All this talk about Ed Fowler....Meet the man

I admire anyone who has made a name for himself like Ed has in the knifemaking business. It's noy easy to make a name for yourself, but even harder to stick around and keep your reputation in tact.
 
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To each his own, but I would rather have a reputation based on sound principles and honesty, rather than unsubstantiated hype.
 
LRB said:
To each his own, but I would rather have a reputation based on sound principles and honesty, rather than unsubstantiated hype.
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Your right.

I think Ed would invite all of his critics to subject their knives to what he expects out of his. That would be the best substantiated and honest way to show Ed where the hype ends.
 
LRB said:
To each his own, but I would rather have a reputation based on sound principles and honesty, rather than unsubstantiated hype.
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That’s sounds like unsubstantiated reverse hype… hype. Jumping on the hype free hype band wagon, eh?

In the final analysis,… it’s all the same.

... Let's replace mumbo jumbo with gibberish.
 
Edited cause i'm half stupid and got folks mixed up. my apologies!

jake
 
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strahd71 said:
There was one of those nasty quench threads a long time ago, and Ed Fowler came up and his quenching practices and his "goop" i believe it was called in his book. Ed responded to the thread and was very nice. on a personal level after thinking about a post i had written i decided that i did not like how i came off, so i emailed Ed, and apologized. he was very gracious, and offered his help any time i needed it.

question his methods all you want, but please folks leave the man alone. some of the recent stuff was harsh, he IS a pioneer in knife making, times change and the old ways are often proven to be not the best. but give credit where credit is do, with out him knife making would not be where it is today.

jake
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I think you may be confusing 2 different authors

Ed Fowler - columnist in Blade - "soul of the knife", triple quenching highly alloyed 52100 with eyeballed - torch heating even though he has and promotes for Paragon Kilns.
discounts cryo in the youtube videos above, yet has written that home freezer treatment has value.

Wayne Goddard- Book "$50 Knife Shop" goop quench
 
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12345678910 said:
I think you may be confusing 2 different authors

Ed Fowler - columnist in Blade - "soul of the knife", triple quenching highly alloyed 52100 with eyeballed - torch heating even though he has and promotes for Paragon Kilns.
discounts cryo in the youtube videos above, yet has written that home freezer treatment has value.

Wayne Goddard- Book "$50 Knife Shop" goop quench
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maybe your right!

jake
 
AVigil said:
I think Ed would invite all of his critics to subject their knives to what he expects out of his. That would be the best substantiated and honest way to show Ed where the hype ends.
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When the importance of science becomes overstated in the arts and humanities, it becomes a self defeating philosophical position often referred to as "scientism".

When the scientific explanations behind a knife become more important than the knife itself, I think we've sadly crossed the line and missed the mark.
 
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great find on some really good videos avigil!

I know that I dont understand alot of the sience around knifemaking, but I do know that since I started following ed's advice and testing my knives, some to destruction, and more recently ecthing all blades, that my heat treat has gotten better, knives cut longer, tips no longer break in the field, and the blades have improved overall because of it.

I want to make the best using kinfe I can make, and ed has helped me to do that.
 
Thanks for the links. Ed wants to make the best knife he can. I commend his testing. He makes blades that withstand more abuse than most knives out there. His devotion to practical application and putting it all out for folks to see is a benefit to the community. Ed is a good guy... which makes it painful to point out his disservice to the material science aspect of bladesmithing.
 
Rick Marchand said:
Thanks for the links. Ed wants to make the best knife he can. I commend his testing. He makes blades that withstand more abuse than most knives out there. His devotion to practical application and putting it all out for folks to see is a benefit to the community. Ed is a good guy... which makes it painful to point out his disservice to the material science aspect of bladesmithing.
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... Oh I see,... like you're doing the material science of it some kind of favor. LOL

You're funny Anvil Jaw!
 
No... I'm probably undermining it in my own way, too.... lol.

Don't be such a baby!
 
I watched three of the videos yesterday. It did help give me some indication of where Ed is coming from. If you haven't already watched them and don't have time for all the videos, you might start with #3. I'd say there is some controversial material in that one... but what do I know.
 
I've met the man several times. He is an okay person in my book. I don't always agree with everything he says, but as I get older I've realized there is frequently wisdom in the things that old folks say that I dismissed when I was younger. Sometimes those old folks lack the formal education to frame what they're saying in the "correct" terminology, but it isn't necessarily "hype".

It is easy, with a lot of theoretical (and frequently largely un-experienced) knowledge to dismiss someone based upon minutia that they don't appear to understand. Don't discount real world hard earned knowledge.

"How do you test your knives" is an important message.

I agree with Stacy that it is unwise to discuss metallurgy when one doesn't really know much metallurgy. But Ed has earned the right to discuss high performance knives (as he defines it) and I'm glad he at least tries to disseminate what he has learned over a long time in the industry.

I do wish he would drop some of the romantic hyperbole and he certainly opens himself to criticism with some of his BS, but I think there is a lot more to the man than just his shortcomings.
 
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