Bushcraft Knife challenge - Interest?

Hey guys, I have been stewing over this since this thread hatched. BUT, would you all be opposed to letting a amateur join in the contest? I'd love to try my hand at it. I have one knife under my belt, so this would be knife number two. This would be a great learning experience and challenge for myself.

No worries if you guys would rather not, no hard feelings at all. If so, time willing (and this time of year gets crazy at work) I'd love to take a stab at it. As long as there is some time in front of me to the deadline, I should be able to get one done.

Let me know what you think, and again no problem if you guys don't think it's a good idea.
 
I think it would be pretty cool if you were in. Not sure what the others would think, but I think it's a cool idea :thumbup:
 
C Bryant said:
Hey guys, I have been stewing over this since this thread hatched. BUT, would you all be opposed to letting a amateur join in the contest? I'd love to try my hand at it. I have one knife under my belt, so this would be knife number two. This would be a great learning experience and challenge for myself.

No worries if you guys would rather not, no hard feelings at all. If so, time willing (and this time of year gets crazy at work) I'd love to take a stab at it. As long as there is some time in front of me to the deadline, I should be able to get one done.

Let me know what you think, and again no problem if you guys don't think it's a good idea.
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WRONG THREAD.

Sole authorship. knife. post office.

the correct answer it to type

"I am in"

in the other thread.
 
C Bryant said:
Hey guys, I have been stewing over this since this thread hatched. BUT, would you all be opposed to letting a amateur join in the contest? I'd love to try my hand at it. I have one knife under my belt, so this would be knife number two. This would be a great learning experience and challenge for myself.

No worries if you guys would rather not, no hard feelings at all. If so, time willing (and this time of year gets crazy at work) I'd love to take a stab at it. As long as there is some time in front of me to the deadline, I should be able to get one done.

Let me know what you think, and again no problem if you guys don't think it's a good idea.
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Like Koyote said. You are more than welcome to be in as long as the knife is completely made by you, including heat treat and you go to the other thread and post an "I'm in". The knife should ready and recieved by Nov 20th
 
If you fit the bill, you're in...... first knife, 10,000th knife..... doesn't matter. How would it feel to come out on top with only a few knives under your belt? Git er done.



Rick
 
Rick Marchand said:
If you fit the bill, you're in...... first knife, 10,000th knife..... doesn't matter. How would it feel to come out on top with only a few knives under your belt? Git er done.



Rick
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Thanks Rick,

I'd me more than happy to come out on the bottom, the learning experience alone will be more than worth it!
 
This contest couldn't have come at a better time. I have been looking at buying a "bushcraft" knife for awhile now.

I hope some of these knives are going to be put up for sale after the contest, to be bought and used of course, thoroughly. :D

Good luck to all of the knife makers.:thumbup:
 
I'd like to get in on this one too but alas I don't do my own heat treat on my ATS-34 blades and that is what I'd use for this type of knife build. Hopefully, you guys do a non-sole-authorship contest...then I'm game.:thumbup:
 
I can do my own heat-treat...but if a professional heat-treater can do it better and throw in a cryo dip...wouldn't that be the better way to go?



Here's how I see it: does the knifemaker claiming sole-authorship grow the tree the handle came from....or smelt the ore to make the steel for the blade? Isn't buying a bar of steel letting someone else do what they do best? (make steel) Isn't buying micarta or G10 letting someone else do what they do best? (make handle material)

I'm not trying to step on any toes or open up a can of worms. I just personally feel that claiming sole-authorship is more about arrogance/pride than about quality. Just my humble opinion. Feel free to shoot it down with logic.

Dan
 
Daniel Koster said:
I can do my own heat-treat...but if a professional heat-treater can do it better and throw in a cryo dip...wouldn't that be the better way to go?...
Dan
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I think the point about the heat treat, is that you should show what the maker is capable of. Not have it sent out just because it would be done better by someone else. This shows what the maker is capable of. :thumbup:

As far as the rest... I'll leave that to others.
 
I guess I don't get the reasoning behind it. Heat-treating is a simple process. You use the right equipment, set the numbers properly and you rarely ever get failures.

The "heat-treat-it-yourself" is really only a concern to me because it might limit the steel types available to only the ones you can do yourself. I don't have a dewar handy, so I wouldn't want to do any high-temp cpm steels. I wouldn't be able match the performance I've come to expect from professionally heat-treated blades. Or, if I found a buddy that could let me use his for a day...would that be fair to anyone else? or myself? In the end the knife isn't a true representation of me...of what I can do.

Also "what the maker is capable of" is kinda fishy to me because any maker is certainly capable of hand-drilling with an auger, but perhaps chooses to use a drill press instead because it's better. If I had my own water-jet would that be included as one of my tools? If so, then how is that different from having it sent out to be cut? I do my own CAD, I even nest it. All the waterjet guy has to do is approve it and click "send".

Like I said before - I apologize for opening a can of worms.

The spirit of this thread has been one of openness, not exclusion. I see requiring the maker to do his own heat-treat as being exclusive, not inclusive.

The point is to submit a knife for testing feedback and results, is it not?


Dan
 
Daniel Koster said:
Like I said before - I apologize for opening a can of worms.
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No can of worms, it is an open discussion :thumbup:

But, because I am no knifemaker, I will allow those who are discuss it. They know way more then I do, that is for sure. :o
 
Thanks for saying that Dan. I can see both sides of the arguement. I just think it'd be cool to have one of my knives tested. I've tested my knives, but that's before I spend hours hand sanding all of the scratches out and getting it all cleaned up. I just don't have the stomache to do it myself to one I've gotten all pretty. But....I have no issue with someone else doing it to one....that's what they are for after all. I guess I can understand the want to limit the field though. Like I said, I'm open to entering the next time if you guys do a non-sole-authorship contest. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with. :thumbup:
 
Daniel Koster said:
I guess I don't get the reasoning behind it. Heat-treating is a simple process. You use the right equipment, set the numbers properly and you rarely ever get failures.

The "heat-treat-it-yourself" is really only a concern to me because it might limit the steel types available to only the ones you can do yourself. I don't have a dewar handy, so I wouldn't want to do any high-temp cpm steels. I wouldn't be able match the performance I've come to expect from professionally heat-treated blades. Or, if I found a buddy that could let me use his for a day...would that be fair to anyone else? or myself? In the end the knife isn't a true representation of me...of what I can do.

Also "what the maker is capable of" is kinda fishy to me because any maker is certainly capable of hand-drilling with an auger, but perhaps chooses to use a drill press instead because it's better. If I had my own water-jet would that be included as one of my tools? If so, then how is that different from having it sent out to be cut? I do my own CAD, I even nest it. All the waterjet guy has to do is approve it and click "send".

Like I said before - I apologize for opening a can of worms.

The spirit of this thread has been one of openness, not exclusion. I see requiring the maker to do his own heat-treat as being exclusive, not inclusive.

The point is to submit a knife for testing feedback and results, is it not?


Dan
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I'm pretty sure that you heat-treated my Nessmuk Dan and the edge holding is awesome so I think your own heat treat is pretty spot on although I do understand what ya saying about special steels.

Following your logic though I don't think it fair that someone might send out his design to be watercut because they can do it better, send it to someone else who has a jig that can better set the bevels and then off to a heat treat specialist because they can do that better ! Where do ya draw the line ?
If, however, you already have all the fancy equipment then obviously you have lucked out.
I think the more these blades are hand worked by the maker the better, JMO !


Next thing will be the testers are sending the knives to Noss because he can test them better !:D
 
If it makes any difference, the only thing I don't do is the heat treat. For me its not that I want to farm it out, its that I don't have an oven yet. I do everything else though: design, profile, grind, sand, polish, handle work, sheath etc. I've read other threads covering this topic in the past and it seems to be an endless debate. If the creators of this challenge do not consider me to be eligible because I don't do my own heat treat then that is fine. Its not my challenge after all and I don't make the rules for entry. I still consider myself to be a knifemaker though and I'd be happy to send one of my not-heat-treated-by-myself-but-did-everything-else knives in to be beat on...lol.;)
 
Rick Marchand said:
I think the knives should be completely made by each maker... heat treat and all. A knife is only as good as it's heat treat. For me that's the heart of blademaking

Unless we make another category for folks who farm out production steps.
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I guess that means I'm out of this one. I can't feasibly HT in my basement, and lack the tools to do so (I don't even have a real grinder), and was going to be working with a design I already had HT'd. Good luck and I look forward to reading the results.
 
The following comment is worth exactly what everyone reading it has paid for it (ie $0.00 :D ).

I would think the purpose of the exercise is to see how a knife makers product will perform as a traditional Bushcraft knife. Full stop, end of story.

In other words, it would give me an opportunity to see how a knife that I might order from a participating maker would perform at traditional Bushcraft.

To be honest, I'm purely interested in function and couldn't give a damm whether or not they have outsourced a part of the manufacture process, as long as it was what they normally do to produce their knives :thumbup:





Kind regards
Mick
 
BTW, since a number of the makers already have models that are marketed as "Bushcraft knives", why the need for a new design?

After all, if their existing models really are Bushcraft knives, why not submit one of them for testing? :D



Kind regards
Mick
 
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TheGame said:
Woulda been perfect if it happened about 3 weeks ago ;) (Canning, lots of tomatoes and peppers and cukes were cut up)

But if I get a deer around then, I would love to see how they can handle the meat :thumbup:

As far as the extra time - winter is the time I lack that. My favorite time of the year :thumbup:
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I'm like you. I spend most of my time outdoors in late fall and winter. Love to hunt and winter hike and camp.

I'm getting more excited about this challenge everyday. :thumbup:

It would be great to have Mick(Southern Cross) do some testing as well, since I enjoy his posts so much. But I don't think it would be feasible time wise would it? Maybe it would be worth it?
 
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