I wanna make a knife!

[jhiggins]

You did a service with this thread. In the final analysis, anyone who doesn't realize that we all teach each other and that everyone else has something they can learn, is a fool.

I agree, Mike. Nick gets a big round of applause for saying something I have been thinking for a long long time.

~BUT~

There are limitations as to how far I will go to help someone. The first paragraph in the first post of this thread WHO ARE YOU? pretty much sums up the way I feel. I'm very willing to show someone any technique they want, and tell them anything they need to know. Ask Mike Burch. All I need is a connection. If you come rolling up in here with 5,000 posts and no one has ever seen you in here before, and all of a sudden you are posing like some bigtime knifemaker, or worse - "you've been making knives for years" but all of a sudden you want to know where the best place to buy some basic knifemaking books are, then you'll most likely get ignored by the majority of us, myself included. I need some connection.

If you ever want sincerity and truthful advice, then by God, put yer dang REAL NAME somewhere in your post. I refuse to help someone named SKullsPLiTteR, or some other lame anacronym. I would like to think that this forum is for real people, and many of us make real connections in REAL life.

Sorry for the semi-hijack, but this thread is about protocol in a way... sort of... SO hey Nick... how's that Gladiator?

 

[fitzo]

Very well said, Jeff. Couldn't agree with you more. Cutesy-pie pseudonyms with no name in the sig line or wherever and blank profiles can cost people good advice.

 

[ddavelarsen]

I don't hesitate to admit I don't know squat And I didn't even know that I didn't know squat before

But it sure seems like there's a lot of people lately wanting to ask blanket questions to cover everything in one fell swoop. Maybe in knifemaking it's one swell foop??? :footinmou

This is a great place to get some help, and share ideas... but the forum isn't going to make a knife for you. Guess that was my whole point

-Nick-

Cripes it seems like I'm defending everyone today. I think we should all remember back to when we were first thinking about making a knife. We knew so little that we didn't even know what questions to ask, much less how to phrase them. I think these "How do I make a knife?" questions, while frustrating, can often be fair. We just need to guide newbies to their first steps. Often someone will suggest trying a kit knife for example, and point the aspiring maker at one of the suppliers. This is a good way to handle this - better, I believe, than either ignoring them or dissing them outright. I know that at times I'm so overwhelmed with possibilities that I have a hard time sorting out my thoughts enough to be coherent - and "I've been making knives for years."

Now, that being said I would also admit that the internet makes questions like this too easy to ask, and we get our share of half-interested people wasting a lot of valuable time with lame questions. Those who are considering making a knife should have the courtesy to read as much as they can first, and then try to ask one question at a time.

Edited to add, I too get frustrated with cute user names. My own name has served me well for over half a century. The only time I made up another name for mysef was for Halloween. Oh, and there was that bank job - but that's another story...

 

[Laredo7mm]

I think a lot of people take advantage or try to take the easy way out by asking tons of questions as opposed to trying to find the information themselves. Lord knows I have asked alot of questions and gained a ton of knowledge from this place and from meeting some of you in person and I try as much as possible to answer questions that I feel that I am able to respond to.

But I have also, spent hours and hours searching and reading old posts and other sources of info that are readily available on the internet. If any new knife maker can find this place then they can also type "knife making" into amazon and find a bunch of books, and then go to their public library and check them out, if they don't want to buy them.

Out of curiousity I searched back to see what my first post was, and imagine that, it was about damascus and how most guys weld two twisted bars together. I got interested in knife making in December of 2001, made my first damascus blade in May of 2002, and asked my first question here in July of 2002. The majority of what I initially learned about making damascus was from reading Dr. Jim Hrisouls' Books, watching his video, and by "trial by fire."

There is no doubt that some of the posts annoy me, and I apologize for being a bit "grumpy" lately, but it is ever so frustrating to me when the good advice given is dismissed because too much work/learing is involved. Or worse yet, when some one (who is thankfully banned now) argues about something they have no clue about.