How'd you get started

P

peter ryt

Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
290
Sadly, I began trying to get started with the hankering for a magic, car door slicing super, D&D sword. One year, 4 knife wounds later, 2 of which were really deep, and I decided that what I wanted was foolish. So, while I had enough brains not go to a smith and ask to apprentice or how to make a sword with no experience, I hadn't done research. So, another half year, 2000 pages, 5 books, and 4 forums later, I have decided that smithing in general is cool, and that it is far more than whats one the surface. And now, I am within a month of starting. Getting time in my dad's pre fab shop is a pain :mad: . Welding practice I have been told, is a must.
So anyways, how'd yall decide to get started?
 
I really can't say when I made my first knife like object. Maybe 8 years old or so. I liked to tinker. I built my first Shortwave radio when I was 10 and my first gun when I was 10.

My first serious attempts were thirty odd years ago when I was really involved in Martial arts and couldn't afford a good sword. I made one and many more before I got one I considered good, although they did all cut.

It was after the swords that I started making knives. Still a hobby and hundreds of knives later....I still haven't sold one :eek: . I did think hard about it a couple of months ago.

One side note about the change in times. When I was in Jr High, everyone had to take shop (Boys, the girls had to take home Ec.). We had to do two projects that year. One in wood shop and one in metal shop. I and several classmates made knives with the full approval of the school and I got an A on mine........Try that now!
 
Of course they did George. What do you think I used as an anvil and hammer. :D

I feel bad now....It's been longer than 30 some years.....More like 40 :( Damn!
 
peter nap said:
Of course they did George. What do you think I used as an anvil and hammer. :D

I feel bad now....It's been longer than 30 some years.....More like 40 :( Damn!
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Please are you trying to say that you are 48???
Dude you got to count summers and winters in your calculations of age. :p
 
One side note about the change in times. When I was in Jr High, everyone had to take shop (Boys, the girls had to take home Ec.). We had to do two projects that year. One in wood shop and one in metal shop. I and several classmates made knives with the full approval of the school and I got an A on mine........Try that now!
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Oh how they have. My s.s. teacher wouldn't let me make a clay model of the colt 5 shot revolver during our project for the part on Texas history. He recomended that we make an RPG like game :( and we got an A on it. It's sad how politically correct things must be. Our school doesn't even have the shop option. We don't have a football team, when I leave, our school gets flag football.

GRRR!!! :mad:
I feel a bout of furious self pity coming on, just a sec. Ahhh, there we go. At least I go to highschool next year.
 
As a twinkle in my Daddy's eye.
(:?) Njarf???
Uhhh... this kinda really threw me off. Is this something where I am overlly ingnorant and everyone else is laughing, or do other not understand this?
 
I have been a tinkerer since childhood. My father was a tinkerer too. I would watch him for hours, usually bothering the flux ;) out of him while he was trying to gain immersion in his craft. Lucky for me, a lot of it took hold and by high-school I was making lots of things out of metal and wood. I made my first knife at age 18 and it was a horrible clubby-sort-of-thing. It really did make a better doorstop than a servicable blade.

But I never forgot my first attempt. I got married. Had kids. And I studied the whole time. I can't stress this enough: Read read read. Study study study. Read every back issue you can find of any knife magazine. Study machining processes. Take a welding class. Most communities have a low-cost series of classes and seminars aimed at self-improvement and life-enrichment. But there is also predisposition...

Not to be harsh, and not to discourage you, but if you are not mechanically-inclined, and if you don't change your own oil and if you never even entertain the thought of doing work on your own house, then you will most likely find knifemaking to be an uphill battle. Then again...

I'd take an once of determination over a pound of talent any day. How many people do you know who are smart and talented, but piss away their abilities? Then again how many peopel do you know that are pretty stupid (really) but they seem to be happy and somewhat successful? My daughter went to school with a kid that was dense as a pine knot... but he had willpower. He beat his studies into his head. He worked his tail off trying to get good grades. I never saw a boy so ready to succeed. He made honor student (my daughter partied her way through high school and 5 years of college). When this boy went to college, he graduated magna cum laude. Bravo!

So after all this rambling, I think the point I am really trying to convey is this: Some have it. Some don't. If you want to make knives, then natural talent can get you miles ahead. But if you don't have natural ability and a long background of immersion in the mechanical arts, then don't despair... study! Ask questions! That's what we are here for! :D
 
peter ryt said:
Oh how they have. My s.s. teacher wouldn't let me make a clay model of the colt 5 shot revolver during our project for the part on Texas history.
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Sounds like Austin is as jacked up as San Fransico, do they buy the homeless their own shopping carts too. :D Sorry just had too.

To get back to the original post, I personaly have always found the art of smithing just about anything cool but have always just admired from a distance. I have been doing a lot of research lately and might find myself trying to make a knife like object at the age of 38+ maybe. But if not its all good never hurts to learn new things.
 
Please are you trying to say that you are 48???

I wish....I was counting from the swords not the knifelike objects.

Gotta add a couple of years to it if you want to go back to age 8...I'll give you a hint. I could legally buy beer when I made my first sword.....Good Lord :eek:
 
Jhiggens, if you were addressing me, no problems there. I've installed more car and boat parts than I can count. My dad has handed me a pack of iridium spark plugs and said "you know the deal, fix er up," or "Peyon, were short on time for this project, grab the air drill and help Jimmy and Nick get this settup. If you flux this up, you know what happens," and so we made it in time. But no, I grew up around my dad's cars and office.
 
I think Jeff was making a generic statement Peter.
I've said this before but you can always tell a knife maker. Normal people see something they like and say, I'm going to buy that.

Knife makers see it and say "I'm going to make that"
If they get one for a gift, they say "I'm going to improve that" ;)
 
I started Poundin nails :eek: . I'd put em in a fire, and pull them out at red hot and start whackin em with my carpenter's hammer :rolleyes: oh well...
I later made one out of a circular saw blade, it had an oak handle, and I screwed it on with machine bolts. I wasn't too pleased with it's edge holding abilities, and I wanted to improve it. A few months later I looked at the library for knife making books, and I found a ton. (That's at central faulk in austin, Peter. One of the most libral!) That basically got me started and now I just finished my 'first' knife. I actually have several in process right now, and I made this one in spare time from some unknown steel from planer blades. I like it :D :D :D . Sure beats nails!

Boy, is knife making addicting!

Edit to add: I forgot to say, you would think by starting with nails that I'm a smith, I'm not, just stock removal. I don't have all the stuff needed for smithing, and I'm intimidated by the amount of error possible. Intimidated in that I don't feel like spending a bunch to find out if I can do it! ;)

~Brian
 
Peter,You are a bit young to understand this,but the phrase"a twinkle in my fathers eye",means 'Before I was born".As, when you pappy looked at your mama with a 'Twinkle in his eye'. It often precedes conception by about 30 minutes.
SA
BTW,I got started with a home made forge at age 10.Armed every kid in the neighborhood.I'd have been put in Guantanamo (or made secretary of defense) today.
SA
 
Okay, thanks bladsmth. Yah, I'm generally feeling my age here. Oh, and I'm trying to learn names, so then, what's yours.
Peyton
 
Another tinkerer as a kid. Always liked working with my hands. My parents took my brother and I camping every summer (60's and 70's) so a small pocket knife was a must. Got plenty of cuts along the way, lost a few knives as well.
One day I was in a firearms store in New York City (yes there are a few that survived) picking up some ammo and saw an issue of "Kinves '90 (?)" by Ken Warner. I began flipping thru it, decided to buy it. In the back I saw a list of makers. I really did not know there were so many people out there making knives. Then I saw there were magazines devoted to it as well and became interested.
I saw a few books were out there on making, bought them (Custom Knifemaking by McCreight; How to Make Folding Knives by Lake, Centofante and Clay; How to Make Knives by Barney and Loveless). I then found a maker not too far from where I lived (Joe Lozito), he showed me a few things (sadly I lost contact with him - due to both our busy schedules).

Having attended a technical/vocational high school, I had various shop classes: machine shop, foundry, pattern making (wood not clothing), air frame, hydraulics, aerodynamics. I wasn't all that bad with my hands or machine tools so I knew I could put a knife together. I eventually made/assembled a couple from pre-made blades and made a few miniatures from scratch.

I found out about knife shows and began to attend the New York shows. The first few shows were very good; but they began to lose quality and attendance of good makers. The size of shows shrunk so for a while I stopped going. Now the shows seemed to have picked up a bit.

As I don't have a workshop and only a few hand tools, live in an apartment and have a very busy work schedule, I have nearly given up on making knives but do have a decent but small collection of materials. I would like to get back into it as a sideline/(hate to say) hobby.

I'm here to try and keep current and maybe learn a few things along the way.
 
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