Is waterjetting a no no in custom handmade knives?

It's true, we all define our own methods to suit our needs. I have no problem with how anyone makes a knife. The primary point I was trying to make is it is a slippery slope. Where does making a knife using technology become less about being hand make and more about being a mid-tech knife? Or, as JG suggests, a custom designed knife made by machines and hand assembled; creative? Yes, but handmade? It's highly questionable.
 
This particular slope only gets slippery or questionable when slippery or questionable characters are involved.

If a maker or company won't say exactly what they do and why they do it, don't support 'em. If one simply doesn't care for what they do or why they do it, don't support 'em. Simple as that.
 
james terrio said:
I got news for ya ladies and gentlemen, neither the steel nor the finished knife gives a hoot in heck whether it was cut to profile with a waterjet, an EDM, a plasma-cutter, a bandsaw, a hacksaw, ground to profile by rubbing it on a concrete sidewalk or nibbled to shape by rabid squirrels.
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I gave up on squirrels years ago, James. Switched to wolverines hopped up on sterioids and haven't looked back. Some folks may say I'm a liar, but I swear my wolverine-profiled knives come out of the quench a good 2-points harder than my previous squirrel-profiled knives. 'Course, it also depends on the cycle of the moon . . .
 
Shawn Hatcher said:
I gave up on squirrels years ago, James. Switched to wolverines hopped up on sterioids and haven't looked back. Some folks may say I'm a liar, but I swear my wolverine-profiled knives come out of the quench a good 2-points harder than my previous squirrel-profiled knives. 'Course, it also depends on the cycle of the moon . . .
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My dang dogs eat all the squirrels on our property, wolverines are rare as hen's teeth 'round here, and the DEA is really crackin' down on the steroids, so I've been forced to settle for WJ and angle-grinders to cut my steel. Not nearly as much fun, but they don't consume so much puppy chow and protein shakes either, so it works out OK in the long run.

As for the extra 2 points... I'll never tell. It's magic, and magic costs extra.
 
NickWheeler said:
I'm on the verge of successfully hooking up a waterjet cutter to the door of my forge. :eek: ;)
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Get those dogs on a grinder and you will be good to go with your "kit" knife assembly. :D:foot:
 
brownshoe said:
Per the above recent sentiments, I guess we can call Bark River knives a "custom handmade knife maker". What makes you all different, the fact that one to three people do the finishing work, as opposed to ten to fifteen?
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So does your "Custom" maker smelt his own steel blooms and grow his own trees for handle wood and make his own epoxy?
 
I think I'll just make knives and not worry about what a detractor might feel about them.

I make the knives I WANT to make, that I feel I MUST make. If that ends up involving waterjetting, CNC, or mutant zombie teenage sex kittens, so be it.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
I think I'll just make knives and not worry about what a detractor might feel about them.

I make the knives I WANT to make, that I feel I MUST make. If that ends up involving waterjetting, CNC, or mutant zombie teenage sex kittens, so be it.
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That's a bullseye right there Matthew, a very good way of putting it.
 
why people would want to maintain absolutist positions, when we are surrounded constantly by new discoveries, innovation and technological processes, is beyond me.
There will always be room for some tradition, but when tradition gets in the way of rational, forward progress, it serves us best to question why that is, not whether or not these new processes and techniques have merit.
Pigeon holes are for pigeons!
:)
 
David Stifle said:
I see the definition of handmade is rapidly expanding. Soon, if not already, the term will be meaningless.
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Spot on.

Let's drop the term "hand made" and think of the second term in the title of this thread "custom".

Sure if you give 5 blanks to 5 makers you will get 5 custom knives. What about the maker who takes 25 blanks and puts on 25 black G10 handles, or 5 blades each of 5 different handle materials. Is that a "custom knife", or to put it differently is it "art", "craft" or "light manufacturing?"
 
As a craftsman it is harder to make 25 identical knives than it would be to make 25 unique ones. Anyone who has tried it and knows how to use verniers and a micrometer knows this. Waterjet is just a more economical way to achieve a very mundane and "soul-less" task on the grinder.
Now forging something to shape is a different animal, one that i don't know much about but I would like to try it sometime.
 
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