How many knives are you working on?

At this point I work on one at a time, but I'm always sketching possible designs. I have a number of unfinished blades floating around at various stages, but odds are none of them except the one or two of the stainless ones will be finished. The stainless ones will wait till I have enough to make it worth sending them out. Some are very early work and pretty bad, but at least one is good enough as it sits to send out and probably one or two more are not so badly messed up I can't save them. Might be a bit different than originally planned but still a knife. :)

The reason I work one at a time rather than batches is because I'm still learning a lot on each one. By doing one at a time I don't make the same mistake on several and THEN discover it was not the best way to do it. In concept I'm with the guys who profile a group, grind them, heat treat... To me that seems more efficient and probably will give more consistency if doing multiples of the same design. Once I get enough experience I'll probably do small groups of three or four.
 
I mostly only have one going at a time... though I have had as many as five in the works. Right now my only project is a small hunter... though I'll likely go back and replace the latch and spring on my last knife over the weekend.
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Erin
 
I've got 10-12, maybe a couple more if I clean up the shop and look around. I tend to work in groups. Grinding, then guards, handles and finishing. But sometimes when I'm waiting for a group of handles to glue up, I just gotta grind some more.
 
I work in spurts and then have four to eight knives all in pretty much the same stage of destruction, errr, I mean CONstruction. Right know I'm finishing up four that had been "aging" most of the summer when it was too hot and too full of mosquitoes to work in the garage.

I was drawing designs this morning and some new steel that is calling to me. If I'm gonna make one knife, I may as well make six of them. I've never made the same knife twice. That's not a testament to my creativity as much as a recognition of my lack of skill to make a copy of something I did before. It's all just for fun for me so I don't have to please anyone but myself.

LonePine
AKA Paul Meske, Wisconsin
 
lonepine said:
I work in spurts and then have four to eight knives all in pretty much the same stage of destruction, errr, I mean CONstruction. Right know I'm finishing up four that had been "aging" most of the summer when it was too hot and too full of mosquitoes to work in the garage.

I was drawing designs this morning and some new steel that is calling to me. If I'm gonna make one knife, I may as well make six of them. I've never made the same knife twice. That's not a testament to my creativity as much as a recognition of my lack of skill to make a copy of something I did before. It's all just for fun for me so I don't have to please anyone but myself.

LonePine
AKA Paul Meske, Wisconsin
Click to expand...

Haha, i feel ya. I only starting having a go at making a few months ago (winter) so I'm yet to feel the wrath of an Australian summer whilst knife making.
 
I tried 4 at once and felt really overwhelmed. It really took the fun away for me. I have a hard time multitasking! I have two going now. It seems right for me. One to focus on and one to work on when I need a break from the one i'm focusing on!
 
I obviously stumbled onto something. Looks like, be it for many different reasons, having multiple projects going on at the same time is the preferred way to go.
Why didn't you guys tell me that earlier? Or was it somewhere in the stickies and I missed it? ;)

Of course 82 that's just insane. ;)

Thanks for your feedback, very informative. Well to me anyway.
 
i'm mostly a hobby maker, and still stubbornly experimental, but i've got 7 on the bench which will be finished, barring any tragedy.

i have a bunch more that are complete, if lacking in an appropriate level of finish while my experience grows.
 
How easily a deep scratch from a file can make you want to go onto another knife.

by the way, since we have so many makers in the thread. I'll hijack for a sec. Is there a proven method for getting rid of the scratches in the damn plunge line. It's a nightmare getting them out.

Tim.
 
Tiiiiiiiim said:
How easily a deep scratch from a file can make you want to go onto another knife.

by the way, since we have so many makers in the thread. I'll hijack for a sec. Is there a proven method for getting rid of the scratches in the damn plunge line. It's a nightmare getting them out.

Tim.
Click to expand...

A Q-Tip with diamond paste........and an entire afternoon!:p:D

Seriously though, how about taping everything off really well except for where the scratch is and going through a few grits. Are you talking about a scratch on the bevel of the blade or on the shoulder of the plunge? I'm trying to picture it.
 
move the plunge lines back a hair or grind them a hair deeper, as/if appropriate. i can't think of anything that wouldn't require regrinding unless the scratch is very superficial.
 
Both i guess. It's just such a difficult area to sand. It'd be ok if it was straight off the grind i guess but i like finishing along the knife.
 
i'm picturing one in the radius of the plung in my mind. i bet a bit of detail would help.
 
Well I cant get plunge line perfect off the grinder so i finish them up after grinding with a file which leaves scratches which take AGES to sand out. Maybe i just need to find a finer file of something. Bunnings (australian home depot pretty much) doesn't have anything super fine.

Tim
 
you could make an appropriately radiused sanding stick and use paper. i use paper on a stick/block to remove all the deeper grind and files gouges i'm plagued with before i go to the fine work anyway.
 
Yeah, i kinda do that with a sanding block but then i have to get rid of all the vertical sand lines. Oh well, i guess there's no easy way. Thanks guys.
 
indeed. if you do find an easy way, please - for the love of god - tell me.

i do have to say that i love this paper i was given by a friend though, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit max. they seem to have very uniform grit size too. i even use them for sharpening.
 
I usually do anywhere between 18 and 25 a month. Right now I have 21 in the works.
 
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