with the raw blade. So we got cleaned up and fixed an adult beverage and sat on the front porch and talked about knives while I got out my india stone and began to touch up the edge on the knife. It was then that I noticed a couple of rough spots in the blade. As I examined them closer, it had very small saw blade spots along the edge. WTF???

I handed it to the guy who helped me forge it and asked him what was going on with that crap. He said it looked like we may have got it too hot and messed up the steel in that spot. He handed it back to me and said, just sharpen those spots out and it'll be okay. So I tried that but it got spots in other places on the blade. Then I handed it to him and said, it's yours now. YOU sharpen out the rough spots.

Like I said, no more forged blades for me, but it took about 50 hours of work building that one and the sheath before I figured that out and if I ever think about building another forged blade knife, I want you to kick my ass as hard as you can. From now on, I'll just stick with old saw blades.

Neat build. I like seeing the knives being built. Would like to see more builds documented. Someday I am going to build my own.

I made my first one in 1999. Back then we didn't have the Internet like we have now and I didn't know about the knife supply places, so I used micarta salvaged from an electrical pannel and an old saw blade. It was rough looking, but it worked. Today we have books about how to build knives and You Tube video's and knife forums like this one and guys like Tim to give advice and offer encouragement and all of that can be a BIG help in avoiding mistakes and building a better knife. I wish all of that had been around back then. It sure would have saved me a lot of headaches. They say experience is the best teacher, but it also leaves a lot of scar tissue that I would just as soon avoid.

I also enjoy designing and making the scabbards, but then, I just like making things period. It gives an old goat like me something constructive to do.

I have a series of photo's made from the get go in designing and building a fancy knife scabbard if any of you fellas are interested in seeing that let me know and I'll post them here.

I would like to see the sheath build.

This scabbard does not have the typical shape because of the big gut hook on my knife. I made three gut hooks before I finally got the hook big enough, the pilot or lead long enough, and the angle to the blade right for it to work, but it made the knife ugly. To me, form follows function, so the ugly does not matter. Does it do what I wanted it to do is the issue I am concerned with. It was made to only do skinning and gutting. The blade is too short for much butchering, but I knew that to begin with. I have other knives for that chore. Here it is laid out on a piece of oil tanned leather. I decided to make a nice scabbard to try to make up for the ugly way it came out in the design.



Here are a piece of oak tanned and oil tanned leather that I am going to use and I am drawing the pattern onto them.



Here is part of the pattern cut in the oil tanned leather.


Here the oil tanned piece has the turquoise studs attached,(I get them from Tandy Leather) has been hole punched to the top, and is ready to sew to the main scabbard top.

Here you just sew the decorative oil tanned piece to the scabbard top piece through the pre punched holes.



Dampen the oak tanned leather and stamp or draw the pattern you want on it and allow it to dry. You can get as fancy or creative as you want to or have the tools to do it.



Now we are ready to fold the belt loop and sew it and then punch the holes and sew the top piece through the welting and the bottom piece.



After sewing the knife fits right, so now it goes to the belt sander to sand the outer edges nice and smooth, then it is time to apply the finish.

I used Kiwi brown shoe polish thinned with lighter fluid and a small paint brush to apply the finish. When it dried, I lightly buffed it with a cotton cloth and sprayed it with Sadalac which is a leather finish/protector.

Over the next couple of years, the finish bled through and wiped out the light line I left around the piece of oil tanned leather. But it's okay. WTF?? I think I like this better anyway.

The key to doing this is the proper spacing of your sewing holes using a punch and making sure each lock stitch is nice and tight. If the sewing is crooked, it is going to look like schitt no matter what else you do. Using a three prong punch and using the last hole you punched to index the punch for the next holes, it's hard to get it wrong. Before I start sewing the top through the welting and the bottom piece, I usually stick a couple of sewing needles through the holes in various places to keep everything indexed correctly as I sew and remove the needles as I come to them. That is a LOT OF LEATHER to be sewing through and if you don't do something to keep everything properly indexed, you can get off the pattern and then you have screwed the pooch. But don't ask me how I know.

There is a way of making a simple "fold over" type of scabbard like the one pictured at the beginning of this thread that is easier to make, serves the porpose just as well, and in some cases, even better. If you are not very experienced with leather work, you may want to try making one of those first. Or not.

But just so you know, fancy scabbards usually don't wear very well under hard use in the field. Out there, the KISS principle is what you want to use. Anything more than decorative leather stamping on the scabbard is in the way, and even that can wear unevenly and look bad.

I just started forging a couple weeks ago. Loving it. Coal forge BTW. Been wanting to forever, and I finally got all pieces together and am having a go at it. First pic is the first knife I made. Came out ok, but not really good for much. The second knife I was really happy with, until it bent on quenching and I broke it trying to straighten it. Spent a full day and a half on it, but I'm learning! Obviously both were files to start. This last one I cranked out yesterday. If it'll hold an edge I'm really happy with it. Was a stainless planer blade to start with. Crappy pics, it looks better in the hand than in the pics. Still have some polishing to do on the handle and guard.

Your first knives look a lot like my first knives. But to tell you the truth Billygoat, there is an easier way to make a knife than forging it. Forging is wayyyyyy too much sugar for a nickle if you ask me, but if you just gotta beat on hot steel, then you are on the right track.

All the best to you.

Thanks.

Yeah, I am not really interested in grinding out a knife from an appropriate alloy and then heat treating it. Not knocking it at all, hell I'll never make a knife the quality most put out. I like the whole process, learning to use the forge and pounding out a blade from it. Mine will always likely look rough, but if I can get the shaping and heat treating down I'll be happy. I'm actually pleased as phougk with that second finished blade. It turned out exactly like is wanted. I have a case fixed blade hunter I love, but even though it is easy to put a wicked sharp edge on it also dulls fairly quick, and the blade profile is not very robust. I wanted to recreate that in a heavier knife and I just about did it. Thumb groove and all. I could've polished out most (but certainly not all!) of the hammer marks but I kinda dig it as is.

Goat due what makes you happy. Screw the rest

Bob
I think you will find guys on 24 hour use tools more than any site you will find. I been on them all

I made many sheaths. None as fine as that one. No fluff work horse

Hi Rick. Good to hear from you. I have admired your knives. In fact, it was me admiring Bob Lovelace knives that caused me to try to make my own which is the topic of this thread. It ain't about people using knives. It ain't about people collecting knives. It's about most guys MAKING their own knives using tools most of us have in our garage or tool shed and are available at any Home Depot. Why that topic has caused some to try to hijack the thread is a mystery to me, but unless they can delete this thread, that train has already left the station.

Some of us have built hot rod Chevy's. Some of us have built our own houses. Some of us have worked on our own rifles, shotguns and pistols. Some of us cast our own bullets and reload our own ammo. Some of us want to make our own knife and scabbard. I wanted to encourage those who always wanted to do that to go ahead and do it and to try to show how it can be done because if I can do it, anybody can.

Once anybody tries to make their own knife, it is only then that they can begin to appreciate what you and the other professionals do because it is only then that they understand how really good the knives pro's make are compared to what they make. I see and understand that, but what I make is good enough for what I want it to do most of the time. I'm sure many are not as easily satisfied as I am and those just need to buy one of your, or Tim's, or the other knife makers knives. It is only because I am retired and have an unlimited amount of time to make a knife that I can do it. Most people don't have that much time to try it and when they do, they quickly discover if they value their time even at minimum wage, it is much less expensive to buy one of your knives than it is for them to try to make it.

But for those who want to do it, I hope this thread will encourage them to try. They should not try to compare what they make to what you make because if they do, they are going to be discouraged. If they want a knife equal to what you make, they ought to buy one of yours and save themselves a hellofva lot of time and frustration.

I bought a guitar just like the one Eric Clapton plays, but dang it, I can't play it as good as he does. What could possibly be the problem? So I buy Clapton's CD's and listen to them and still wonder how he does some of the musical things he does because my guitar just will not make those same sounds. But I can play well enough to join local blues bands and that is good enough for me because I ain't trying to be a professional guitar picker. That train also left the station a long time ago.