Knifemaking Mentor - Did you have one?

panch0

panch0

Joined
Jun 16, 2008
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I know a knifemaker and he recently told me to gather the material and he would guide me to making a linerlock folder. He has helped me withmy fixed blades, kydex, leather, basic machining saftey, and heat treating. He has never charged me a thing. I do however on my own grab the broom and clean up his shop and took him some HT foil paper. I've heard here that knifemakers are generouse to a fault. He has been making knives for 30 or 40 yrs. He himself told me that his knife making days were almost over. Yet he is still willing to show a young knuckle head like me how to make knives.
So did you guys have a knifemaker that showed you the ropes and helped
you out?

Edited to add : Thanks Don Robinson!

-frank
 
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Way back when I started, I would call Bob Loveless about 10 times a day.
( I would read and look at photos in Blade mag. that's all I had then?
no forums. And Bob was in there a lot. So he's the one I called.)
Any way he would just laugh at me usually - :rolleyes:
But he was very kind and patient, and helped me all he could with answer.
One day he even told me that he had a guest house out behind his house.
And if I wanted to come there and stay a month, he would teach me all he new about making knives.
I never went - just kept on with the school of hard knocks mostly.
You are all very lucky now days to have the web. for quick help.
Sometimes that is why I do not help out here very much, is I learned most of it on my own.
By trial and error, and I do not know all the proper terms that some do.
I have had my share of phone calls now, makers calling and asking for my help making slip joints.
And I have helped them any way I could.
Here in the past couple years, I have called Tony Bose a few times for help.
And he has been a big help to me with problems that I have had with folders.
SO - I must say yes, I have had a couple of mentors you could say.
Thanks! - Bob, and Thank You! Tony - I do appreciate it very much. :thumbup:

Todd
 
I worked entirely on my own for the first 3 years just sorta muddling through it all. I then got an invite to the shop of David Winston via the internet.I drove 2 1/2 hrs and spent 6 hrs. in his shop and learned more in that 6 hrs. than I did the whole 3 years by myself.
A couple of years after that I moved to my current location and met a local maker named Ted McMinn and paid him a visit. I left with even more knowledge as well as a armload of steel, handle material, ect...David and I are still friends as are me and Mr. Ted.
In the area where I live there are many talented makers such as Bruce Evans, Chad Nichols, Al Alexander, Chris Crawford , Don Hall aka Merlin, the fore mentioned David Winston and Ted McMinn, as well as a few more, and I have learned something from them all.
It really helps a person hone their skills if they can find an experienced maker and learn all they can, then pass those skills on to others.
 
You managed to find one great mentor. I still have one, I visit Alan Folts' shop twice a month, or thereabouts. I also have several other makers that I call friends and consider mentors, because I can ask them for help and advice any time. Even with all of the help and knowledge it would take a lifetime to learn all of their skills.
 
Most definitely. I didn't know squat about making knives. I took a week-long knifemaking class from Gil Hibben and made my first knife. Since then Gil hasn't been able to get rid of me and I am at his shop at least every other week. I learn sometihing every time I go even after 5 years of knifemaking.

Gil also introduced me to countless other knifemakers who have helped me along the way.

I always tell anyone interested in learning to make knives to find a knifemaker to help them get started. Their experience can help you avoid a lot of mistakes.
 
indy said:
I'm learning everything by internet. Sorry for all the questions :)
Click to expand...

I ask a whole bunch of questions here too. Come to think about it. Thanks to all of my cyber mentors here on BF. You guys rock!!!:thumbup:
 
I've been lucky. I learned a lot from here. And a few great guys helped me along. They are Sylvrfalcn, Kricket, Dan Koster, and Scott Gossman.

Many of you helped with questions along the way, and I will be forever grateful.
 
I have 'e-mentors', Mungo Park has been an email mentor to me for a long time answering an endless stream of hopelessly dumb questions, and then forums like BF and online tutorials, etc.

Since I tend to learn best and fastest by watching someone and asking questions along the way, it would be great to also find someone locally who knows what they are doing and watch them work.
 
Dumb question I didn't want to ask. I'm right handed, HTH did I cut my right hand? :laugh:
 
I'm still not shy about making a cold-call to someone I think can answer a question for me because knifemakers seem to be the salt of the earth. At my beginning, though, Charley Bolten was my go-to guy. That man LOVED to make knives. Even with a bad foot and other health problems from diabetes he managed to get out to his shop every day because, quite simply, that's who he was. After a couple of years what we made and how we made it had changed but part of my Sunday morning routine had become calling Charley just to say "Hey" and talk about whatever. He passed away but is surely remembered by me and I'm sure countless others. I'll always try to remembe the spirit of helping that he demonstrated.
 
mine was art summers. he lived just outside of town and i met him over at my friends gun shop who also has an outdoor range. i had read in the local paper earlier that month about him but didnt think i would ever meet him. i told him i was just starting out making knives and he invited me out to see his shop and his works in progress. his knives were all hollow grinds and i was making full convex blades back then but he still taught me quite a bit. over the years we ended up teaching each other. he moved away back in the late 90's to north carolina where he lives now. he was a member of the knifemakers guild until he retired. here is a link to the guilds list of members. http://www.knifeshows.com/clubs/guild/memlist.html
 
I've never seen anyone else make a knife in person. Only mentors are the great people on this forum. Thank you all for your generosity!

Eric
 
My first mentor was Wayne Goddard..... through his books. :) Then I asked a local guy at a gun show, William Feigh Brown, been making knives for 30 years. Great guy and typical very giving of his knowledge and time. Then I found my current teacher, I won't mention his name because he's kind of avoiding attention and very busy. I learned a lot about forging but mainly he helps me with the hard to learn stuff in knifemaking, the "spiritual stuff." Also have to mention Tim Lively and his first video were a big help too.

Big :thumbup: to everyone on the web that has helped me.
 
Started learning from Sam Butler a JS, he works at the same place I do so I get to see him almost every day to ask questions and show him my work. Then once a month I go to Al's where J.R.Cook, Jerry Larison, Jerry Fisk, Lin Rhea, Mike Ruth, Gordan Graham and there are alot more. They give little classes on how to almost anything to do with a knife, from sharpening to grinding and guard fitting to hamering a blade out. I have learned alot From Sam, and Al's Group But I Still have alot to learn still.
 
I learned the basics from Loveless & Barney's book and Sid Latham's. Two years later I started going to a Chicago-area monthly knife show for a couple hours where Kevin Hoffman and Jerry Rados would look over my work, offer recommendations, and let me ask a million questions. They taught me a lot in the next couple years.

6 or 7 years into my journey I took lessons on forging and damascus making several weekends from Tim Zowada. That was extremely valuable. His was the first maker's shop I had been in. (I just stopped to count...I've only been in 7 makers' shops in 28 years. We sure are a physically isolated bunch for the most part.)

Along the way, many tips get picked up talking with other makers at shows...the version of sharing that preceded the internet. Too many people to thank, there.

And then the internet forums and chat rooms. What wonderful tools for knifemakers, both newbie and experienced maker alike. I continue to learn new things or get new ideas constantly.

My thanks to all. I love to learn new stuff. It's what makes life fun.
 
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Self taught, when the books finnally started coming out I had about 10 years in it.
I was putting handles on bought blades in 1973, by 76-77 I had decided I'd never be
happy till I did it all. I still shamelessly pester shadley and overyender now and then.
The only dumb questions about knife making are the ones that aren't asked.
Ken
 
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