Design advices for beginners

Matthew Gregory said:
I have no eye for design. I struggle with the lines and contours with every knife I make... it's just an aspect of life I'll likely never 'have'. To try to compensate, I usually draw out my designs using any and every tool available, from graph paper to rulers and french curves. The french curves have helped immensely, as they're based on contours that are, by definition, pleasing.
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I just skip that part and go from rough sketch or idea to grinding. I'd have to learn a whole new skill set, lol. :D :D :D
 
Will Leavitt said:
My wife will kill me if she reads this :)
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Nah she won't. But maybe if she finds you surfing for p..errr research. ;)

Some great input guys, thanks. :thumbup:

As a side note, opinions are fine but maybe not what we are after here. I mean give me a Bruce Bump Bowie with a mirror polished blade and the ugliest micarta you can find and it will still be well designed (and full of awesome of course;)). Once a new maker starts to make some progress on the designing part, material and finish choice is something easy to improve upon.

Keep the advices coming! :)
 
Saying "I don't care for X" is inoffensive. Saying "I think X cheapens... in my eye" reads much more like a subtle, back−peddling dig at the makers who do it and I liken it to the "brass has no class" mantra that we all know and love.

I also take offense to Matt Gregory taking offense to anything I say, because he knows I've had a secret crush on him for years.



Totally hetro bro crush...
 
How to Make Knives by Richard Barney and Bob Loveless has a lot of design tips

$50 Knife Shop by Wayne Goddard also points out a lot about design

Art of the Knife by Joe Kertzman is a great book to look at when it comes to great designs and features some members of this site!

Testing some of my knives has given me a better feel of blade geometry which I will further apply to design.
 
Patrice Lemée;9509460 said:
As a side note, opinions are fine but maybe not what we are after here. I mean give me a Bruce Bump Bowie with a mirror polished blade and the ugliest micarta you can find and it will still be well designed (and full of awesome of course;)). Once a new maker starts to make some progress on the designing part, material and finish choice is something easy to improve upon.
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Great point, Patrice.
 
I think burlap micartas are some of the prettiest and most interesting materials I use.

I don't like Rick's knives because he's Canadian.
 
Women and curves, very funny and I guess a bit true. I like to make a few drawings, profile with leaving some choices - mostly in the handle. Then I take the 3-5 blades inside for the evening. Maybe watch a little TV and admire the "knives". After an evening with the knives they tell you what they want and need, make a few notes on the knife and they are ready to make those small changes.
 
Had a young man come over today to learn to forge, we forged my EDK design. I'd been critiquing the designs he was emailing to me especially in handle design. Kept beating him over the head about the handle being the only interface with the blade. He picked up the EDK we were patterning our forging after and after playing with the blade for a bit said he understood where I was coming from. In hindsight I should've told him to make cardboard or wooden patterns so he would have a better idea of what his designs would feel like.

That's another good way to develop your designs and patterns, get some thin wood and shape them, play around with the patterns in your hand while watching tv or whatever and refine it.
 
making wooden profiles is a great way to get your proportions right
 
When I started making knives I sketched everything out, ground it and tried to make perfect clean designs. That was very good exercise and I strongly recommend it for learning the craft. I also recommend looking at some classic designs and trying to emulate them, it is like playing scales and finger exercises for a musician, it gives you a standard pattern to work to which will show deviations that point out areas of learning to concentrate on, and if you say "I am going to make a flat ground loveless style drop point" and it comes out cannel ground looking like a wharncliffe you know you need to work on a couple of skills, on the other hand, if you find it looks like the pics in the magazine, move on to the next style. Once you have a working vocabulary you can create anything.
When I started forging I got into breaking from my precise pre-planned designs and started "going with the flow" exploring what I could make the steel do, now I have a feel for how to make the steel do things that 10 years ago I would have thought impossible, and I am now back to working to design sketches, and working on refining details.

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well, I'm just starting out with this knife making "hobby" and have found more info on this website than I can retain. Some of the knives you guys make from rough pieces of metal are absolutely amazing. Some great tips here for us beginners, Thanks a ton for it!

Fit and finish are important to me so I started with a couple finished blanks and am practicing applying handles and finishing them. I figure if I cant get the fit and finish right theres no point in working on the beginning just to screw it up in the end . . .so I'm working backwards I guess. I've already bought a delta band saw, delta 1x42 sander with an 8" disc and a 1x30 cheap belt sander, already had my drill press and bench grinder, so I am working on the basics at this point. I've put 4 handles on these blanks so far and finished them then pop them off and do it again til I get the results I want in the fit and finish. Any tips on final fit and finish would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again and thanks for sharing!
 
FMB, a lot of us started doing kit knives, it's a good way to ease into the craft.

Fill out your profile so people can see if you're nearby, this is a great way to get to visit someone's shop.

Welcome to BF.
 
Will Leavitt said:
FMB, a lot of us started doing kit knives, it's a good way to ease into the craft.

Fill out your profile so people can see if you're nearby, this is a great way to get to visit someone's shop.

Welcome to BF.
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Thanks Will, just filled out the profile, thanks for the reminder. We have some great knife makers in my area, I need to get to know a few.
 
fmb3 said:
Thanks Will, just filled out the profile, thanks for the reminder. We have some great knife makers in my area, I need to get to know a few.
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Although we're beginning to wander a bit off of topic here.... when I first started making knives (pre-interwebz) you went to a local gun and knife show and talked to makers (politely and stay out of the way of customers.) If you weren't too big an idiot and showed a passion they would usually invite you to their shop. I dunno if this is still done, I know down here it isn't because very few makers go to the local shows, I quit because I couldn't stand it anymore.
 
sorry, I didnt want to derail just show my appreciation for the great advice here and intriduce myself a little. My apologies, please continue with the advice :)
 
fmb3, I have four points of advice for a person like you.

A) Stop NOW. Knifemaking is a horrible addiction that will eat up your bank account, destroy your relationships, and send you spinning headlong into an abyss of infinite study.
B) Never mind A), finish a bunch of kit blades until you begin to get a grip (ho-ho!) on your handles. Then start making your own blades.
C) You WILL completely ruin at least several feet of perfectly good cutlery steel and dozens of grinding belts, files etc. before coming up with something these guys would pick their rented mule's nose with. But that's OK! It's cheaper than sitting in the tavern and will exercise your brain more than watching TV.
D) Use your real name when you're ready to put your work up for grabs, and stand behind each knife.
 
One more thought... don't worry about the rented mule's nose. The knife won't be sharp enough to harm him anyway... though it WILL cut you while you're making it.
 
FMB, I wasn't saying that you were derailing it.. I was just making sure that people knew I was aware of where we were going :)
 
Thanks for adding some very good advices! :thumbup:

Stacy is absolutely right. (but not about the “full of merde” of course ;)) You can learn a lot from failures. Don't let them go to waste.

Chris, you don't know how happy that makes me that it inspired you to try it. :D Looking forward to seeing that take down. :thumbup:

Thanks again guys for adding your own cakapoo to the pile. :p;)
 
tryppyr said:
All right, I know I (a newbie) shouldn't really chime in, but I feel I must, just because we detoured into the subject of women and handles. Textures.

There are two kinds of textures, visual and physical. I'm more interested in the visual textures. Often I see people using handle materials (usually micarta) that give the impression of layers of burlap. To my eye, those materials cheapen the look of the knife. So you spend your time carving the perfect lady-shaped knife... and you clothe her in burlap? She deserves a more appealing and graceful material, one that you would take pleasure running your hand over.

Yes, I'm still talking about the visual pattern here. Even if you sand that micarta to a ultra fine finish, it still LOOKS coarse and unpleasant... to me, anyway. If you think I'm full of it, ask your wife if she would wear a shirt that looked like the micarta you use for handles. If she says yes, ask to stroke her breast through such a shirt and see how BOTH of you react. I doubt it will be a passionate moment. ;)

Don't get me wrong, visual textures have their place, just as plaids and argyles have their place in the wardrobe. I would not wear a whole outfit composed of plaid or argyle, though.
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um, OK. . . but I have it on good authority that I can make burlap sack look good. ;)


I've made laminates from many fabrics including silk. . .it specifically lacks depth and character.
 
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