- Joined
- Aug 13, 2002
- Messages
- 5,703
I thought I'd post some of my thoughts it in case it can be of help to people starting their journey into the wonderful world of Knifemaking.
In the beginning, when I started, I thought that it would be cool to come up with “MY” knife design. Something never seen before that was practical and aesthetically pleasing. I thought that this was how I was suppose to develop my own style. So I focused on blade shape and quickly realized that with the number of knifemakers over thousands of years, pretty much every kind of blade shape has been tried. Don't get me wrong, there is always the possibility for something new but most of the time not radically new. The differences are subtle and you need a good amount of experience already to be able to incorporate them successfully in a design. I've been at it seriously for 2-3 years now and I still work off established blade designs.
What I would suggest is to use as I said, an established blade design. Then work on getting the grind basics right. Then if you want to practice your designing skills, do it with the handle, guard, pins, etc. There is much more you can do with these creatively. While you do this, you'll also work of perfecting the mechanics of it all of course. A really good looking design won't shine through if badly executed. And after a while,you may find that focusing less on the blade will actually free up your mind and it is then that the subtle changes you could do to it will come to you.
Two other tips I could add. First, try something just a little above your skill level from time to time. Not too much above your level but enough so that you'll be able to do it reasonably well. It's been suggested to do the same knife over and over and thats fine. It is how you'll prefect a particular skill. But eventually you may want to add new features and pushing yourself a little is a good way to develop the skills needed to do so without getting discouraged because you've aimed too high.
And finally, it may be a cliché but, think outside the box. WAY outside. Try to visualize things that seem to makes no sense at first. As an example, who said handle scales were suppose to be on the same plane as the blade, why not rotate them 90 degrees or even 45 degrees. Of course this may not work at all and even if it does, it will need to be worked on a lot to extract a practical result. But even if not much of the original idea remains, you may end up with something that I think would have been much harder to obtain without thinking way outside the established boundaries.
I hope this helps some of you.
PS: Here is the obligatory
I hesitated a lot to post this because it may sounds pompous, like I know what I am talking about with my puny 2-3 year of experience. 
It is very possible that I am actually way off so take all this with a grain of salt and feel free to tel me if you think that I am full of cakapoo.
In the beginning, when I started, I thought that it would be cool to come up with “MY” knife design. Something never seen before that was practical and aesthetically pleasing. I thought that this was how I was suppose to develop my own style. So I focused on blade shape and quickly realized that with the number of knifemakers over thousands of years, pretty much every kind of blade shape has been tried. Don't get me wrong, there is always the possibility for something new but most of the time not radically new. The differences are subtle and you need a good amount of experience already to be able to incorporate them successfully in a design. I've been at it seriously for 2-3 years now and I still work off established blade designs.
What I would suggest is to use as I said, an established blade design. Then work on getting the grind basics right. Then if you want to practice your designing skills, do it with the handle, guard, pins, etc. There is much more you can do with these creatively. While you do this, you'll also work of perfecting the mechanics of it all of course. A really good looking design won't shine through if badly executed. And after a while,you may find that focusing less on the blade will actually free up your mind and it is then that the subtle changes you could do to it will come to you.
Two other tips I could add. First, try something just a little above your skill level from time to time. Not too much above your level but enough so that you'll be able to do it reasonably well. It's been suggested to do the same knife over and over and thats fine. It is how you'll prefect a particular skill. But eventually you may want to add new features and pushing yourself a little is a good way to develop the skills needed to do so without getting discouraged because you've aimed too high.
And finally, it may be a cliché but, think outside the box. WAY outside. Try to visualize things that seem to makes no sense at first. As an example, who said handle scales were suppose to be on the same plane as the blade, why not rotate them 90 degrees or even 45 degrees. Of course this may not work at all and even if it does, it will need to be worked on a lot to extract a practical result. But even if not much of the original idea remains, you may end up with something that I think would have been much harder to obtain without thinking way outside the established boundaries.
I hope this helps some of you.
PS: Here is the obligatory
I hesitated a lot to post this because it may sounds pompous, like I know what I am talking about with my puny 2-3 year of experience. It is very possible that I am actually way off so take all this with a grain of salt and feel free to tel me if you think that I am full of cakapoo.
........ my knives suck!:grumpy: