A real photographer visits the shop

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Oct 19, 2005
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One of my friends I've met in the knife community is Mistwalker here on this forum. He is a knife writer and a photographer. We met at Blade Show a few years ago, and he wrote an article on my knives. After Tactical Knife closed down I asked him to blog for my website. He writes short blogs for the site regularly (traffic spikes). He recently moved to Chattanooga and came down to the shop for a visit. This was two Thursdays back. He took pics on that day and also on Friday morning. Then he showed up on the following Tuesday and also took pics. He's got one more visit, Monday early AM and he will basically have documented the process from beginning to end. I never have time to do this kind of stuff. If I pull myself off of a grinder for long enough to post here or tweet a pic I'm lucky. Anyway, he posted a thread with pics in my forum, and I thought I'd share a link with y'all.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Road-To-Fiddleback-Friday-(VERY-Photo-Heavy)
 
Very interesting thanks for the tour. Interesting that you do some final grinding after the handle work.
 
That's a nice shop tour. You guys are rocking it old school. Nicely done :thumbup:
 
Very cool. I'm a fan of yours on several levels and it is awesome to see knives being made by hand in such a setting and at such volume. Thanks for the inside look and thanks to Mistwalker for the pictures and captions.
 
Ninety percent of my knives are made from 01 steel. The remaining ones are CPM 154. I find that once you learn to love 01 you are ruined for other steels.

This is the last few months we'll be in this facility. Its really cramped in there with 8 people, and our lease is up in Jan. Once we move I'll have some space for some new machines, and the electrical capacity to plug them in. Right now we've maxed out our breaker box, and really the floor space is not there either. The next place (still looking) is going to be bigger. I'd love to have a mill and a CNC router but we don't have room here. Plus, I don't want the mill around the volume of dust we make.
 
Very cool to see your process Andy! I've got a couple of your knives and admire the craftsmanship. I know that you blue some blades do you just use Birchwood Casey blueing?
 
Yes. Its the gel type of cold blue. We put it on with nitrile gloved fingertips, sweeping from spine to edge. Leave it streaky and thick on the blade for 15 mins. Rinse thoroughly and then hit it with a lot of Windex with amonia.
 
Maelstrom78 said:
Very interesting thanks for the tour. Interesting that you do some final grinding after the handle work.
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I totaly misinterpreted this statement last night. Duh. Yes. After heat treat I get the bevels cleaned up and take them to 80 grit. Then after the handle is all done I do the final three belts leaving them at A45 gator belt satin. I found that if I ground them all the way down they invariably got scratched up during the rest of the process and had to be touched up on the grinder anyway. It makes for a stressful Thursday though. Generally on Thursday I have ~50 knives to put through three belts. Its my least favorite day in the process. And on those days where the grinding isn't flowing and is frustrating, I have to power through. There is no option to put it off for a day.
 
Andy,
Thank you for taking the time to put this together and show it here to us. You have an awesome operation going on there and I really enjoyed looking it over. I want to get up to that part of Georgia one day and visit with all you Knifemakers up there. See you at the Guild Show!
 
Calvin Robinson said:
Andy,
Thank you for taking the time to put this together and show it here to us. You have an awesome operation going on there and I really enjoyed looking it over. I want to get up to that part of Georgia one day and visit with all you Knifemakers up there. See you at the Guild Show!
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Calvin, you have a standing invitation. Give me a call and come on up. The GA Knifemakers Guild's next meeting is at the Twin Blades shop in Statesboro around early February. Its the best meeting of the year. Their shop is in Statesboro GA, so not too far for you to make. (The southmost meeting in GA anyway) We'd love to have you there.

Don Nguyen said:
Amazing to see, thanks Andy. I gained a lot just looking through the pictures!
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Just that idea is amazing to me Don. I am a fan of your knives. Thanks for looking.
 
Very cool pics and info. Have you ever looked into water jetting your blanks or large batch heat treat (like 25+) from a pro ht shop?
 
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