Anybody seen my motivation? I seem to have lost it.

J

Jason Fry

Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
3,224
It's hot. I have no upcoming shows. No exciting projects. A few routine knives to work on, a few ho-hum orders. A bathroom remodel wrapping up. A pile of cash, having just sold off most of my last show batch. I've got 7 or 8 one-offs heat treated, and another dozen standard models.

Any ideas for getting my knife mojo back?
 
It’s behind the pickled jalapenos on the left side of that second shelf there. ;)

We’ve all been there I bet. Ride it out; sure it will pass soon simply because you love this work.

Go build a new high-quality hand tool for making your own process better/more unique (e.g. broach, awl, sen, striking knife, etc).

Go build something to seriously impress your brother AND make him sweat the payback (works wonders for me).

Go hang out at a buddies shop for three hours (I’m usually ready to go get back to my cave and my ideas after two…)

Whatever you do, just don’t let this become a BS excuse for mediocrity in your routine. Best to you.
 
Send me the pile of cash. Then you'll realize you gotta get your nose to the grindstone to make it back up. Lemme know when you're ready for my PayPal address, sending cash through the mail is a bad idea :D
 
Well, I used money I made from knifemaking to get started in woodturning. When I get tired of making knives, I turn wood. When I tire of that I go back to knifemaking. I sell both knives and woodturnings.
I have just finished making a lot of knives and this afternoon plan to get back to woodturning.
 
Lots of good ideas above. Otherwise, make a knife that's completely out of your comfort zone. A totally different grind style or something way bigger or smaller than you normally make. Maybe an historical piece based on Japanese or Viking or Turkish or... whatever interests you. Since you have a budget surplus, buy some fancy handle materials/damascus etc and make the prettiest art/presentation-grade version of your favorite design that you've ever made.

Failing that, a nice bottle of bourbon consumed during day drowning worms always helps me recharge the ol' batteries :)
 
If you are financially OK (pile of cash) I'd say just take a week or two off and go on a trip. Camp, fish, hike, hunt, swim, whatever...just get back to nature. And while you are out there USE one of your knives. I think we makers get so caught up in the technical and artistic aspects of our craft that we forget what brought us to it in the first place: nature. We were all that 10 year old kid with his first pocket knife trouncing through the woods and just soaking in the majesty of nature. Back then having a knife wasn't about the steel or HT or fancy handle material; it was about the hiking and the hunting and the fishing you did with it.

Become that 10 year old kid again and the creativity will flow. At least thats what helped me through my recent slump.
 
Write a book. I divide my time between the shop and my writing desk. Just the right amount of separation for me...

Dick
 
Give the money to your wife. Then have her make a honey do's list. Instant knife mojo! Jess
 
Go build a new high-quality hand tool
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Been reading Porter's book on building forge burners. If it wasn't too hot to forge, I'd be a little more excited. Even so, I plan to beat Travis to the forge-building.

Send me the pile of cash
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You're starting to sound like my wife :) Actually I've taken on some of the "family" debt with my "knife" money, and I've sworn off new tools until I get it paid off.

make a knife that's completely out of your comfort zone....buy some fancy handle materials/damascus etc and make the prettiest art/presentation-grade version of your favorite design that you've ever made.
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I just sold my first (and second) $500 knife. I've got a $600 knife in my head, and other that might go $650. Both bowies and hunters, but a skill challenge. I spent my last surplus on stag, ivory, and steel.

Write a book.
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It's on the bucket list, just have to come up with something to say :)

I usually go through this same funk every year. I work hard starting in October for Christmas orders, then I work hard in February and March for a show I've done the last two years in April. I can usually pull back the shop time a little, spend a bit more time at the lake, dream up a few projects, and hit it again pretty good by the end of the summer.

just don’t let this become a BS excuse for mediocrity in your routine
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No mediocrity here, ever.
 
Single worst and best thing about being self employed, there is no one standing over your shoulder telling you to get back to work ;0)
 
Just back off for a week or so. Perhaps you just went to a bit of a "burn out" getting read for the Blade? Frank
 
Have any blades left over from your first year of knifemaking? Return to them, clean them up and revisit where you were at the time, where your creative spark took you, and what you might have lost touch with. I found with both martial arts and massage that I had to revisit my roots once in a while to remember what it was that brought me to where I am today. In my slow time in the shop I am getting some of my first blanks HT and finished. There are their own unique challenges to tinkering with your mistakes.
 
I hear ya. There's been days when I'll just walk in the shop, do something like hit my leg on my vice bar, and just walk right out. Everybody has off days, take a break doing what you love.
In the immortal words of Jerry Reed, "When you're hot, you're hot and when you're not, you're not."
 
Have a drink and a nice music listening session. Peoples out there doing theoretical things and having a day job thats cozy and fuzzy are missing some of the realness in life sometimes. My utmost respect goes out to all the craftsmen, welders, doers and hands on working men out there. May your life be filled with things that you have created with your own hands grinding steel and living art.

Art is in the smallest things. Think about that and do absolutely nothing for a couple days. The itch to get back to it will come.
 
ok I'm drunk a bit chilling with my best friend listening to music but who cares I'm drawing knives I will hate in the morning but fawk it this is sparta!

:)
 
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