Definition please...

S

samwereb

Joined
Aug 3, 1999
Messages
441
Are people, who apply handles to blades pruchased form knifemaking-supply houses, Knifemakers?

I think I know the answer but am looking for comments.

If I, am doing fine with stock removal, purchase a billet of damascus and grind that into a knife, I am still "making knives" am I not? What if I buy a pre-ground damascus blade and then finish it? Is that then, "handle-making"? Is this fraud?
 
Are people who build model airplanes "airplane makers?"

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[This message has been edited by Wulf (edited 08-21-2000).]
 
Well, with all the **** going on at Boeing, maybe they hired those model airplane builders.......
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"You can fool some of the people most of the time.....and jerk the rest off......."
 
Sam, you can call yourself anything you want, just don't try to sell them as custom made, or try to join the Knifemakers Guild or ABS.

I'm Spartacus!
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Good Evening
It is... ahhhh screw it.

How come nobody blasted this fella for posting a serious question here?

I mean, How DARE someone ask a serious knife question in THIS forum?!?!?!!??

<---- slapping the person who posted this with a wet trout in a dueling manner, pointing to a pair of used tampons and a pair of used condoms, saying, "Choose your weapon, ya bastid!!!"

Hoping this guy don't take me seriously,
I remain,
VG

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An assortment of pictures I decided to share with anyone that was so bored they wanted to check out my antics. I did this to prove that I am indeed sane. Be advised that there's hardly any nudity. Feel free to sign the Guestbook!!
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I wrote most of that at work after drinking massive amounts of coffee. I needed to look busy and that dribbled out of my head. There's also a whole bunch of Optical Illusions.
The Deadly and Scary Leatherman Micra Website.
Be warned that the tactics used at that last site are not for the faint of heart!
A Ballistic Knife in Action
Even though the guy in those pictures has the same exact tattoos as me, I have no idea who he is!
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vampiregerbil@aol.com
 
this is way to serious for here! no you aint a knifemaker! you are a handle man
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so handle this......(_|_)
 
Still waiting for my Sliver Kit to arrive from Jantz. Can you believe they wanted to charge me extra for the screws? I said, "Screw that! I'll use staples just like Tim does."
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[This message has been edited by PhilL (edited 08-22-2000).]
 
ROTFLMAO @ Phil!!!

Soooo Sam, Dude...
You have some kinda DEATH WISH?!
What the Hell were you thinkin' bringing a question like that into the W&C Forum?
These mutts have shown some extraordinary restraint on you.
I figured by now they'd be thru takin' turns chewing on yer bloody shredded ass and have tossed you back to the General Forum.

feeling very confused and kinda disoriented,
I Remain,
Disque'd

PhilL,
Ya expensive knife buyin' Bastid!
I AM SPARTACUS!



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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu
 
P!ss on that! Hobbyist at most, that's like calling anyone who trims bush (shrubbery
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) a gardener. sheesh
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Hey Tim,
Finally a chance to boot one over to the Shop Talk Forum
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I, like the Gerbelmeister, was shocked to see a real question here in the Whiskey/Charley forum. For shame.
 
No,
I AM SUCATRAPS!!!!!


I'm Gumby Dammit!
I am the eggman, I am the walrus goo goo ga joob

aaaaarrrrrggggg aaaarrrrgggg aaarrrgggg!!!!!


-number 9 number 9 number 9


-Rozar Smacco
 
no...its : "I am you as you are me as we are he as we are all together....Im herman..."
 
Sam, most knifemakers start out by buying blades from knife supply houses and finishing them. This gives the person a nice knife, builds some basic handle making skills, and gives the person some confidence to try making their own blades. After they make that first blade, they are a "knifemaker".

It doesn't matter if you use stock removal or forging. The key to calling yourself a "knifemaker" is making blades.

Once you take that basic step, you are on a path that will cause you to spend the rest of your life trying to make better knives.

I've been playing this game for a couple of years and I'm just starting to realize that I'll never stop learning and I'll never be satisfied with the knives I produce. I always try to make the next one just a little bit better.

Some people on this forum put down those who buy finished blades and put handles on them. I don't agree. People who do that are in the early stages of becoming knifemakers. Most of them will eventually move on to blade making. We are all on a learning path. Some of us are just a little bit farther down the path.

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The irony of this thread being booted over to Shop Talk is certainly not lost on me! I just thought it was an editorial question.

I want to make a nice folder for an old fishing buddy, and I thought he rated a damascus blade. Since I don't know how to make damascus, I thought I'd buy a billet and grind away at it. NO, I don't know how to make "plain steel" either, I just felt guilty about the whole thing. I've already gone through the arguments, I don't kow how to make electricity, but use it, or epoxy but I use that.... I just wanted to know what you guys thought.

Thanks for so many responses.
 
I grind billets of stainless damascus into knife blades all the time and sell them as custom knives. If that's not knifemaking then I'm a fraud. I can live with that.

I even know a couple "professional" knifemakers who buy preground blades, clean them up, put handles on them and put them on their tables as their own custom knives.

I've even heard that the most famous custom knifemaker of all doesn't grind his own blades. So what? His name on the finished knife endorses the quality of all apects of the workmanship.

I believe you should be completely candid about everything on a knife you put your name on. I have a good number of other beliefs on various subjects that not all folks agree with either. If they did, we'd have a different president. We don't, and they don't. I can live with that too.

Wow, I guess that's my whole allotment of cynicism for the year!
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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
The Tom & Jerry Show
 
Theres another way you have to look at this, what makes a knife worth having? how many people do you know who collect stick tang bowie blanks with no handles? A bag of backsprings, blades, and liners is pretty damn useless until someone makes a knife out of them. It may not be on the same level as someone who grinds their own blades machines there own parts , or forges there own blade, but I think its still knife making.
A stick tang knife with no handle is just a peice of steel. Sure there are neck knives and things like that with nothing but a flat tang for a handle, but even those are dressed up some with some missaligned holes
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or file work.
Nobody wants a rough ground peice of hardened steel. It has to be finished, and thers a good deal of work invovled with most kits. Not quite so much work as grinding anf heat treating the blade yourself, but you still start out with some sort of materials and make a knife.

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It'll feel better when it stops hurting.
 
I was just rereading my post... There are a couple of things I thought I implied, but maybe weren't clear.

A knife has a handle and a blade. If a person calls himself a knifemaker, he should be *able* to make both.

Being able to make both the handle and blade doesn't mean a knifemaker does it for every knife. Nothing wrong with cooperative effort. That's part of the fun. The pass-around-bowie that originated on this forum is being made by many different knifemakers.

The key point is "Don't pass off someone elses work as your own."

My 2 cents worth....
 
A knifemaker is someone who can take some matierial...in whatever form it may be in, and make a knife out of it. Seems that it would not make much difference as to if the blad was already ground or not...in the end you have the knife that you did not have in the begining
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Michael
 
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