The first knife I made with proper steel and a very basic grasp of heat treatment. Since the only power tools at my disposal were a low-end 4x36 belt sander and a drill press, I wanted to keep this knife simple. The straight cutting edge of this style of knife gave me the opportunity to make the most out of the limited power of the belt sander. I also managed to find a piece of ash wood at the local hardware store to fashion a proper set of scales.

Early on, I rushed through my builds and often neglected thoughtful handle design. Many of these knives sported hard edges on handles and could have used more rounding and finishing. On this knife in particular, I went back to it a year later and knocked down the handle thickness and smoothed out the overall shape.

One last note. I found that the handles of these early knives were often far too short. I often learned toward making smaller knives to decrease material use and build time. If I could have made one change to my strategy this early on it would have been "fewer knives, more forethought, and more time".