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2012 Traditional Forum Knife - let's begin discussion.
- Thread starter mqqn
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timcsaw
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2007
- Messages
- 21,442
I want a halibut colored sunfish!
LOL
seriously... still LOLing
Halibut sunfish... good 'un!
Modoc ED
Gold Member
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- Mar 28, 2010
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- 14,438
That would definitely be worth considering.
Campbellclanman
Platinum Member
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- Mar 10, 2007
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- 15,868
Lets hope we can go for Rams horn, or Stag, possibly Ebony.
When choosing a colour...you arent going to be able to please even a majority, so sensibility leads you towards a more Natural scale.
At the end of the day, we need the discussions to be centred on helping the new team help us.
I am in for whatever we end up with, but to be honest if its Bright Orange, Purple, Green, Pink-whatever...I probably would opt out.
There are lots of good suggestions, I wish for many options that myself and others have put forward, hey...A good Soddie with Stag, or Ebony, or even Rams Horn would be just fantastic, but why not a shield with the Soddie, even though its historical use is for a work knife, I cant see a shield being out of place on this particular knife.
When choosing a colour...you arent going to be able to please even a majority, so sensibility leads you towards a more Natural scale.
At the end of the day, we need the discussions to be centred on helping the new team help us.
I am in for whatever we end up with, but to be honest if its Bright Orange, Purple, Green, Pink-whatever...I probably would opt out.
There are lots of good suggestions, I wish for many options that myself and others have put forward, hey...A good Soddie with Stag, or Ebony, or even Rams Horn would be just fantastic, but why not a shield with the Soddie, even though its historical use is for a work knife, I cant see a shield being out of place on this particular knife.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2008
- Messages
- 2,469
Ok...here is a summary of my thoughts.
Generally, polls will be done for the different aspects of the knife. Ultimately, it is the job of the committee (and within their discretion) to look over everyone's comments, find consensus, and then make a decision about which options to offer to the masses. That means that although BF as a whole gets to vote in the polls, it is the job of the committee to make the decision about a) which patterns to present, b) which options to present, c) scale material/color to present, d) steel choices, e) tang stamp and f) whatever else they think is necessary. It has to happen like this, or else you would have polls with 30 choices. I will say for certain that the new committee will carefully consider all of the initial feedback and fairly present options to the group.
Last year, I think we did 3 or 4 polls. First, we poll on the pattern. 2nd, we polled on the scales. 3rd, we polled on the artwork choices. 4th, we polled on the shield.
By way of example, I am not saying that the BF knife will not be purple. It may be...who knows. But the committee has to decide whether that is a valid option to present to the group. If they think it is, they will put it as a poll option. If only 1 person votes for purple, we won't have a purple BF knife.
We are a couple months ahead of where we were last year and don't even have a committee yet. Last year, we didn't do a poll for the pattern until the end of January, so we have plenty of time.
To answer a couple of the specific questions
1) $100 is an arbitrary price. We shoot for a price that gets us the options that we want, but still puts it within the budget of most folks on here. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into pricing the pattern, quantity, shipping costs, etc. We set a $$ goal up front so we can give folks a good idea of what the knife will cost and then get accurate quotes from manufacturers.
2) The BF tang stamp was created a couple of years ago to become a tradition until the stars on the mark run out. It will be up to the 2012 committee to decide whether this tradition will be carried forward, but I imagine it will be.
3) Uniqueness - It's always been my understanding that the goal is to come up a with a cool knife that holds true to traditional slipjoint patterns/style. It doesn't have to be a knife that has never been created (i.e., a completely new pattern), but we don't want to find a pattern that is commonly produced by a manufacturer, slap on a BF stamp, and call it our own. My personal preference is to find a knife pattern from the days of old, that isn't mass produced in the current market. For instance, in 2011 we based the pattern on one of Charlie's (Waynorth) old knives. We tried to mimic the handle shape, leafy master blade, etc. Then we added an EO notch and messed around with the secondary. It was true to an old fashion knife, but had the features desired by the BF majority.
4) Individualized options. Again, this is up to the 2012 committee, but you have to remember that these guys will be doing this in their spare time. As I said in a post yesterday (and Chris reiterated), individualization makes the job more difficult. If they want to take on that task, then good for them. But I strongly advise against it. If you want an individualized knife, get a true custom or tinker with the knife after you get it.
5) The most important guideline I can give is to be patient and understand that this process won't really begin until the committee takes shape. They will take the bull by the horns and direct the process. There are no set guidelines. The BF knife (and the process) takes a different form every year, taking into account the previous BF efforts and hopefully refining them. New people join the forums and obviously don't have the ability to know how things have happened in year's past. So my suggestion it to let the committee take shape, and then will offer guidance as to how this year's knife will work.
Generally, polls will be done for the different aspects of the knife. Ultimately, it is the job of the committee (and within their discretion) to look over everyone's comments, find consensus, and then make a decision about which options to offer to the masses. That means that although BF as a whole gets to vote in the polls, it is the job of the committee to make the decision about a) which patterns to present, b) which options to present, c) scale material/color to present, d) steel choices, e) tang stamp and f) whatever else they think is necessary. It has to happen like this, or else you would have polls with 30 choices. I will say for certain that the new committee will carefully consider all of the initial feedback and fairly present options to the group.
Last year, I think we did 3 or 4 polls. First, we poll on the pattern. 2nd, we polled on the scales. 3rd, we polled on the artwork choices. 4th, we polled on the shield.
By way of example, I am not saying that the BF knife will not be purple. It may be...who knows. But the committee has to decide whether that is a valid option to present to the group. If they think it is, they will put it as a poll option. If only 1 person votes for purple, we won't have a purple BF knife.
We are a couple months ahead of where we were last year and don't even have a committee yet. Last year, we didn't do a poll for the pattern until the end of January, so we have plenty of time.
To answer a couple of the specific questions
1) $100 is an arbitrary price. We shoot for a price that gets us the options that we want, but still puts it within the budget of most folks on here. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into pricing the pattern, quantity, shipping costs, etc. We set a $$ goal up front so we can give folks a good idea of what the knife will cost and then get accurate quotes from manufacturers.
2) The BF tang stamp was created a couple of years ago to become a tradition until the stars on the mark run out. It will be up to the 2012 committee to decide whether this tradition will be carried forward, but I imagine it will be.
3) Uniqueness - It's always been my understanding that the goal is to come up a with a cool knife that holds true to traditional slipjoint patterns/style. It doesn't have to be a knife that has never been created (i.e., a completely new pattern), but we don't want to find a pattern that is commonly produced by a manufacturer, slap on a BF stamp, and call it our own. My personal preference is to find a knife pattern from the days of old, that isn't mass produced in the current market. For instance, in 2011 we based the pattern on one of Charlie's (Waynorth) old knives. We tried to mimic the handle shape, leafy master blade, etc. Then we added an EO notch and messed around with the secondary. It was true to an old fashion knife, but had the features desired by the BF majority.
4) Individualized options. Again, this is up to the 2012 committee, but you have to remember that these guys will be doing this in their spare time. As I said in a post yesterday (and Chris reiterated), individualization makes the job more difficult. If they want to take on that task, then good for them. But I strongly advise against it. If you want an individualized knife, get a true custom or tinker with the knife after you get it.
5) The most important guideline I can give is to be patient and understand that this process won't really begin until the committee takes shape. They will take the bull by the horns and direct the process. There are no set guidelines. The BF knife (and the process) takes a different form every year, taking into account the previous BF efforts and hopefully refining them. New people join the forums and obviously don't have the ability to know how things have happened in year's past. So my suggestion it to let the committee take shape, and then will offer guidance as to how this year's knife will work.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,452
Nice summary, Campbell.
I think it is time to close this thread. My purpose was to give folks somewhere to start talking about next year's knife and to keep the 2011 review thread just that.
A lot of great ideas posted here, and a lot of work for the 2012 crew to sift through.
I remember the first thing we did was to review all the conversations regarding the 2011 knife ideas and then we summarized the ideas.
Thanks for all the great ideas, now we need the volunteers to step up and talk to the mods to get the ball rolling when they are ready.
I know we already have our shipper for next year!
best regards -
mqqn
I think it is time to close this thread. My purpose was to give folks somewhere to start talking about next year's knife and to keep the 2011 review thread just that.
A lot of great ideas posted here, and a lot of work for the 2012 crew to sift through.
I remember the first thing we did was to review all the conversations regarding the 2011 knife ideas and then we summarized the ideas.
Thanks for all the great ideas, now we need the volunteers to step up and talk to the mods to get the ball rolling when they are ready.
I know we already have our shipper for next year!
best regards -
mqqn
- Status