Good Intentions - Bad Advice

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I can remember several years back when there was a young, beginning knife maker that was quick to post advice. But the advice was based on what he had heard or read somewhere. Stacy had to correct him often. His intentions were good but sometimes the advice was bad.
Well......I caught myself doing the same thing. It's not the first time either.

I had a couple of the forum members ask if Ringed Gidgee could be stabilized. I told them that I thought it wouldn't work because the wood was dense and oily. I should have said, "I don't know, I have never tried".
Karl Anderson told me that he has had Ringed Gidgee stabilized before. Further investigation and I saw where Chuck Bybee said the same thing.
So....I decided to gamble and try getting some blocks stabilized. Well....they turned out good.

My apologies to those of you that I steered in the wrong direction.
From now on I will try to only give advice based on first hand experience.

 

[G. Shahan]

Great post Mark, I have also been guilty of giving advice based on hearsay.

I will follow your advice on giving advice.

Greg

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Mark,
There are two key signs of a good businessman/craftsman.
1) To only give advice based on years of personal experience.
2) To admit when you were wrong and correct the error.


You display both qualities, and that is why people trust you.

On reason the Ashokan Seminar is so valuable is that the instruction and advice is garnered from people who are the accepted experts in the fields covered. Someone might be a great bowie knife maker, but would not teach a class on daggers because he is not experienced in that particular arena.

 

[Rick Marchand]

I never make mistakes. I once thought I had... turned out I was wrong.

Joking aside, I find that its little things I get burned on. Stuff that isn't crucial info(not worth looking up at the time) I tend to pass on or form a non-experienced based conclusion. That's when someone will challenge me and I find myself with no leg to stand on. It's embarrassing but teaches you a good lesson.

 

[tryppyr]

I think the trap is often not so much in the way we answer as it is the questions we choose to answer. A lot of the questions are posed in such a way as to assume there is a single correct answer. When the subject is scientific and fact based, well and good. But when the subject is more subjective, any answer can SEEM like an attempt to provide definitive information, even if it was nothing but an offering of an opinion.

A question like, "What's better, full tang or hidden tang?" has no one correct answer. But you can bet people have opinions. You can also pretty much rely on the fact that no matter how you answer, someone will come along and say you are full of beans. Does it mean you were wrong? Even if the person saying that has twenty times the experience you have, they just offered their opinion, and tossed in a side commentary with their opinion of you/your answer.

Yes, it is best to speak from first hand experience. That doesn't mean every time you do so you will be able to avoid confrontations with experienced people saying you are wrong. This is, after all, the Internet, where everyone is an expert even if they aren't, and everyone is an idiot, even if they aren't. After a while, you just get used to being wrong even when you're right.

 

[canineforge]

Not necessarily bad advice...just a little skewed. It is my understanding that the wood is very stable as is, but you are right, it can be stabilized. Shawn McIntyre told me that he had his stabilized mainly for a better shop experience. Less dust flying while grinding. Makes sense to me.

- Joe