He's Hooked!

ddavelarsen

ddavelarsen

Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Messages
5,179
Recently I had the extreme pleasure of having some guy walk up to me and ask if that was a custom knife on my belt. To which I naturally replied, "Why yes it is, and I made it!" (Unlike Nick Wheeler, modesty isn't particularly one of my strongest ethics.) The conversation continued in one form or another over the next several weeks, as I run into this gentleman regularly.

He's as financially constrained as I am and so cannot buy all the knives he wants. But, as demonstrated, he has excellent taste. So eventually I invited him to come over to make himself a knife. You never know how that's going to work out; some people really do not have a sense of tool using and are quite hopeless no matter how hard they try. And being the motivated instructor that I was born to be, I gave him plenty of opportunity right away to give up; the old "Wax on, wax off" treatment. Steve spent his first couple of hours in my shop pushing steel through the band saw. Clearly I know an opportunity when I see it! Even if he were to give up I'd have some of the ugly work done for my current order. ;)

But as it happened, sweat, tired muscles and burned fingers didn't sway him too much. He went home the first day with a blade blank, a sheet of graph paper with the profile traced on it a few times, and a "homework" assignment to figure out his pin placement.

When he came over Saturday we got to work drilling the blanks, cleaning up the ricassos and rough grinding the blades. As we were working, Steve confessed to having dreamed during the week of making more knives, finding customers, showing his family his handiwork and all the other symptoms we all know so well. I laughed aloud, pleased as hell; He's Hooked!

He he he!!!

And happily, he's pretty comfortable with the tools. He took to grinding with a care and enthusiasm that was totally gratifying and he's not afraid to try anything.

Steve's not online presently but if anyone cares to offer him encouragement I'll print this before he comes over next week and give it to him. It's a great feeling to know that we may have added another maker to the rolls!
 
Another one bites the dust! :D He has an excellent role model so I don't find this surprising at all!
 
Steve,

You suck. There's no hope. Go find a decent hobby, like under-water basket weaving.

Best,
Nick
 
HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Just mess'n around.

Dave makes great knives, and would be a great teacher.

I had the misfortune, er, uh, I mean pleasure of meeting Dave face-to-face in Atlanta two years ago. The knives he had were VERY well done!

Sounds like he's got you off to a really good start.

It is an addicting craft. Sort of like they say about potato chips, "can't have just one." Well, you "can't make just one knife." :D

Making a knife is a VERY rewarding experience.

And since Dave does his own heat-treating, you have the added benefit of seeing the whole deal.

Very cool.

Sign up for BladeForums and come in to hang out! :)

Nick
 
welcome Steve
to the place where the bug bites fast and won't let you go :D

you can see what can be done by Dave's work very nice, ;)

the funny thing is, in making, (like woman :footinmou )
is the next one you make is always better than the last, you won't forget the last one but the next one is always better and a challenge :D
 
Steve, you are in a heap of trouble. It is just like eating potato chips, you just can't eat one. You also become a collector. Good Luck
 
Steve you are lucky to find Dave to teach you. He's very good at this. You'll enjoy this hobby a great deal, just try not to get sucked in too fast...
 
Jump in head first and get started. You have found a good teacher....now listen close. You are being aimed at the forums,a nd there are literally dozens here who will answer anything you ask of them. This palce is littered with great people and great information.

Listen to Dave. He will not steer you wrong.

Doc
 
Steve, you have fallen into the company of the best of rascals. As you already know by now, Dave is one we all look up to, and really knows his stuff. Ol' Dave is too modest, and still is able to retain his sense of humor in time of crisis. One example of keeping his pose in check, he stood in my "shop" and never once busted out in uncontrolled laughter. Dave has a nice shop, doesn't he? Looking around in Dave's shop, the first thing you are thinking, is that it could second for an operating room. Dave had some dust he claimed he could see on one of his machines, and apologized for it. I looked at it and thought it had just been sterilized. Yep, I wish I had started making knives under the eye of such a fellow as Dave. By the way, you are hooked. Welcome aboard, Steve.
 
Save your energy Steve. It is a waist of time trying to run away from it now.
I will look forward to seeing your first knife. and 100th

Well Done Dave have you told him it is tradition to send a knife to the other side of the world to satisfiy the god's. I am in Australia. Send it to me I will put in a good word for you.

There you go Steve another first out of the way, someone trying to get your work for free.
It worked with Dave I have one of his Cratchet's. When you have lost the skin of all your finger tips, can feel muscle you have never felt before, sweated , cursed, tried to please your wife and convince her your not crazy,
buffed polished and just felt more pleased with yourself than you have in a long time, that is when you will look at a custom knife and understand why makers will not part with them cheap.

I hope Dave makes you do it the hard way My apprentices always start of with a file and sand paper. If he is talking grinding he must think you are a good bloke.

Stay happy
 
Now Dave, you be nice now. Only torture Steve for a couple days then give him a day or two break! :D

Welcome the the addiction Steve. You've got a great teacher there and just a heck of nice guy too. Look forward to seeing what the two of you come up with.
 
Yes, for this addiction, there is only one treatment. You don't have to be a closet knife maker any more. You are in the company of other addicted makers, and this is the AA of such a serious afliction. Dave will show you the path to recovery. Grinding is one of the therapys. I am not addicted. I am fighting it. I have been fighting it for over 50 years. I want to move my house closer to my shop, but the dang deck is in the way and my wife won't let my tear off our back deck and drag the buildings closer together. She is the crazy one. Not me. Dave is crazy. You are all crazy. NOT me! P.S., Dave, good work, fella!
 
Welcome aboard, you've found a good mentor, so your aready a step ahead of a lot of us when we started.
 
Reg you'll dig this, Steve is working on a 140% Cratchett! It didn't take him long to say something like, "Nothing like picking the hard one to start with!" Like I tried to disuade him. (My current order is for two of them, so Steve got to cut em all out first day. :D ) You guys keep telling him I'm the good guy so he'll keep doing all my ugly work, okay? :D Knowing him, it won't take him long to figure it out...

Thanks for all the kinds words guys, and for encouraging Steve. It's cool to have someone else as wrapped up in knives as I am. What's more, my son came over last weekend with a drawing for his next knife, so I sent him home with some graph paper and his own homework assignment. I wonder if I can get him to cut out some blanks too??? :D I'm mean! Crazy like a fox, like John.

Hey John, you wanna come teach these guys some good habits, before it's too late?
 
Dave, you are so far ahead of me, I wouldn't know where to start! I guy once told me you give up some bad habits and gain others when you start making knives. I agree. I invented new cuss words every time I donated skin or body fluids in my shop. Word like #$%**% and *^##@*## . My wife says it's a good thing my shop is not attatched to the house, for the sake of our grandkids' ears. I wish I had a mentor like you, Dave. I would be saying good Christian things when I peel off hide or mash a digit. Oh, and I would be making knives like yours that are seen in popular publications, too.
 
Thanks for the coment guys! This is Steve- Dave's unwitting apprentice. Indian George- I Did have a collection-but due to divorce last year I got no knives anymore. Thanks to Dave I will soon have One anyway.Question- do all you have to use sandpaper to shape your knives? Maybe someday Dave will let me use electricity! Thnaks again for the encouragement! Steve
 
ddavelarsen said:
Thanks for the comment guys! This is Steve- Dave's unwitting apprentice. Indian George- I Did have a collection-but due to divorce last year I got no knives anymore. Thanks to Dave I will soon have One anyway.Question- do all you have to use sandpaper to shape your knives? Maybe someday Dave will let me use electricity! Thanks again for the encouragement! Steve
Click to expand...
STEVE; I mean not only knives, but woods, anthers, horns, steel and etc.
PS: Tons of tools. :D
 
Thanks to all of you for the encouragement. I am now out in Montana and starting to learn how to make knives again. Tho without Dave to guide me, I'm a little bit lost. I may have to fly him out for a week of in shop training, now I have some tools.
 
Hey Steve, I was at Dave's this morning, I'll tell him you dropped in. I'm pretty sure I've seen other makers with Montana as a location(I know, it's such a small state you've probably bumped into them at the store already!) I think I've taken your place at Dave's. He's been a great teacher this last year. We did some HT this morning and his equipment is top notch, as well as his teaching.
 
ddavelarsen said:
Question- do all you have to use sandpaper to shape your knives? Maybe someday Dave will let me use electricity! Thnaks again for the encouragement! Steve
Click to expand...

Well Steve, federal law prohibits you from using electricity (other than overhead lights) for your first ten knives. I'd hate to see the FBI bust down your door and haul you away right when it starts to get fun. I'd like to see what sort of knife you're working on. can you post a picture of it?

Welcome to the madness, but we like it that way.

- Paul Meske
 
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