Ian, (Hall Handmade) I know that you have been an insanely hard worker turning out fine sporting knives at a high volume and wearing yourself down. Do you still make knives full time and depend on sales for your livelihood? I always admire the crisp grinds and fine finish you put on your knives but wonder how you keep up the pace. I am fortunately in the set for life group because of saving profits from real estate deals and stock investments in the 90's because I saved hard and took risks and was lucky also thus I can now make knives as a self supporting hobby. I could not work at the pace you have set for yourself and respect your determination and hard work. I hope that you are well and are able to make the knives that you want and still have some satisfaction from the process. Love to hear what your working on now. Larry Lehman
Larry,
I've always been a pretty hard worker. I don't really think I ever took on too much work or overloaded myself either, its just that when you can't depend on your body, neither can anyone else. To expand on my response, you don't have to be good to be a successful maker, you just have to be a hard worker. You have to be an even harder worker if you're good in fact. I will expand slighty on my comment about health. It only takes one major health crisis to destroy everything you've built. Luckily for me, I also have made smart investments and have some modest "background income". Due to having long time spinal problems, I am a bit of a commando when it comes to thin times, this isn't my first rodeo. I now try to keep a pretty hefty savings for emergency purposes. Lucky that, considering I was unable to work for nearly 6mos straight running from October of last year to after the holidays, after reinjuring my back last march.
Once I realized I was in trouble, I completely halted any sales or new production and lived only from my savings while I was recovering. I didn't make or sell a single new knife during that period. If I hadn't had that safety net, or if I'd had any serious debt (more than a couple grand tops), or if I'd already been seriously behind, I'd have been in real trouble. It was close, but I managed to make it through. It's sobering to see the repeated downfall of "trusted" companies and makers, hoping I don't become a statistic myself. Luckily I'm not often caught without multiple layers of backup plans. What makes me spitting mad, is being lumped in with every two-bit phony unethical wannabe that has every scammed a knife lover. The last year of my life reads like "worst of knifemaking greatest hits" as far as excuses that lazy and/or unethical makers love to use, health problems, family problems, technology problems, vendor problems, etc.
For a guy that has had almost nonstop chronic back pain for going on two decades with no help from surgical intervention or otherwise, a guy whose only prayers at night were to die in his sleep and pass peacefully with minimum pain to his family, I became so hopelessly bitter about all of this I very nearly quit altogether. We treat our veterans horribly sometimes, but non-veterans with disabilities are treated like utter trash in our society, and some days I have a deep hatred and resentment towards the entire world because of it, and other days I am much more forgiving. I've recieved enough hollow machismo "deal with it" comments to last me ten lifetimes. I came from a multi-generational military family, a vietnam vet father, and a korean war vet grandfather that died in the line of duty. It wasn't my fault I was born with a body that couldn't pass basic training, even being in terrific shape. I simply was not able to do pushups because of my car accident.
That was a big part of the reason I went into my career, because I felt if I couldn't help on the front line, at least I could help back home. We worked on active defense systems for transport platforms, and I was motivated through my pain by knowing that my work might end up being fielded and save a life or two. Eventually even that wasn't enough motivation. After washing out of my career twice due to my health issues, I landed in knifemaking. I'd definitely still be in Aerospace if my health allowed.
So before I ramble too much more, I'll boil this down to a couple simple statements:
If I had the choice to do this all over again, knowing what I've gone through with my health issues, especially some of the ugly interactions it has caused with community members, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, and I would advise the same to anyone with any serious disability. Hobby, yes, but not a serious full time income.
If I were as healthy and able to work as I was at 21, I absolutely would do it all over again, because I know that version of me would have been very much more successful that I have been so far in my current state.
As far as what I'm up to today, I was not idle when I couldn't work, I was just doing things that didn't require the same type of work. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure it will require a dealer membership for me to talk about here after some careful thought. I was planning on renewing my knifemaker membership even today possibly, but I'm not even sure I could share the URL to my current website with a knifemaker membership without violating TOS as a dealer.
