how long have you been making knives for and how many do you do at a time?

C

clockworkfish

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Dec 1, 2010
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Just like the title says how long have you been making knives for and how many do you make at a time.

I've been at it for the past 2 and some change years. Im currently working on 4 at once but it's taking me like 3 weeks (in school and it's my first set of slippies) I've probably made like 20 overall at this point.

Now it's your turn
 
I hit three years on my birthday last weekend. Made about 15-20 now, I've quit numbering them. Of course, I've got 4-5 in various stages, mostly early stages. Trying to figure out damascus a bit more and spending more time building forges than knives.
 
6 months for me.loving every minute of it.I am only a hobby maker so nites ,and weekends.I try to have at least 4 going on at different stages so if i feel like doing one task instead of the other. It keeps it interesting and no pressure.I make what i want when i want.
 
I think I've been at it as a hobby about three years now... something like that. For me it's definitely 1 - 2 at a time, and usually only 2 when I'm in the waiting period for one sent off to HT. That's when I think about profiling the next one. But in reality, I only do one at a time. When the blade comes back from HT I put all my attention on finishing that project before making any more progress on the following project (unless I am stuck on some problem that I haven't found an answer for).
 
I'll be the Newbie here I'd bet.
I made my first knife the week before thanksgiving last year (2012). It was the first thing I had ever forged and the only other knife building I had done was gluing scales on a knife I got for Christmas about 10 years ago. By Christmas I gave away more than 20 knives as gifts. You could say I ate, slept and drank knives for a month. Dawn till 2 am for days on end. Since then I typically have 1 knife in the works for "ME" (That I have sold every time, because someone talks me out of it and I sell it to keep making knives) I also have 3-6 neck knives going most of the time because I have requests for them faster than I can make them. The most I have heat treated at a time was 6 blades last week. So now I have been making knives for about 4 months and have lost count of how many I have made. Probably between 40-50. I know I have taken pics of every knife so I could/should probably track down an exact number.

Sad thing is My makers mark stencils should be here today, and I now have to try and track all those knives down to mark them. I just never thought it would take off like it did,, and I keep thinking people will stop asking to buy "newbie knives", but Just last week I had 4 knives ordered by people who came into my work, Plunked money on my desk and said, "no rush, but put me in line". Now granted I am talking about a neck knife I was selling for 50$ with a kydex sheath, but I don't advertise, those 20 knives I gave away at Christmas have been well received and people around here like knives, the people I gave them to show them off and knives make good gifts. :) it keeps rollin.
 
I'll play. Been making knives for 20+ years. I used to do them all one at a time but now I work in batches of 2-4. It is just more efficient when heat treating high tech stainless like CPM154 and S30VN.
 
Fifteen years; instead of batches its more about scheduling work so you are working on handles or guards or blade heat treat at the same time. I'm working on a Scottish dirk, a dagger a small fighter and a big bowie. I'll finish them all within days of each other.
 
Well, I made my first knife when I was about 14. That is 27 years ago. There was no internet back then, very little written information that I could find and I did not know any maker. I made maybe 10 knives for the next couple of years and then stopped because my education took all of my time. Started again 12 years ago and have probably made about 200 knives since then.
As I send my blades out for HT, working in batches is pretty much a necessity, in order to keep costs down.
Never seem to be able to find enough time to satisfy me though:rolleyes:

Brian
 
I have been making knives for 33 years. Since I send my 154CM off to Paul Bos heat treating, I do at least twenty at a time. When I get them back, I work on finishing four at a time. When forging Damascus, W-2, etc. I usually do two or three at a time.
 
Six years. I'm like Fred and work on certain areas at a time. I have 20 neck knives on the desk now and just finished molding their kydex sheaths. This has been my largest batch so far.
 
It will be 2 years here in about a week.

How many at a time really depends... sometimes I like to work on only one and sometimes a bunch.
 
I've been making proper knives since about 2002, but I had to take a break for several years while I was in graduate school. So it's been about four or five years total.
I have kind of a problem with not finishing knives that I start, so I've got lots of knives at different stages. On top of that, I'm working on a big batch to send off to Peter's (15-20) so I've got about 30 knives in progress right now.

- Chris
 
I started in the spring of 2010 making a couple at a time after finishing my very first.

These days I work in batches of fifteen to twenty blades at a time with scattered one offs and special projects here and there. I love it!
 
10 years of playing around with making and 6 of those full time starving artist
some times 1 at a time others 10 at a clip it depends on the type work and style (lieik has been said if im firing up the kiln i will do a pile of blades the same steel even if i have no plans on finishing the blades in the short time )
at any point in time if i start getting nutty on a batch or project i always have one or 2 side projects to take my mind off "work" (have a folder and a glock slide on the bench for that right now )
 
Been at it 4 1/2 years, have made 240 knives. I build in batches of 5-10, mostly to save on heat treating. I'll grind and profile a bunch of the same steel, HT them all one day, then finish them up over the next few weeks with polishing and handles one or two at a time. I just did a batch of 13 this weekend though :)
 
This April will mark one year. I have made 52 knives so far. I was forced to take 5 months off last summer because of health issues. I would try to work on six at a time and have them finished before the next six came back from the heat treater. Now I work on one at a time and take my time. What's the hurry?
 
Hmm, Made my first knife in 1975. But I do not really count my starting until I learned how to forge. That was in 1992 so that puts my at almost 21 years. I work on what I feel like till I get a bunch of blades ready for handles. I have over 20 either rough ground and needing HT to finished ready for a handle.. Work on 2-3 at a time waiting for epoxy to dry etc. Much more than that and I get to overwhelmed and get nothing done at all.
 
Newbie here. Started in late 2010, I believe. About 25 knives completed. My goal for this year is to make 50 or so knives, but I am employing some time saving methods. I don't count the cut-offs that I add to the HT because they are batched and only made because I don't see the point in throwing away good steel. I also make some of my children's designs, with a little tweaking of the lines. I use Peter's for HT, so I'm shooting for 20 pounds or more on the next batch. I have no idea how many knives that is.
 
I think it has been about 8 years for me other than some earlie knife shaped objects once in the while. When I make my D2 users I make 5 at a time because of HT and cyro, When I do a damscus or fancy one off deal I do 1 at a time. But, there are always odd ball things laying around that got stuck for some reason that I might get back too. LOL
 
I can only manage to work on one at a time, although I may have upwards of 10 projects in various stages at any given moment. Maybe if I had more arms, or more talented toes...:rolleyes:
 
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