Hello Gentleman,
These questions/answers get a little more blurred each day.
Yes the do indeed. The problem is that as any craft/discipline grows and changes, there are those that cannot accept the changes. The idea of NOT using technology when available is just silly.
I have been a dedicated, professional woodworker that pays my bills with my craft. I have had my own company doing so for about 30 years now.
You guys need to see outside of the tiny, tiny,
miniscule world of knife making and get a grip on reality. Do I still use handsaws when a power saw will cut better? No way. Do I use a hammer and nail (although QUITE proficient with them) when I can shoot a nail or brad? Not a chance. Do I paint a house exterior with a brush when I can use my airless? Nope. Do I use a brace and bit or egg beater drill when I can use a power drill to drill a hole? No again. Do I use a plumb bob and line to plumb a wall, or a 4' bubble level? Sorry, have to use the level.
When making furniture or cabinetry, do I harvest my own wood and dry it under my own supervision, or do I buy it? I buy it, even if I have to finish plane it to dimension. Do I make my own plywood to be used in certain areas of the cabinet? No. Do I make my own glue as it was done as little as 50 years ago, or do I buy an new, technically engineered adhesive. Down the store I go. I don't make my own nails as they used to, don't know how to make a screw, nor do I make any of the hardware installed on my cabinets.
Likewise when finishing a cabinet or project, I don't make my own clear coats. I buy lacquers, shellacs and polyurethanes premixed and apply as is required or requested. (You can
easily make your own shellac, and by the way and it was a treasured finish for centuries.) Further, I don't make my own paint (easily done, instructions abound on the internet), nor do I make my own natural bristle brushes to apply it. I don't distill my own mineral spirits to clean my equipment nor to I make my own turpentine in the backyard as they did years ago.
Yet with all of my shortcomings, I have had enough referral business that I haven't advertised in years. For the last 15 - 18 years all my business has been referrals ONLY. And strangely enough to some here, folks are fine with my level of participation in my processes. They know I take an enormous amount of pride in my work and that I stand behind everything I do. But they know I don't stand at the shaper for hours and hours making their moldings from raw stock (unless paid to do it) so that they will know I had my hand on every step of the process.
As I always state, Be forthright in your maker process and let your customer's decide if its meets their criteria of a Sole Authorship, Custom knife.
The other problem with you definition my friend is,
Did your custom maker smelt the blooms of the steel from raw ore he is using in your'e folded steel custom knife? Probably not.
After a period of time, if success strikes a small business, the owner will need help. One simply cannot do it all. Expecting a knife maker to sit and work on one knife at a time from scratching the pattern on a piece of metal to tanning his own leather for a sheath after making the sinew twine to sew it together is unrealistic. It would also lead to starvation for the knife maker and unaffordable knives for all.
I would prefer to know that Paul Bos guaranteed my heat treat rather than a guy working in half his garage with a forge and a bucket of oil. I would much rather see a professionally stabilized burl product on my knife instead of something done in the back yard with a home brew solution in a high pressure paint pot. I would rather see round pins in the scales over hand hammered pins forged from small pieces of stock. I like solid, one piece ferrules over rolled flat stock. I also like modern epoxies over hide glues, and don't expect a maker to cast brass finger guards or butts, nor do I expect them to harvest and treat bone before using it on a knife.
In cabinet making and in knife making (and in any other "craft" discipline) it all becomes a matter of degrees of different processes, often defined by those not involved in the craft that decide what is "hand made", "sole authorship", "completely hand made", and on an on.
What some of you guys expect from knife makers is just incredible. I have started four businesses, all successful. Try as I might, I can't make the numbers work for knife making. As a hobby, yes. Maybe even a good hobby. As a reliable way to pay your mortgage, car payment, insurance, utilities, cost of kids, and on an on... no way.
I am not from the Oprah generation. I am not going to be a victim, and I also expect a buyer/collector/enthusiast to do some of their own research on anything they pursue. They can make their own judgements, and sometimes getting burned is part of the process. In this situation, as long as the maker seller of any knife is upfront about their processes and the buyer does a bit of homework and asked the right questions (you know, like you should with any meaningful purchase) I don't see any problems with labels.
A long rant from me no doubt, but having gone through this with the professional cabinet and furniture makers about 10 years ago the results still linger. Defining who was a craftsman, a
traditional craftsman, and neander (a term favored by those that refused to use power tools) created a lot of ill will. It caused a schism that never healed with some and they quit the private forums and boards that we participated in that was exclusive to begin with, by invitation only. Now the irrelevance of in fighting, determining exact definitions of processes, etc., and determining accurate labels that suited the group is pretty apparent, as what was "new" to the craft then is considered the accepted way of doing things now.
Robert
