Knifemaker/Blade smith@#$%^

The problem with this thread is that many folks confuse the term smith with blacksmith ,often shortened to "smith". The word actually comes from a root that means "to cut or work with a sharp tool", but long ago evolved to mean "one who has mastered a skill or become a Guilded craftsman". Quite interestingly, the original Old German root word "smile" means "knife" .The German ending 'le' was replaced in Old English with a now extinct letter called 'thorn' ( it looks like a funny capital Y; 'Y'e=The, 'Y'ou=Thou,etc.), which we now write as 'th'. Thus "smile" became "smith".
Some good examples are:
Wordsmith
Locksmith
Gunsmith
Songsmith
Papersmith
Clocksmith
Firesmith
Jokesmith
Shopsmith

Crafts in which hammering hot metal are no longer the main function:
Goldsmith
Coachsmith
Metalsmith

Final words:
All Bladesmiths are knifemakers, but all knifemakers aren't bladesmiths.

Stacy
 
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McAhron said:
I think if you do both your just poorer.:D:D:D:D
Click to expand...

Poorer in both time and $!! talk about a time consuming hobby! we should probably be called "blade-a-holics"

Knifemaker: one who makes knives
Blade/ Knife smith: one who forges knives
Bladeaholic: one who makes, forges, repairs, sharpens, drools over, belongs to forums about, and spends more time with, knives/blades, than people.:D
 
Stacy...............is there any subject or skill that you don't know something about ????? I'm beginning to wonder. ;)

Some of the stuff you come up with is just amazing :thumbup:
 
Thanks David.
I read at least 2-4 hours a day, and when younger used to read 5-6 hours a day. I read everything..the owners manuals on can openers...the sites linked on posts...lables on cans...books and articles on any subject that comes up in conversation..etc.There are books, magazines, folders of papers, and dozens of note pads stacked all over my work and living places. If a word comes up in a discussion, and I can't figure out its root from the Greek/Latin/German/OE I go and research it later. You find all sorts of good things doing that. One thing often leads to another and....well,30 minutes is gone...but you have learned something new. I sleep for 6-7 hours a night. The internet is an invaluable tool in learning, once you winnow out the chaff from the kernels.

I like BF because it has a lot of broad knowledge people on it. Chemists, metallurgists, Neo-tribal types,sculpters,......The amalgam makes this one of the smartest places that I have ever been. You can talk to a guy in Turkey, New South Wales, Ireland, and Vancover...al in the same evening.

I enjoy almost nothing on TV now days. I can't believe the pure junk that mindless people think is entertaining. Even stupider is the belief of so many that the "REALITY" shows aren't scripted, and are REAL . Don't get me started there.

My pocket has a note pad in it at all times, There is a sketch pad and a legal pad by every chair and desk I have ( I buy them in bulk). Whenever I get an idea, a question, or just a "Hmmm, I wonder" thought....I write it down, or sketch it. I can go back later and follow up on it....or not. I still have some note books from when I was 14-16, with plans and designs that I drafted. Some I built, some are still waiting.
Stacy
 
How about:

Sharp-normally-metallic-swearword-inducing-variable-material-handled-heated-then-cooled-sometimes-very-finely-scratched-item maker?

:p
 
I have bladesmith front and center, on my business card, in red, so people will know ,at a glance, that I do more than profile flat pieces of steel and grind bevels into the flats. I smith blades. I make a fire and I pound on steel.
Its a good conversation starter. "What is a bladesmith ?"
Now the above statement may sound like I am trolling for an argument; or that I feel elite, because I forge, but thats not so. I am not saying that any one facet or technique is lesser than any other. Or that because you do this, you are that. Or that one is more important than another.
I am saying, that I engage in more than one facet of knife making. Anyone who stays at making knives, for long, will learn new facets of knife making.
Its a progressive thing. Its not learning to forge, nor making damascus, grinding good bevels, doing good handle work, knowing what temps to work W2. etc! etc! that makes you a knife maker. A collection of all these things and many more; or maybe choosing a couple and mastering them.
Displaying any one aspect or facet, does not a bladesmith, knifesmith damascussmith or whatever it is you wish to call yourself make.

It is in the work you produce; that is where the reality lies.

Whatever your approach, do it well. Be sincere in your work.

If some refer to you as a smith or maker; its probable not because of the things you have said, its the knives you have made.

Fred
 
depends on who's asking...



If it's the soccer mom next door...I'm a bladesmith :D
or even better....I "run a cutlery business". :foot:

If it's the guy at the hardware store, I'm a knifemaker ;)



"smith" does not necessarily mean forging nowadays


If we're going to get tight-a$$ about that....we first need to get rid of (IMHO) all the "network system architects"....@&%&!!!:mad:


:D


Dan
 
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