Most want to be knifemakers more than they want to make knives.

for most it's a dream that keeps them from thinking about the job they do which they hate.
The important thing is to know this, and to keep the dream from becoming a nightmare.

Also, knife makers have become celebrities. People look to celebrities with aspiring eyes. It's the aspiration which can prove dangerous, while celebrity status has its own known problems. It's like a cliff, in the eye of a fuzzy rodent perhaps.

Celebrity status in general for knife makers is a good thing, as it shows the upswing.
 
Seriously in a sea of makers that are making one of mans oldest tool I think the problem is being a maker that stands

out. I have said in other threads I believe a maker has made it when you can tell one of his blades from across the room
They have developed a style that is there's and they own it. This is very hard to do and only time or a style that is so

recognized can give a maker this . The later being IMHO better than being known by attrition just being around so long everyone knows it

I believe makers struggle with finding there style or groove and they flounder in let's face it a large pool

This is not insulting any makers that work in another's style but it is easier to copy then to make your own style
 
JParanee said:
I understand your point

I wanna be a knife maker but I can't make knives :)
Click to expand...

You and everyone else Joe.
The first thing I always ask folks who visit the CKCA booth at knife shows (and there's many) is if they are knife collectors. It's alarming how many say they are either knifemakers or want to make knives.
I wonder whether at some point we will have more makers of custom knives than buyers.
 
Making knives is not a problem. SELLING them can be.;)
 
JParanee said:
Seriously in a sea of makers that are making one of mans oldest tool I think the problem is being a maker that stands out. I have said in other threads I believe a maker has made it when you can tell one of his blades from across the room.
They have developed a style that is there's and they own it. This is very hard to do and only time or a style that is so recognized can give a maker this .
Click to expand...

I can only partially agree with your statement, as having a recognizable style doesn't necessarily mean the maker creates quality knives.
There are quite a few makers that I can easily spot their knives at a glance, however I'm not really impressed with them.
 
I'm quite happy having tradesmen make my knives, I have talents in other areas, that makes me money, it works.

If I bought the necessary tools and read a few books I could probably produce some knife like objects, but I don't really see what the point would be unless I had an idea that could change how I view knives. If I really thought I did I'd get with someone with expertise and try to patent the design or something.
 
Like someone wanting to BE a doctor, but dosen't want to have to
come in contact with sick people.....

We seem to foster the notion that one can BE, without first learning to DO...
 
Kevin Jones said:
I can only partially agree with your statement, as having a recognizable style doesn't necessarily mean the maker creates quality knives.
There are quite a few makers that I can easily spot their knives at a glance, however I'm not really impressed with them.
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Good point Kevin maybe my choice of words in saying made it was a poor one

I do believe makers struggle to find a style of there own something that will set them apart
 
Is it a bad thing to want to make knives so that I can own the beautiful knives that i otherwise could not afford?
 
I am a collector, who is really enjoying learning the process of knife making but won't be quitting his day job in this lifetime to make knives.
 
^I'm with Mike.
Keeping in mind retiring and quitting are two different things!
 
I think I may be the other way around. I like to try and make knives, but I'm not sure I want to be a knife maker. Actually, what time I do get to putter around in my studio/shop seems to be spent making the shop. I enjoy that too.
 
IMO this goes for a lot of professions, I see it a lot for military/LE. People want to wear the cool gear and carry a gun, but they can't/don't want to put their lives on the line and deal with the stress.
 
Being vs doing... Malcom Gladwell in his fascinating book Outliers suggests it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of doing before one can be an "expert" at anything. 10,000 hours is 5 years of 50 40-hour weeks focused exclusively on that which one wants to become. It is also 10 years of 50 20-hour weeks wherein those hours are totally devoted to the skills to which one aspires. Anyway, its more than most are willing to devote. Unless one has already put in this kind of time, or is well into it, there isn't any being going on - only doing. In creative and artistic pursuits like knifemaking, individual style develops slowly over time. BR Hughes (yes, he did once make a knife) said to me once that he'd observed that it took 5 years of solid effort at knifemaking before a recognizable style emerged. Thus he, Bill Moran and others advised new knifemakers to proceed accordingly. This approach makes sense and will expose those who, in the end, don't want to really be a knifemaker.
 
HTMD said:
Being vs doing... Malcom Gladwell in his fascinating book Outliers suggests it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of doing before one can be an "expert" at anything.
Click to expand...

I can never be a knifemaker although I often thought about it
in my younger days...

I eventually decided that with more than 10,000 hours of successful
professional photography behind me, I should use these acquired skills
to document the world of modern custom knives, and display it in a series
of high quality books.

These books were meant to satisfy my yearning and excitement
from the art of modern knifemaking and the love for the products
of this art, bringing me face to face with very many of the living
world-class knifemaking legends of today... And without lifting a hammer... :)

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
 
DDD - Exactly. To Buddy's point, you ARE a master at what you have worked at and, no surprise, you have devoted the 'requisite' 10,000 hours to achieve this skill level. Your output is clearly defined and, to you, it's 'effortless'. (I know how hard you work, but the process isn't foreign. You have a clear vision and need to put all the components in order.)

To Jason's original point (which is a statement rather than a question? Jason, please elaborate.) This amount of learning is almost drudgery. The ratio of peer satisfaction to work ethic has not been leveled.

Interesting topic.

Coop
 
Jason: I have seen this repeatedly. People learn to become knifemakers, some of them very good ones, and then they seem unable to continue on and actually produce any knives. Maybe they finally figure out that the idea is far more romantic than the occupation.
 
Jason Knight said:
Most want to be knifemakers more than they want to make knives.
Click to expand...

I can't say I know precisely where Jason was going with this comment - though it does provide a springboard for taking a couple different looks at knifemaking today.

One of the things that struck me immediately as a response was, it's a lot easier to want to make knives than to actually make them. The one indellible impression left on me after making my first knife was "This is hard work!" It's not that I thought it was easy - I was aware of all the basic steps in the procedure. But doing is a whole different kind of knowing. And coming face to face with many of the potentially terminal pitfalls that await the novice with open, inviting arms can be quite daunting.

And while just making knives can be daunting, trying to make a living making knives is expoenentially more so.

And Joe's point about the difficulty in making knives which stand apart is one which I find to be fundamentally sound. I think that those makers who successfully manage that feat (and yes, producing a quality knife is an inherent part of what I would describe as success) have some internalized vision of what a knife should be. This doesn't mean they can't or don't draw inspiration from the work of others - the history of knives is very nearly as long as the history of man, and no-one is making knives today in an isolated vacuum. It also doesn't mean that the knives have to be radically different from anything being made today. But turning that particular trick unually involves at least some combination of small features that represent that maker's particular vision of a knife. And that is what will both bind that maker's body of work together and separate that body of work from that of others.

Accomplishing this also generally doesn't happen overnight. Having vision is one thing. Having the skills to bring that vision forth is quite another. Both develop over time.

Roger
 
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