New makers. Dont quit!

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
I'm not the best maker or even a great one yet. I've been at this for about two and a half years now. Had alot of ups and downs. More downs than ups lol
But this is the place that got me and ALOT of other makers up and running so I want to say thank you to everyone that's ever helped me out. Heres a comparison of my first knife vs my latest
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And this was a chef knive I just finished about a week ago
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I know it's tough when you first start. But every maker you admire started somewhere.
Best advice I can give is make every knife to your absolute best ability, dont skil steps or half ass anything. Try and buy the best materials and tools you can afford. Go slow and pay attention to what your doing. And HAVE FUN.
Please dont take this as me trying to show boat or anything just felt like trying to give something back to a forum that got me on my feet
 
I appreciate this post. I think it can be daunting at first because there is so much information to absorb. You start poking around on the internet and you find nice knives receiving criticism and you say to yourself "wow, if that isn't perfect than how bad is mine?" Haha

I've been doing this for about a year and I'm no expert but I want to share just how bad my first knife was last March 1st ... A few months before I found this forum.

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I forged it from an Allen key haha. My family and I thought it was awesome! Stay positive everybody and pay attention! Little tid bits you pick up here you truly can't find anywhere else.

Valknut, thanks for this post. I've been looking up to you since I started lurking and I think your knives are fantastic ☺
 
I keep my first knife in the box with my show knives. I keep it handy at shows to prove to new makers that we all start as folks with no knowledge. When I made that knife nearly 60 years ago, there was no internet, no videos/DVDs, and no books on knifemaking. Unless you were lucky enough to have a smith show you some tricks, you just learned it on your own.
There were only a few books on blacksmithing, and they were written around 1900 to be used in high schools ( yes, they taught blacksmithing before they taught auto mechanics). Maury High School, the oldest one in the city, had a blacksmith shop until around 20 years ago. It taught smithing from the 1911 thru the 50's. Eventually, they sent all the forges and anvils to dump. I got the last anvil they had - 157# Hay Budden. They junked the four big Johnson natural gas forges before I found out. All the tools and tongs apparently went to the dump, too.
first-knife-jpg.80331
 
Very nice! Ive been making for several years now and have also had the ups and downs. I am currently a hobbyist maker as I have a full time job and kids, so time is limited but I love making and seeing the reactions of the new owners! I feel I am getting a good hang of it and my quality is much better. I'm on the verge of thinking I need to start a "business" because sales have picked up.. but after looking into it and how much will be taken out of business taxes and self employment vs hobby taxes it makes it daunting to how anyone can do it... The last couple days has made me feel I want to quite all together.. Ive been planning a workshop build, 14x28 but now don't know if I should as I am mentally lost. I would like to keep the "hobby" stage but I don't know how I can manage that at the rate I am going..

first is my 3rd knife, second is one of my latest.



 
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Justin Schmidt Justin Schmidt what a great post. It's nice to know at 11:00 at night down in the shop on a work day, and asking myself why am I doing this, that there are others out there too. I don't even hunt, fish, cook, do martial arts.. so it's not like I can fall back on the 'I've always loved knives and grew up with them....'
 
I actually am having my first delivery of steel today and Im wondering when/if ill be able to do this well enough; Im really nervous to start. I dont have alot of equipment, will have to outsource heat treating, need to get grinders, a real sander, disc cutter etc...Its much more overwhelming than I thought. Hopefully in the next year or so I can save enough for real equipment and workspace. All I have right now is a picnic table, some basic tools, a dream and alot of bills to pay. All Ive ever done are putting handles on other makers puukkos, mods and some restorations. This week will hopefully be my first time making my own blade.
 
Wanted to create a post similar as I'd like to thank everyone contributing to this section. I don't post much but read a lot around these parts and it helped me a lot once I decided to start making my own knives. Without all the good info and knowledge shared here, I'd probably have made every mistake possible by now and still be trying to figure out what went wrong :P

There's still lots of room for improvement, but I am satisfied with these for now as I've been doing this for +/- 6 months
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Gab
 
DeadFall27 said:
I actually am having my first delivery of steel today and Im wondering when/if ill be able to do this well enough; Im really nervous to start. I dont have alot of equipment, will have to outsource heat treating, need to get grinders, a real sander, disc cutter etc...Its much more overwhelming than I thought. Hopefully in the next year or so I can save enough for real equipment and workspace. All I have right now is a picnic table, some basic tools, a dream and alot of bills to pay. All Ive ever done are putting handles on other makers puukkos, mods and some restorations. This week will hopefully be my first time making my own blade.
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You can absolutely do it. Check Facebook marketplace and craigslist for files, a drill press and a 2x42. A HF 8in drill press is like 50 bucks. And is definitely serviceable for getting started. Just dont give up. When I started I had a $80 work bench from home depot and files. Just keep at it and post any questions or ask for tips to improve
 
Wow,i started when me an a friend had been butchering some cows , when we stopped that night to cook some steaks, he broke out this old fork am knife that he had put a deer antler on. It was bad,but worked. That's when the light came on and thought that I can do a lot better. I started reading the number one knife mag. an was making them for myself . It was hard. Each one was better but still...... I still have those an look at them often.that has been over 30 years ago . Life does happen, an things were tough learning. After a marriage of 27 years failed an other stuff, I am now making my way back.its hard starting over or trying to pick up were u left off. What ever your reason for building is don't give up.! Still working on the picture thing. Have some of all those early days and Can't wait to post an read the thoughts. Doing all this from the phone.wr all need to help each other. Wish this had been around back then!!!!
 
valknut said:
You can absolutely do it. Check Facebook marketplace and craigslist for files, a drill press and a 2x42. A HF 8in drill press is like 50 bucks. And is definitely serviceable for getting started. Just dont give up. When I started I had a $80 work bench from home depot and files. Just keep at it and post any questions or ask for tips to improve
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Thank you!

I'm searching for a sander and press at the moment. If I can get rid of some of my axe collection, I may get one of the higher end sanders here soon and a bubble jig. I found one on the exchange, but I'm waiting on a response now.

I'm trying to teach myself how to make puukko sheaths at the moment too and I'm doing better than I thought I would so far. I'll keep you updated as I go along. I hope you don't mind me picking your brain for knowledge here and then.
 
Hey valknut,
How did you get your sales to pick up? Social media? Selling on BF?

Id like to know where i should start once i have something worth selling lol
 
Teppojutsu said:
Hey valknut,
How did you get your sales to pick up? Social media? Selling on BF?

Id like to know where i should start once i have something worth selling lol
Click to expand...

I've noticed with my knives personally, that the higher the quality the "easier" the sale. I have a basic edc in 1095 for sale for less than 100 bucks and cant pay someone to take it. But the chef knive I posted was a huge hit. Another edc I had posted was marbled carbon fiber etc and got alot ot love. Take pride in your work. That's the biggest thing, look at your work honestly, of you think it looks like garbage, it probably is (no offense) focus on quality and the sales will happen naturally. Keep up a presence online , fb, IG, here, reddit is another one. And post everything you make that you think people would want to see and just keep at it and people will watch you grow and appreciate your work more and more. Just my very limited experience. Theres guys in here that know WAAAAYYYYYYYY more than me.
But I'm happy to help in any way I can.
 
When did you start putting your own logo on your blades? How long did it take you? I have a good buddy of mine who is a graphic designer whos willing to help me make a simple logo, Is investing in the electrolysis etching method worth it early on?

How so you price your work? Also, how do you file your taxes being a knifemaker (short version, i bet that question is nothing but )?

Im so sorry for the questions, Im slowly trying to read through the stickies on the page, but havent seen answers to these questions yet.

Cheers!
 
When my work started getting a little popular and was selling I put it on. Dcknives.com has a great tutorial on making your own etcher. That's what I use, and I HIGHLY HIGHLY reccomend going with IMG for your stencil. Patricia is the best and very helpful. Also get their solutions for etching. I still haven't figured out how to price my work lol I don't sell enough knives right now to worry about taxes but I'm sure you could 1099
 
Check craigslist, got mine for 70 bucks. Theres other 2x42 kn the market I'm sure are decent. I still use mine with every knife because the flat disc.
You have to be careful because they're FAST and will burn steel quickly
 
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