New old book

F

From Tennessee

Joined
Dec 2, 2011
Messages
111
I mentioned to a friend that I was making my first knife and question after question was arising and he stop by today with a copy of David Boyes' "Step-byStep Knife Making - You can Do It". copywrite 1977. Its 300 pages and just a vault of help if your new to the art. Covers everything with lots of pics (boy do I need pics). A really good read.
 
I've read it several times myself and consider a classic on the subject. I love the tangent he goes off on about how "the knife should feel like an extension of your body, up from your feet and all the way through your arm." (Paraphrasing.)

It's a description about identical to the way a sword should feel in the hand, in Tai Chi sword arts.

I also like his tangent about "listening to your machines, feeling what they need."

Not many knife books come with this kind of insightful, outside-of-the-box analysis of the art.
 
That's the book that got me hooked.
I've had it next to my bed a loong time and loved reading just e few pages before sleeping.
 
I just went and grabbed this book and started reading it, and in the early sections "Knifemakers Overview" he's outlining a step by step process very generally.. and he mentions profiling the blank, cleaning it up, braising the bolster and/or butt plate on now.. THEN hardening, then annealing.. before going on to add handles and drilling holes etc. Of course I still need to read the rest of it, and I'm enjoying it so far. That just threw me for a bit of a loop.
 
Yeah, he definitely had some of his own ways of doing things in that book. Still, good solid basics.
 
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