How many knives are you working on?

Fiddleback,

Those organizing trays look great! The little storage area on the end would be quite useful. I can't make out in the picture - did you make them?
 
Tiiiiiiiim said:
I know it must be a lot of hard work but...i'm jealous. I wish i could dedicate any sort of time to knife making, instead of just an hour every second afternoon or so.
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I didn't have a choice at the time. My profession was electrical engineering. Got laid off, no jobs, so full time knifemaker. Its a lot of work, but its the most fun job I've ever had. I love it.

Patrice Lemée;8854027 said:
Of course 82 that's just insane. ;)
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Yea, I guess it is a bit insane. Its what it takes.

tait said:
Fiddleback,

Those organizing trays look great! The little storage area on the end would be quite useful. I can't make out in the picture - did you make them?
Click to expand...

I made the trays. Each one holds 12 knives. The little bit on the end is a 2x4 I hollowed out with a router. It holds the pins. I made 4 trays. There is a thread here about them.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=767019&highlight=trays

They're indespensable. The rounded bottoms of the little pin holders allow you to scoop the pins out easily. They keep everything organized, and easy to see where you are at all times. This is the 2nd generation. The first one didn't have the pin holder area, and it was a PITA seeing what you had pinwise, and it was hard getting the pins out too.
 
I have one custom order for a damascus hunter, a turkish twist tanto for selling (if I can part with it), a W2 fighter, and a sword I need to make for ashokan. I then also have 2 bars of explosion pattern damascus, a bar of square skew, and a bar of ladder pattern. Along with the 4 bars of turkish twist and bar of firestorm I should start this week.
 
0! I made a blade blank from junk steel to practice handle and fittings, but I'm watching UPS like a hawk for my steel shipment so I can start some real ones.

Ive also been upgrading my equipment in the meantime - new drill press, ceramic platen, a few other random tools.
 
Working in multiples has many advantages, especially at particular stages such as HT and grinding. Firing up the oven or changing a belt for 5 blades vs 1 is a no brainer, but it helps in other ways too. It also helps indicate which processes you may need to work on a bit, if you are taking your blades off the grinder and on to the sanding plate/block too soon, working more blades at a time might inspire you to go to finer belts and get a fuzz better at cleanup on the grinder to save hours of hand work. It is easy to overlook inefficiency on one blade, but when they gang up on you, you are usually obliged to pay more attention.
 
I have a few in various stages. I have two shops... Dirty (steel/forging) and clean (leather). The group on the right is in the clean and the group on the left is down and dirty. I also have a bunch of project stuck in limbo... this is a pic of the ones that I am sick of looking at and am trying to get out of the shop.... lol.

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Rick
 
I'll usually work on 2 - 4 knives at a time. When I get tired of working on one, I'll work on another for a while.
 
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