Beginning Knifemakers FAQ

amacks

amacks

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 13, 1998
Messages
674
About once a week, someone decides to try knifemaking for the first time(made-up, but ok). Would it be a worthwhile forum activity to create a FAQ for the beginning knifemaker. Include information on using recycled steel and supply houses. If we can get a couple of people to each write a piece on a certian specialty, I don't think it would be at all out of the question.
Aaron

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Why did you stab that girl?
You won't believe this, but I had too much coffee!
-Edmond by David Mamet
aaronm@cs.brandeis.edu
 
As someone that is just about to venture into making a knife for the first time it sounds like a great idea.

Mark

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Stay Cool.Hang Loose.Admit Nothing
 
I think that would be a GREAT idea! I, for one, would use it. I'd like to see sectionson steels, and rather than the usual comparisons of elemental percentages, etc, a more practical user's guide on what works for what and what doesn't. Also a discussion of thicknesses and what is better suited for certain types of knives. I'd like to see a discussion of treatments for blades that can be done at home (i.e. is 1095 a good steel if you can't put an epoxy coating on it?, etc). A primer on how to grind and what equipment is required would be nice. A sectiono n sheath making and also on kit knives would be cool. I would be interested in helping out, although my experience has only been with one ATS-34 kit blade, Micarta, and making Kydex sheaths...
Steve
 
Before any of this takes place, we should check other forums/newsgroups for such a faq, I'll bet there is a usenet faq out there, unseen to wwwebbers.

that being said,

I'm willing to troll through past threads and work on a FAQ. A FAQ is mecessary to prevent RTFM type ?'s from tiring frequent posters (notice this happening to Walt Welch?) and you don't have to give less than satisfactory answers such as 'see my post about xxx in the yyy thread'

Any topic that has its own forum probably receives enough repetitious questions to form a FAQ. So email me if you are intereseted in working on a faq (or tell me that you are already in the advanced stages of such a faq
smile.gif
) or post specific topics you think should be addressed in the faq.

or we could all just bug Joe Talmadge j/k

DIY!

JE

 
This is a realy cool idea!! I know that i would be digging through the archives of such a FAQ quite often!! I am always in search of an answer to one of a dozen questions. I usualy find the answer I'm looking for but at the same token i ususaly have to dig around in long forgotten posts to find it and a quicker way would be just to sweeet!!



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Thanks and Good Luck!! Chris S

Nobility is not a virtue achieved by birthwrite, It is defined by ones actions......

 
I'd be willing to handle the technical details of the FAQ, but I'll need help with the information. I think probably the easiest way to do it would be to divide it up into topics, and give them to people. Then that person finds out what information is already available, and what needs research.
Aaron

------------------
Why did you stab that girl?
You won't believe this, but I had too much coffee!
-Edmond by David Mamet
aaronm@cs.brandeis.edu
 
Jeff,

You're right, there is a (usenet:rec.knives) FAQ, and it's a real good start for this (types of steel, how to sharpen, etc.). There's a mirror of it here, labeled Knowledge Base on the main page. There'd have to be a few more sections added to make it a beginner's making FAQ, though.
Perhaps a good way to start would be to use some of those sections, and maybe get permission to use a few Blade Mag. articles as well (who has a good archive AND can type well?). Some cutting & pasting out of Dejanews from rec.knives and alt.crafts.blacksmithing would add a bunch, too.

Bill
 
Hello!
That is one great idea.

I'll be making my first knives this summer and to get the information I needed to do so, I had to go trought a lot of web pages, usenet threads, magazines and books just to get me started.

It would be very interresting to have in such a faq, pointers to sources of informations, and a list of book that are worth reading. I bought a couple of book on amazon on knifemaking that were BS.

There should be a section on tools, and sources for both new and recup steel.

Maybe a section with information on how to build a mini forge the way the neo tribalsmith do.

And I might suggest including (with the permission of course)some of the text of Bob Engnath that were on the blade and stuff site...

Since I'm just a beginner, I can't contribute to the faq, but this summer, I will start a website about knife in french and I could translate (with permission of course) that faq in french.

If there is something I could do to help, just email me.
 
I'd be glad to type things up if someone wants to send me articles. I'm a pretty gud speler and proofreader too.
 
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