is it ok to ???

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I was wondering if it is ok to.

1. If you see away someone did the spine/ tang of a knife.
2. Or away someone shaped a knife.
3. Or away someone finished a knife

Is it ok to use there ideas? I am just curious i seen a way some one did the spine / tang and was wondering.
 
It's just good manners to ask before "copying" someone else's design/technique.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Everything we do has been done before. "Steal" from the best.

99% of the time, when I have asked a more experienced knifemaker about their techniques, style, or design features, they have been more than happy to tell me what they've learned, and have encouraged me to run with it and pass it on.
 
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Ok i was just wondering. Thank you for the feed back.
I am in the process of drawing up some ideas and running things through my head and making list lol .
I will be starting my first knife in a couple of weeks. Would love to start sooner but to have the time to do it right is important to me. It is going to be busy the next couple of weeks so i am going to wait.
 
If it is a common feature or style, like a drop point hunter, or pretty file work, or a neat looking lanyard hole, you can rest assured that many people do the same thing.
If you see a knife by someone, and it is a bit unusual in shape or design, like Patrice's Inquisitor, then asking if they mind if you make one like it is good manners.
 
I'm staying away from what I consider to be trademark or similar. Talon holes, the lanyard holes on Fiddleback Forge fixed blades, the way Jared Oeser stacks materials on his slipjoint covers, etc.

I'm lucky though, I want to focus primarily on slipjoints. There is VERY little to nothing that hasn't been done before, especially pattern-wise. I like that.
 
medicevans said:
I'm staying away from what I consider to be trademark or similar. Talon holes, the lanyard holes on Fiddleback Forge fixed blades, the way Jared Oeser stacks materials on his slipjoint covers, etc.

I'm lucky though, I want to focus primarily on slipjoints. There is VERY little to nothing that hasn't been done before, especially pattern-wise. I like that.
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I think that Talon hole thing is crazy. I put holes the same place that knife company does because my users put a paracord guard or chain guard on the knife. You can only do that with holes. Who gets credit for Mosaic pins? Micarta pins? As long as you are not trying to deceive someone and making a copy I say do whatever inspires you.
 
What I do is take a design I like then draw it free hand to give it my own style. It usually turns out far from what was supposedly copied.
 
Very few (if any) design feature are original. Someone, somewhere has almost always done this, that, or the other before. That said, it is considered good manners to ask permission if a maker is uniquely using a specific feature to set his line of work apart, especially if there's not many others doing it. In the case of a trademark, it may be a slighly different story. If somebody goes to the trouble to trademark something, it's generally because they'd prefer that others NOT emulate it. Then again, some companies, like Spyderco, for instance, do allow you to use their design if you pay them a licensing fee or something.

"Talon holes" are kind of a funny trademark if you ask me... Seems like it was a fairly common practice to incorporate lanyard holes into the upper tangs of knives long before Busse ever did it, and up until it was brought up in a knife making forum somewhere, I had never particularly paid attention to them as a defining feature of that brand, but oh well. To each their own.

One of these days, I'm going to apply for a trademark for having bevels on both sides of the blade...
 
[QUOTE="Talon holes" are kind of a funny trademark if you ask me... Seems like it was a fairly common practice to incorporate lanyard holes into the upper tangs of knives long before Busse ever did it, and up until it was brought up in a knife making forum somewhere, I had never particularly paid attention to them as a defining feature of that brand, but oh well. To each their own.

One of these days, I'm going to apply for a trademark for having bevels on both sides of the blade...[/QUOTE]

It is actually ridiculous. I have several knives out there with holes in the guard and lanyard. I started doing that in 1987 because it was the only way to have a removable handguard on a knife. I wonder if I can trademark the word "the" or the pointy end of a blade? LOL!
 
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