First commissioned work. WIP......any suggestions?

[mnavarro]

I haven't been making knives for a long time, so I consider myself a newbie by all forms. Stepping up from the 1x42 grinder I had to the kmg has been somewhat of a challenge for me. I've been practicing on the kmg and am more confident now than I was 6 months ago.
Although I have sold a few knives in the past, I have never been commissioned to do a build.

My buddy from work asked me to make an a knife for him I show him some of the blanks I had ground out and he really did not like them. So I told him to draw out a design and we could go from there.

I am goin to make this a WIP so that hopefully I can get some feedback from you guys.

The blade is 1/4 52100 from Aldo, and has an overall length of 10.5 in. The pins are two 1/4 on the ends and one 5/8 in the middle per request of my friend. It is a clip point style blade.

Do you guys have any suggestions or thoughts of what needs to be done better?
This will be an on going project.

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[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Now that you are selling knives, step up and get a paid membership to BF.

On this build, the shape and all looks good. I think 1/4" is excessively thick. It will be really heavy in the hand. To deal with that, use full distal taper and taper the tang as well. That will make the knife the thickest and strongest at the ricasso, which is the place you want it strong.


Also, drill all those divots all the way through. The more metal you remove, the lighter it will get. It also makes epoxy "bridges" between the scales to add handle strength.

In 52100, HT is everything. If doing it yourself, study the past threads about it and see if your equipment is suitable. If not, get it done by someone familiar with it and who has the right equipment. Be sure to tell them that it is from Aldo, and is 100% spheroidal. It will need re-solution of the alloying in the pre-HT step.

 

[Brian.Evans]

Step one: buy a knifemaker membership.

Step two: NEVER TAKE A COMMISSION EVER AGAIN. It will be fine for a little while, but you will kill your soul trying to make other people happy. I will NEVER EVER take another order. Ever.

You are the knifemaker, not your customers. You choose to make knives a certain way. Either that like then or they don't, but don't give in to customers' flights of fancy.

Also, I'd open that front finger up a bit. You're going to lock the hand into one position a bit too much like that.

 

[mnavarro]

I ground out the knife and heat treated it With the help of the stickies. The customer wanted a polished finished and later changed his mind to a satin finish. I understand now what you guys are talking about when you say not to take any commissions. I put to 1/4 pins with one 5/8 pin in the center. The scales are walnut and I put a .30 white spacer.
I will add more pictures tonight of the finished knife.
Thanks for looking

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[drysideshooter]

Step one: buy a knifemaker membership.

Step two: NEVER TAKE A COMMISSION EVER AGAIN. It will be fine for a little while, but you will kill your soul trying to make other people happy. I will NEVER EVER take another order. Ever.

You are the knifemaker, not your customers. You choose to make knives a certain way. Either that like then or they don't, but don't give in to customers' flights of fancy.

Also, I'd open that front finger up a bit. You're going to lock the hand into one position a bit too much like that.

This really gave me a chuckle. I am a builder, and my wife is my partner. We do some really glorious custom projects, some of which make it in to magazines. We also build very nice spec homes. Just the other day, after trying to make more than one set of custom home clients happy we looked at each other and said "remind me again why we do these custom projects?" There is a place for custom work, but I would suggest making sure it's a small part of your business. Find the sweet spots for what the market segment you are going after are looking for, and build products that appeal to them. At the end of the day it's a lot easier and you'll sleep better.

 

[LARRYZ10]

I don't take commissions either but once in a while I get had. I recently received an email from a guy who sent me a photo of one of my knives and asked if I could make him one. I asked him for 9 weeks and quoted him a price. He said he couldn't wait for me to finish the knife. He wanted full file work, ,bolsters, lanyard hole, and a specific rosewood that I had. I emailed him again two weeks later and told him the knife was halfway finished and headed for heat treat ( I use The Paul Bos Co.) . I got a one sentence reply that he couldn't really afford the knife. It's no big deal to me because I can easily sell this knife and for a lot more than I quoted him but it reinforced my decision to quit doing this kind of work. I really didn't want to make the knife in the first place and I rushed to accommodate him. I'm sure their are hundreds of stories even more entertaining than mine but the advice is good. Just don't do it unless you like to be surprised. Larry Lehman

 

[mnavarro]

So here it is I had done a full polish, but then like I said the customer wanted a satin finish. I put the super fine scotch brite belt on and went to town. Thanks again for all the comments.

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[Lance23]

Well he should be happy, that looks marvelous to my untrained eyes.

 

[Ninja Blacksmith]

A lot of these guys are onto something, so heed it. There is a crowd of custom buyers out there who understand more about what we do - and what we can or can't do, than the general public, but if you're a new maker it may take a while for them to notice you, and vice versa. I've started diminishing the number of custom orders I'm willing to do for the above reasons and more.

Until you can find that well established but well hidden crowd, you'll typically have these types of customers - The one who will never get why you charge more than Walmart. The one who vanishes with no trace midway through the commission. The one who comes back complaining about edge damage after trying to whittle a cinder block. The one who believes the time constraints on FIF are realistic. The one who will request a completely impractical/"tacti-kool" design and insists they can't be wrong. Last but not least, the ones you can't swing a dead cat without hitting, those who have bought into the hype surrounding katanas and other Japanese blades.

As a final note, I do agree that the steel thickness and tang are a bit overkill, but otherwise it's a very nice and clean knife.