How do you know when you’ve started?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
I mean people regularly say “I’ve been making knives for x amount of time”. I am always curious to know what constitutes a starting point them. Is it when you actually make your first knife? Since my first few were more KSO (Knife Shaped Objects) I hesitate to include that time myself.

So, I know it’s not that important but just out of curiosity, how do you guys do it?

Patrice
 
I say I've been playing with grinding steel for over 5 years, but I didn't produce my first full out knife until about 3 years ago. So I've been making knives for around 3 years, give or take. :) During the playing years, I ground some KSO's, but never was able to heat treat or go through the full process of making a knife including handles. That's not to say you have to heat treat your own knives, but I didn't fully finish out a knife with handle and everything until 3 years ago.

Course, I've seen guys that have been making knives for 3 months that blow my work out of the water, so it's really all relative. It's not how long you do something, it's how tenacious you are at getting it right and how effective you are at applying lessons learned and listening for new lessons.

--nathan
 
silver_pilate said:
and how effective you are at applying lessons learned and listening for new lessons.
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And there are no other places like this forum for the lessons.
Between a couple books and this forum, I have learned a great deal. I just hope wisdom takes over and allows me to use what I have learned correctly.
 
I started my first knife when I was 14, I started trying to become a knifemaker at 19, I started forging 4 years later, it is not a complete answer when someone asks unless I mention all 3 dates. That many years I should be a heckuva lot better than I am , but it is my experiences so I have to own them. Your ego should never be bigger than the pile of mistakes under your bench.

-Page
 
When I was 7 my best friend and I used to make puddles of WD-40 on the driveway, light it on fire and "heat" nails up, then bash them with a ball pien to make ourselves "knives"


does that count?
 
stephanfowler said:
When I was 7 my best friend and I used to make puddles of WD-40 on the driveway, light it on fire and "heat" nails up, then bash them with a ball pien to make ourselves "knives"
does that count?
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If that counts, all the wooden swords made out of laths me and my buddies used to beat the crap out of each other with count too. :D

When are you a real knifemaker? Perhaps it's when you can, in good conscience and full confidence, sell a knife you made with a full warranty. That seems reasonable to me.
 
I sold my first knives in 1977 for somewhere in the 40-90 dollar range (at that time)
an astronomical price. I consider that my beginning in knifemaking, though I was messing around for a few years prior with bought blades and such.
Ken.
 
I attempted to make my first knife about 2 1/2 yrs ago....that's the date I use. But I often wonder, if the sharp objects I made before count...he he
 
There are likely nearly as many answers to this question as there are folks answering. Actually each person probably has two or three answers, so it would be a geometric or logarithmic thing.

Heck, if you're a guy you've probably been making knives just about since you were popped out of the shoot. Popsicle sticks, bobby pins, pine needles and just about anything long and stiff that could be scraped back and forth on a sidewalk or the driveway to shape and sharpen it was fodder to be made into a "knife." Once you were a bit older bigger sticks, bones, rods and bars came into play. Before you knew it you were whittling "real" knifes and swords out of lumber. Next you were hack sawing and filing and grinding (in what ever manner you have access to) metal. Before you knew it decades passed by and you found yourself with the hankering to make a knife.

Next thing you know several more years have passed by, you've got a knife making shop and you're wondering when it all began.
 
Farmer Phil said:
There are likely nearly as many answers to this question as there are folks answering. Actually each person probably has two or three answers, so it would be a geometric or logarithmic thing.

Heck, if you're a guy you've probably been making knives just about since you were popped out of the shoot. Popsicle sticks, bobby pins, pine needles and just about anything long and stiff that could be scraped back and forth on a sidewalk or the driveway to shape and sharpen it was fodder to be made into a "knife." Once you were a bit older bigger sticks, bones, rods and bars came into play. Before you knew it you were whittling "real" knifes and swords out of lumber. Next you were hack sawing and filing and grinding (in what ever manner you have access to) metal. Before you knew it decades passed by and you found yourself with the hankering to make a knife.

Next thing you know several more years have passed by, you've got a knife making shop and you're wondering when it all began.
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So very very true

not to mention wondering how and where you managed to spend THOUSANDS on tools to support this particular brand of lunacy
 
stephanfowler said:
So very very true
not to mention wondering how and where you managed to spend THOUSANDS on tools to support this particular brand of lunacy
Click to expand...

SBuzek said:
And where is the next 500-1000 coming from to feed the adiction. Stan:D
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Yeahhhh... but I look at it like this: at least we got tools and knives to show for it. Better than spending it all sitting in a tavern somewhere talking stupid. ;) :cool:
 
Phil and Stephan :thumbup::thumbup:

I've been playing with steel and making a couple of coal forges, hammering, making garden tools etc. about 7-8 years ago, I've made my first 5 years ago and I count from there. There was a hiatus of 2 years but not one evening have passed without sketching a knife profile, I suppose even you are not making knives actually if you did one you will continue to make more at least in your mind and IMO it counts :)
 
I made a fair few Knife-Shaped-Objects in my youth, and even ground a couple of fairly rough blades from big hacksaw blades whilst at school, but I don't count that as knife-making, more like dicking around to be honest :D

In my own mind, the point at which I started to make knives was the day I first took a bastard file to a piece of flat ground stock (01) with the intention of making a knife of my own from start to finish, complete. and all-in, and then proceeded to do just that.
It was about 6 hours into the filing that I decided I'd need a grinder if I was ever to 'make a go of it' where flat ground blades were concerned ! :D
Still, that first knife turned out OK IMHO...

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