new knife maker looking for advice

[dogwood dan]

I am an apprentice with andy roy at fiddle back and am enjoying the work and learning a lot I am planing on branching out to make kitchen knives. Dose any one have advice along the lines of I wish some one had told me ___________ when I first started.

thank you for your time and advice


Dan

 

[C-9]

Temper them hard and grind them thin.

If you think it is too hard and too thin, it is probably just right.

 

[Noctis3880]

As a user, I prefer my knives to be easy to clean and relatively waterproof in that I can flush the knife with water, handle and all, without concerns of water soaking or being trapped in the handle.

 

[jhakken]

No real advice, but a preference. Please make a pointy, thin paring knife. I don't like the big curve at the tip because I tend to do a lot of spearing with a paring knife. It's not a style that I've seen from many makers on this forum either. Maybe there's a market.

 

[Phydeaux]

Ergonomics are important. I tend to do repetitive tasks with kitchen knives. Make cardboard or plywood profiles and test how they fit your hand and how they would feel cutting at a kitchen counter, hold with different grips etc. I round corners and edges that may give me a blister or sore spot when using the knife.

My neighbor has some kitchen knives and asked me to make a depression on the spine for his thumb. Not something I've seen on kitchen knives before, but for my neighbor it works well. He later brought me a couple more knives to mod and sharpen.

Ric

 

[schakaa]

Do not expect to earn money with it, do it because you have fun.

Regards Peter

 

[DAGuertin]

I started into knife making because I couldn't afford a good kitchen knife. ;-) If you want to know what works, check out the competition. Go to Williams-Sonoma, Sur la Table - anywhere you can actually get your hands on *good* kitchen knives! Pool all of your thoughts on each together into one mass, and then start making mock-ups of what you think the best features of each are, all lumped into one. Once you actually have something in your hand that works the way you like, *then* you can start thinking steel, handle materials, etc.