Hello BladeForums!
I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. Since stumbling across this place a few weeks ago I have been waiting until I felt somewhat familiar with my surroundings before letting my presence be known...but I think I am ready to take one small step out of the shadows. Honestly, this whole experience is rather new to me. I am not new to knives--not at all--but I am completely new to the world of customs and hand-made blades and also very green in regards to having any type of online presence (forum based or otherwise). So I'll ask you all up front to forgive my rambling, since it will probably take me a while to adapt to the short, concise messages most of you seem to exchange. I'm a slow, deliberate person and this seems to be a somewhat awkward quality online. I do hope to get to know some of you though, as it seems like there are some friendly, intelligent people floating around here. Many of them with more real world experience than myself I'm sure. It's very good to be here
I am a fisherman, hunter and general outdoorsman living in Atlantic Canada and I have had a knife in my hand, on my belt or in my pack for almost as long as I can remember. In fact I am one of those guys whose fixation with blades is probably a little too intense: it's not rare that I find I will do something silly like cut far too many veggies for dinner, simply because I love how thin and clean I can make the slices with a good sharp knife. As that last statement implied I am the cook in our family so I spend lots of time wielding blades in the kitchen. Also, I haven't used a disposable razor blade since I was 12 or 13. Only cold steel on my whiskers! Finally I do a goodly amount of woodwork; mostly small, detail carving work done with knives. I have access to a great shop but the tools are not mine, so most of the time when I want something done it's a blade or a saw or a hot piece of wood (or metal) that's going to do it :thumbup: Add to this my general love of being in the bush or at camp and my penchant for wildlife (and the hunting, butchering, cooking and eating of said wildlife haha) and I'd say it's pretty fair to call me a practical knife owner. In a lifetime of usage I can honestly say I have never had one knife pass through my possession that wasn't used, and used relatively hard at that. All of this being said I absolutely appreciate how knives can be seen as an object of desire, of artistic and aesthetic beauty and something worth collecting and preserving: there is a certain elegance that is often paired with utility, and talented knife makers are capable of crafting objects that transcend the drabness of their utility to represent something more complex. What an achievement: the most useful tool in our repertoire as a piece of art. This is a new concept to me but one I think I can intuitively understand and sympathize with. That said, no matter how aesthetically pleasing a knife may be, if it's not shaving sharp (or capable of being honed to that level of sharpness) then I'm not interested. To each their own however and I'm sure there are some people around here with collections that would make my head spin.
So...that's about it I guess. I love blades, have been using them forever, but outside of the knives my Grandfather brought home from England and Germany I had never seen a knife that was not production until just a few weeks ago. I have owned some great cutters in my life, and I plan to own many more, but I'm so glad to have found a place like this. I whole heartedly believe in supporting dedicated craftspeople whenever possible. The world is stuffed full of mass produced crap and most of it just ends up as garbage sooner or later (with a heavy emphasis on sooner). There are some amazingly talented craftspeople who are working in the world of handmade knives and I have to say that personally I am so happy to have stumbled into this world. I hope that this continues to thrive the way it seems to be thriving now, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I will continue to be wowed as I explore these forums and as you all continue to contribute, but I did need to just take a moment to say there are some amazing things going on here, and the craftspeople involved should be truly proud.
Thanks to all the people who have contributed to the wonderful, informative discussions going on throughout this forum and thanks again to all the craftspeople who are making the quality blades we get to drool over. I'm not trying to downplay the knowledge regarding production blades that is available here, as that is also wonderful in its own right; however personally I am certainly most interested in the hand-mades. The world will hopefully get a little better as more and more of us remember/realize how good life can feel at the hand-made pace versus the mass-produced pace! Kudos to the people of Blade Forums for making all of this available!!!
Cheers
EDIT: I forgot something that I think some of you might appreciate: I am a convex NUT. I will take a well made convex blade over almost anything for almost any application. If we're being honest however I have never tried a scandi grind, so I don't know what that's like. I have known about them for a good while but I just don't have access to any blades with that profile in my area. Not even Moras! I may get around to ordering a cheap scandi one of these days so I can try it out.
I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. Since stumbling across this place a few weeks ago I have been waiting until I felt somewhat familiar with my surroundings before letting my presence be known...but I think I am ready to take one small step out of the shadows. Honestly, this whole experience is rather new to me. I am not new to knives--not at all--but I am completely new to the world of customs and hand-made blades and also very green in regards to having any type of online presence (forum based or otherwise). So I'll ask you all up front to forgive my rambling, since it will probably take me a while to adapt to the short, concise messages most of you seem to exchange. I'm a slow, deliberate person and this seems to be a somewhat awkward quality online. I do hope to get to know some of you though, as it seems like there are some friendly, intelligent people floating around here. Many of them with more real world experience than myself I'm sure. It's very good to be here
I am a fisherman, hunter and general outdoorsman living in Atlantic Canada and I have had a knife in my hand, on my belt or in my pack for almost as long as I can remember. In fact I am one of those guys whose fixation with blades is probably a little too intense: it's not rare that I find I will do something silly like cut far too many veggies for dinner, simply because I love how thin and clean I can make the slices with a good sharp knife. As that last statement implied I am the cook in our family so I spend lots of time wielding blades in the kitchen. Also, I haven't used a disposable razor blade since I was 12 or 13. Only cold steel on my whiskers! Finally I do a goodly amount of woodwork; mostly small, detail carving work done with knives. I have access to a great shop but the tools are not mine, so most of the time when I want something done it's a blade or a saw or a hot piece of wood (or metal) that's going to do it :thumbup: Add to this my general love of being in the bush or at camp and my penchant for wildlife (and the hunting, butchering, cooking and eating of said wildlife haha) and I'd say it's pretty fair to call me a practical knife owner. In a lifetime of usage I can honestly say I have never had one knife pass through my possession that wasn't used, and used relatively hard at that. All of this being said I absolutely appreciate how knives can be seen as an object of desire, of artistic and aesthetic beauty and something worth collecting and preserving: there is a certain elegance that is often paired with utility, and talented knife makers are capable of crafting objects that transcend the drabness of their utility to represent something more complex. What an achievement: the most useful tool in our repertoire as a piece of art. This is a new concept to me but one I think I can intuitively understand and sympathize with. That said, no matter how aesthetically pleasing a knife may be, if it's not shaving sharp (or capable of being honed to that level of sharpness) then I'm not interested. To each their own however and I'm sure there are some people around here with collections that would make my head spin.
So...that's about it I guess. I love blades, have been using them forever, but outside of the knives my Grandfather brought home from England and Germany I had never seen a knife that was not production until just a few weeks ago. I have owned some great cutters in my life, and I plan to own many more, but I'm so glad to have found a place like this. I whole heartedly believe in supporting dedicated craftspeople whenever possible. The world is stuffed full of mass produced crap and most of it just ends up as garbage sooner or later (with a heavy emphasis on sooner). There are some amazingly talented craftspeople who are working in the world of handmade knives and I have to say that personally I am so happy to have stumbled into this world. I hope that this continues to thrive the way it seems to be thriving now, and that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure I will continue to be wowed as I explore these forums and as you all continue to contribute, but I did need to just take a moment to say there are some amazing things going on here, and the craftspeople involved should be truly proud.
Thanks to all the people who have contributed to the wonderful, informative discussions going on throughout this forum and thanks again to all the craftspeople who are making the quality blades we get to drool over. I'm not trying to downplay the knowledge regarding production blades that is available here, as that is also wonderful in its own right; however personally I am certainly most interested in the hand-mades. The world will hopefully get a little better as more and more of us remember/realize how good life can feel at the hand-made pace versus the mass-produced pace! Kudos to the people of Blade Forums for making all of this available!!!
Cheers
EDIT: I forgot something that I think some of you might appreciate: I am a convex NUT. I will take a well made convex blade over almost anything for almost any application. If we're being honest however I have never tried a scandi grind, so I don't know what that's like. I have known about them for a good while but I just don't have access to any blades with that profile in my area. Not even Moras! I may get around to ordering a cheap scandi one of these days so I can try it out.
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