First Knife

The first steps in my knifemaking journey. Fully hand built skinner with ebony handle thanks to inspiration from Aaron Gough.

First Knife
It was at this point I should've stopped with the plunge line.

Around 2014 I started seeing posts about people that had built their own knives but it always seemed to require a large amount of tooling to get started.  I came across Aaron Gough's excellent beginner knifemaker series on YouTube and realized that it would be possible.  After many hours on YouTube, reddit, and forums I started to build the jig that would be the foundation of my endeavor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9iNDRwwBQQ&ab_channel=GoughCustom)

Starting out with a flat piece of O1 tool stock, I began the process of shaping then hand grinding the knife.  Working in a slightly dark basement shop I found a pair of headphones and realized how many strokes it was going to take.  

A flat piece of O1, a hacksaw and many files. Somewhere along the way balancing the plunges got away from me. It's not stylish, but it works.

After getting it roughed out with flies and draw ground, it was time to heat treat.  A small two brick forge and a torch were enough to get this one heat treated.  

Two brick forge, a torch, and a toaster oven to heat treat and temper twice at 400F.

Handle fitted out with Ebony.

Handle shape actually went pretty well for a first time. Durable ebony with maybe a bit oversized corby bolts. Still, finished product is sharp and has skinned out quite a few deer over the years!