Last straw I quit

L

LaMess

Joined
Nov 24, 2001
Messages
120
I have made and tested some 01 knives that I think outcut any commercial blades I have experienced so I accomplished a little.

But that fire dagger makes me want to puke because I cannot even imagine myself doing that. Mr Bump I hate you and I quit. Think I'll try computer programming or cooking or something.

That's a bad attitude you say? Well Nananana Poopoo.

regards

Lynn
 
LOTS of us know exactly what you are saying. Problem is I already like Bruce, in spite of his work!

Hang in there-

Bruce, that dagger is a killer!

Dave
 
Bruce is a very talented maker,but he did not get that way over night
he praticed and praticed some more,I have felt like quiting before I even got started.I will be there one day but for now I will just learn
and look at fine work and know I will be there one Day;)
 
:eek: :eek: DON'T QUIT :eek: :eek:
Bruce an myself have been doing this for a long time and have had allot of scrapped pieces made before we could make anything like what we do now,Heck I can't even do the mosaics yet as I am not set up for it,then I will have a bunch of scrap wheni do try it..Don't give up,just make each one better than the last one and keep trying.You will get there one day,and when you do you will look back and say,How did I do this were did this knife come from,it doesn't look like my old blades..Just DON'T give up..
Bruce
 
Originally posted by LaMess
But that fire dagger makes me want to puke because I cannot even imagine myself doing that.
Click to expand...

This is where you go wrong. You could do that. Maybe not as good as Bruce but if you're stubbern enough and keep trying, you can do almost anything.
One year ago I could not make a wooden knife. Now I can make real ones. Crude, some of them even ugly, but knives.
 
I'm with Lynn. I banged my head on the anvil last night until I saw a vision. When I woke up I orderd a subsription to Martha Stewart.

Macrame and cookie baking for me. Hmmmmmmmm, pattern welded cookies:p :D :p :D :p :D :p
 
Come on you guys. You cant quit. You love knives and have the vision to make a better one. I am 50 years old, made my first knife from a rusty band saw blade and put a set of elk antler scales on it held on with those cheap cutlers rivets. It went to a friend for $25. I was hooked. I saw it as a thing of beauty and I made it with my own 2 hands. That was 1987. Each one just got better and sold for just a bit more money. The profit went back in the shop for more tools to do better work. It takes time to learn the skills to do the more advanced patterns and good tools to make the precision parts. Because of this forum (which I didnt have back then) You guys are making much better first knives than any of my first 50 knives. A good grinder and drill press will produce knives to sell to buy a forging press and good forge. Ask Indian George. He just stepped up recently with his homemade forge and press. I made my own press with new and used paerts for about $1000. All of which came from knife sales. L6 said it one time: "Make 20 knives and sell them for $100 each, Thats $2000!" I still use Paul Bos for stainless blade heat-treatment. He is another sales trick. People will buy it if its treated by him. I have used him for over 11 years now. Also make knives that you are interested in, dont copy someone else. I know thats hard because about every shape that can be made is been made but You have to be happy as you grind and that only comes from being your own artist. After You get enough practice on simpler shapes You can tackle the advanced ones. Aim high. There are buyers out there with money. They like to have some bragging rights, so price them high if You know that everything is correct and well made on the knife.
Dont give up!:)
 
smashfreakB.gif
 
Thanks for the advice, Bruce. Some of us need it more than most. Kickass blade, by the way.
 
Wow, this thread hits home. I had a friend, actually he's the guy that first introduced me to making blades, who quit this wonderful hobby. He was doing VERY well, had a small but nicely outfitted shop, he had produced a couple dozen or more really nice blades and then one day he quit. He was spending a lot of time around some very accomplished bladesmiths and when he saw his work compared to their work, he decided it was futile to continue. What a shame. I see this hobby as something that I will do for a long time, but not all at once. I think it's Wayne Goddard that says in one of his books that he has never met anyone with a "natural talent" for knifemaking. It's a learned skill and one that takes time and patience to learn. I'm only into this about a year now. I've produced very few finished blades and even fewer that I'm really happy with but every knife is better than my last. You do have to ask yourself if you have the time and patience this hobby will require. It is not for everyone. I've decided that I really like it and I get a lot of personal satisfaction from the end product but I have to keep telling myself that I don't have to keep up with the people on this forum! Some people have more time to do this and as a result will progress much faster than the rest of us who approach this as a hobby and only get a few hours here and there to work on a knife. I even quit a while back when I saw another friend that I had introduced to this hobby soar past me in the quality of work he was producing. It frustrated me and I thought it wasn't worth it since I couldn't dedicate as much time in the shop as he could. I've had to learn that it's ok to only turn out a few knives a year as long as I'm improving on every knife and learning something new on each one. Then I feel like my valuable time I do get to spend in the shop is not wasted. Make no mistake about it, that knife you saw in this forum took a LOT of time, not just to make it but to learn HOW to make it. If that maker calculated the time in hours or days it took to gather the knowledge and experience to make that one blade it would probably make us all sick and want to quit. =)

Just 2 cents worth from a newbie maker.
Good luck!
Derek Melton
 
A success is a man who has been knocked down 1000 times, and gotten up 1001.

The ONLY thing every successful person has in common is that they DIDN'T quit.

Larry
 
Originally posted by dmelton
I think it's Wayne Goddard that says in one of his books that he has never met anyone with a "natural talent" for knifemaking.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. I think Einstein said something like "Talent is hard work, and more hard work. And genius is talent and hard work."

JD
 
dmelton wrote

if that maker calculated the time in hours or days it took to gather the knowledge to make that one blade it would probably nmake us all sick and want to quit.
ok that does it.

:p While you are at how bout giving me a paper cut and rub lemon juice on it?
 
I know how you feel LaMess, That is a truely awsome piece of work. All I can say is that if your like me, you cant stop searching for your Excalibur. I know it keeps danceing in my mind's eye, never quite comeing into focus. I figure knife makeing is the only way to get the knives out of my head.:p
 
I screwed up a damascus neck knife yesterday, did I think about quiting? No, but the air in my shop is still blue and I'll be back out there in a little while. I know a lot of knifemakers and there isn't one that hasn't scrapped some blades, probably a lot of them, but they didn't quit. One day things start to fall in place and you'll immediately want to make another and it feels good when you hit a grind just right. Just hang in there.
 
Ok Lynn, fine! You can go ahead and quit.... but you gotta GIVE away all your tools and materials.
I didn't think so.
When I think about the first knife a tried to grind from a non-annealed file, and I compare it to my first knife done under Alan's tutelidge I am truly amazed at my abilty. Then when I look at my knife next to one of Alan's I see I have a long way yet to go. When you were learning to ride a bicycle, did you quit cuz you just knew you'd never be able to drive a stick-shift car?
 
First I read, "Never give up!"
then I read, "Quit while you are ahead."

further reading provided me with these quotes,

"Don't give up the ship!" and " When defeat is imminent, RETREAT!"
smashfreakB.gif
 
Turning out to be harder than I thought. First what to do with the knife making time. Well my daughter has been wanting a bow so we saw up some boards laminate them and start to cut away everything that does not look like bow. Dang we don't seem to have the right tool. What we need is a little girl sized draw knife and that piece of 1095 seems to be saying 'Hey I'm a draw knife'. OK fine I say it just needs to cut - the objective is the bow. Then I hear the refractory calling. Well of course any fool knows a draw knife needs a wavy temper line. Sheesh. Now a bow for myself or a small game knife to match the daughters bow? Well for my bow I'm gonna need a bigger draw knife. And the neighbor girl dressed the deer her older brother shot because he got a booboo. Behavior like that needs rewarding - maybe with a knife. Sheesh again. Maybe I'll keep making them at least until I can stop.

Lynn
 
And....any knife made to go with a bow ought to have arrowhead filework don't you think? Seems to me I saw a tutorial on that hereabouts. AARRGGHHHHH!!!! Somebody shoot me!
 
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