Jason, you defintely have a talent in the artistic aspect of making a blade like object. The shapes, the grinds, the holes, the cutouts, serrations, fullers, bolts, etc are amazing, some very whimsical, some very futuristic, some almost tribal - alien like. Definetly talented. More so than myself. And you can see your technical skills improve in your work, from JB001 to JB072. Amazing stuff.
My favorites are: JB-059, JB-024, JB-007, JB-028, JB-042, JB-013, JB-039
As you can see from my favorites, I am looking at handles that seem a little more comfortable, and blade profiles that seem to be able to be used in a multitude of tasks. That may not be your intended market, I'm just giving you my feedback. I honestly, am more of a simple shaped knife type of guy.When I make a knife, I fiddle with the handle and blade shape until I feel like I can use it non stop for 24 hours or more, and not have bloody hands. I want to be able to slice toast, or butter the toast, the knife shape can be made useful for about anything. Thats me, and thats the market I go for, but to each their own.
I do think though if you studied/used some more of the woodscraft/bushcraft, early combat, hunting, fishing, tribal, scandi style knives, you will be able to take those shapes that ooze bland usefulness and put them into your knives which ooze artistic expression and technical prowess, yet without losing your actual artistic input. If that makes sense. I think it will help the overall shape of some of your blades, maybe add a little more flow to the overal shape of the knife.
I am amazed at the level of work that goes into your blades, thats a lot of removal of material on those handles and serations. especially since your about me says you are free hand grinding, those are awesomely squared corners on those serrations for free hand work. Speaking of, have you used those serations to shred through anything? I am interested to see how they perform.
One last thing, I would love to see, and this is something I always get mad at myself, I love to see shapes meld right / fluidly, so like a couple of the blades, you have a say, a 1/8" a 1/4" a 1/2" and a 3/4" hole, but the gaps between the holes for some reason does not look fluid or proportional. Example JB-013. And then JB-060, the milled lines don't seem proportional or at the same angle and "stops" as the grind, and spine. These are things that I always get mad at myself, so please don't get offended, my work is no where near as nice as yours, but these are the points, I myself would strive to improve on.
Thanks for showing us your work! Merry Christmas, and best of luck in 2011, I hope its a good year for you.
