First knife

5160 hand forged. The bevel is hammered in before grinding the edge. I left the inclusions and hammer marks for a more rugged look. Scales are lightning struck misquite, from a tree behind our pens that was struck this summer in a storm. You can see a lightning burn in the first picture. I cut, dried and stabilized the wood. Pens are Jantz "heeler" paw mosaics. Didn't realize the dog was coming and going until I pulled it out of the clamp...oops.
Lots learned, lots left to learn.

Pretty good for a first. Just a friendly tip, You can mix some epoxy with some saw dust from the scales and fill in any and all of the little pin holes in the mesquite scales and then sand it back down after it's cured and you'll never know that they were there. Mesquite is notorious for having pin holes in it, even after stabilization.

Very nice....

Thanks for the tip Mike, I noticed those.

good start

Looks good! When I was a kid my uncle made a knife from a file. I've always thought that was really cool and have wanted to do that myself. One day, some day.

Looks good. Just keep on getting better as we all try to do.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement everyone!

How do you get the design in the top of the blade?

love it, keep making them.

By using hand files. On this pattern I used a round file and a triangle file.

Looks good, now go make another one!

Nice job