- Joined
- Oct 20, 2000
- Messages
- 4,453
When one says "vocation", it can be misconstrued as a calling for missionary work. Well, I guess knifemaking is a calling of sorts.
Recently, I read an article by a customs knifemaker who related his personal story of being on the road for more than 20 years and had travelled thousands and thousand of miles.
One day, he woke up not knowing where he was and what city he was in.
That statement prompted me to ask: what drives a man to do this sort of thing when the money in the trade is slow in coming and often scarce.
I have heard from the veterans in the trade about the passion for steel and the love of the craft but honestly, after so many years of being on the road and a head full of grey hair to show for 20 years of hard work and no fame or fortune.
For people like that, I can't help but have admiration. Such perseverance and determination are found in those rare individuals who have answered the irresistible calling of a vocation that only those true grit people know about but cannot explain.
But somehow I wonder if the story behind all these hardcore individuals are more than all that that have gone into print.
Recently, I read an article by a customs knifemaker who related his personal story of being on the road for more than 20 years and had travelled thousands and thousand of miles.
One day, he woke up not knowing where he was and what city he was in.
That statement prompted me to ask: what drives a man to do this sort of thing when the money in the trade is slow in coming and often scarce.
I have heard from the veterans in the trade about the passion for steel and the love of the craft but honestly, after so many years of being on the road and a head full of grey hair to show for 20 years of hard work and no fame or fortune.
For people like that, I can't help but have admiration. Such perseverance and determination are found in those rare individuals who have answered the irresistible calling of a vocation that only those true grit people know about but cannot explain.
But somehow I wonder if the story behind all these hardcore individuals are more than all that that have gone into print.
!!