How to develop a thick skin?

Tai Goo

Tai Goo

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When working on sharp knives and working with hot steel,… a thick skin can be very important.

So how do you guys do it?
 
I like to take about 20 hours of my life building a knife I thought was cool, with blood, burns, frustration and several dollars for materials, then post it in the "Customs and Handmade" forum.:D
 
Electric stove top, lay my palms on the burners then turn the heat up more each time. Kind of like David Carridine carrying the pot of coals in Kung Fu! :D Just kiddin'. I just have poor judgment and can't stand to let the burning stop me from a good grind line...
 
After growing up working in a model store for my Godfather (retired Army Special Forces CSM) then joining the Army with him making phone calls to buddies as I went from school to school I developed a thick skin. I've lost several layers of it after posting in the Custom and Handmade forum though :(
 
I'm a auto mechanic.after 25 years working on hot engines. Them fingers get tough,or all the nerves burnt away.
As for the verbal kind just remember:
Everything Matters
Just most things don't matter that much.
 
A lifetime of being labled worthless and deciding one day all the people who would have me believe I am worthless are in fact in no way worthy to judge me as an individual. I am responsable for me and no one else is.

Pearl Jam I Am Mine could answer this for me Tai.

oh and work work work
 
Working as a traffic cop is an excellent way to build a thick skin. Part of my job is letting people vent.

Just in case you are talking on a different level, I would suggest you don't need a thick skin as a knife maker. Making knives is about finesse - not power. Slow down. ;)

Rob!
 
practice practice practice,
or play guitar and our finger tips will at least be built up
-matt
 
after a while you'll get used to holding onto a hot blade while grinding it. when i first started there were many times my hands would cramp and the blade would have to be pried from my hands, usually by my dad. he asked how i can hold onto a hot blade and keep doing it over and over again. i told him its knifemakers fever, kind of like buck fever. i did warn him the blade was hot so he wouldnt get burned. i have only been cut bad once from a knife i made. i now wear kevlar gloves so i dont get cut anymore if i have to work on a sharp knife that i dont want to dull down.
 
I like to live the wisdom of the acronym F.I.D.O. (F*** It. Drive On!) Only real problem with my philosophy is even if I choose to Drive On, my blood won't stop flowing and since I use high carbon steels, I get some blood stains on the blades. My day job of working industrial cutting lasers in a sheet metal plant helps with getting used to handling hot and sharp stuff :) Hell anymore ,if I don't feel pain I start to wonder what's wrong :D
 
bill, i like your way of thinking :D. there's nothing like the feeling of hot sparks against your skin and the smell of burnt flesh to get you going ;):D
 
Rock climb a few hours a day for exercise. Your hands will be so calloused that you'll neither feel the heat from grinding nor need hot pads around the stove. You still smell your skin burn... but it just rubs off and grows back.
:D

As for mental thick skin... There are two types of situations to work with. 1. A lamblasting you can learn from. Take these as golden nuggets as they help shape who you are and make you a better person. 2. A senseless verbal assault that has no value. Don't even give it a second thought. It is the other person that is having an issue. Don't let it affect your day!

Now... It's time to get back to work and back to the smell of burning callouses, that's when you know you are getting stiff done! :eek:
 
By working with one's hands they become tough like leather as many here have mentioned. I have to buck split and pile about 7 cords of birch for firewood each year to heat the place, together with working on knives and just being in the outdoors has toughened up my hands.

I am retired now, and when I worked in the steam plant my hands were even tougher. The more you work your hands the more leather you will have on the pads.
 
The skin is an amazing organ.The more you burn,cut & just plain abuse it,the tougher it gets.I remember the first time on the construction site as a kid.I was swinging a hammer all day.My hand was all blistered up.Eventually those blisters turned into calluses.
 
know who you are, what you are about, what you should do, and DO IT!
 
It is called mind over matter!!!
I don't mind and it don't matter!
or
I don't mind and I don't matter!

Which ever works for you!
 
I highly recommend umpiring baseball to gain a tough mental skin. There's nothing a parent, player or coach can say to me that hasn't been said or worse at an umpiring camp. One of my favorite comment from an evaluator after a JUCO game was "Will, you've improved a lot..... but you're still a horsesh#$ umpire."
 
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