Proposal for Mark, Darrel, and Spark

jhiggins

jhiggins

Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
3,258
Gentlemen,

I was speaking with one of our esteemed knifemaker forumites yesterday, and he lamented the fact that the knifemaker's Gallery is a seperate thread and not really a part of Shoptalk anymore. I agreed. Other than it being its own separate forum, and thusly containing the body of knife pics made by the knifemakers here, I see no reason to have a seperate forum. It now has become a conscious effort to go to that forum to see what's up.

I'd like to see it here as part of ShopTalk again. I'd like to see more traffic in here. I'd like makers to be proud of what they do, and to be able to display their knives to other makers for kudos and criticism. That is important to me as a maker, and before I came full-time it was important for me to study and absorb the artistic qualities of other's work. This forum has also absorbed the Newbie Forum, and that is fine, but I think we can better educate our newer members much more completely. By having one forum where we talk about our work, then having a seperate forum to show our work only fragments what our purpose is here.

There are undoubtedly a small core group of knifemakers here who love and cherish this forum. We strive to create a friendly, congenial atmosphere in here, and rarely is there an unkind word. I for one call this my home. Out of all the other forums available, this is where I roost. Let's put the KNIVES back into ShopTalk, so that we all may benefit from our fellowship.

This is how I feel.

Mods... Spark... I urge you to consider my proposal. I think it will benefit everyone.

Anyone else... I welcome any and all criticisms and comments here, but please be thoughtful and state an opinion - not just a yay or nay. Thanks!

:thumbup:
 
I'll be the first i guess:) . I don't really mind going to the other forums and see what the knife maker makes. However i do think it would benefit the newer members more to see the custom knives being discussed in this forum more than having to go back and forth between the 2.

My humble .02....
 
I would have to agree. I also have to consciously go to the gallery and would prefer to have them all in here...
 
"esteemed" -- never heard that one used to describe me before. ;)

I've been watching it since the move and posted a few things for sale, and it just doesn't seem to get the traffic that it used to.

Edited to add -- maybe I'm not the one you were talking about. I was actually for moving the "for sale by makers" back with the rest of the sell forums.
 
I've got my shortcut set to questions and answers and sometimes forget that there are other options, so I'd like to have them together.
Seems like sometimes theres a lot of double posting like, "here's my new project view it in the gallery"
but i'm easy going, whatever works for everybody
 
I agree that the for sale by maker section would get more traffic if it were on the main link to the exchange.

As far as removing the gallery...I do believe it was a request by folks here in shop talk.

The whole division of the forums into segments was due to some squeaky wheels getting their way in the first place. It's up to Spark on what he wants to do. I would imagine if enough paying knifemakers make their wishes be heard, it could happen.

Up to you guys.
 
I prefer it not mixed. If I was a commercial guy I would wonder why show this stuff to other knifemakers, the guys who are paying the freight and selling their knives should be getting this stuff in front of collectors not other knife makers. If there is a reason to show a blade here for illustrative purposes OK, but why show and tell in a technical sections. Particularly if it ends up slowing down the loads (I still use pidgeon power). It wouldn't be a problem if the threads were separate in the same sections, but then end up mixing up and going off on tangents. Starts off on how to heat treat and ends up on a blade show and tell.

Anyway, whatever the payers and owners want I'm ok with.
 
Protactical said:
I prefer it not mixed. If I was a commercial guy I would wonder why show this stuff to other knifemakers, the guys who are paying the freight and selling their knives should be getting this stuff in front of collectors not other knife makers.
Click to expand...

This is what the For Sale by Maker forums are for. :thumbup:

Protactical said:
If there is a reason to show a blade here for illustrative purposes OK, but why show and tell in a technical sections.
Click to expand...

Okay so here we go... the crux of the matter. We knifemakers cant show our blades here unless it is to maybe illustrate a point. Its rather boring. 99% of knifmaking is communication and interaction with other makers if you want to learn. Sometimes, books and videos dont give you everythign you need. So we talk about our knives here, display them in the Gallery, and if for sale - they got to the For Sale forums? I say pare it down. Lets do show and tell here. The only knives we see here are newbie knives, and danged if thats going to attract a huge following to this forum - no offense to new people - I'm just thinking aloud here.

I'd love nothing more than to be able to see someone's knife and post my own in here so we all can share and learn from this. When is the last time we saw a Bump knife here? Have we ever seen Sandy Morrissey's work here? Alan Hale? Ed Caffrey? Ed pops his head in here once in a while, but rarely posts much. Terry Primos used to post here a lot. Now we rarely see him.

I guess I am just saying we need to input some better content in here, and posting our work instead of a gallery - which incidentally, we aren't supposed to sell in - where nobody goes.
 
Sounds good to me. :thumbup:







I don't see why we can't sell our stuff in the "For Sale: Custom Knives (individual)" section in The Exchange. :thumbdn:







Or, at the very least, add a new category such as:


"For Sale: Custom Knives (by knifemaker)"



And then add a category:

"For Sale: Tools/Supplies (individual)"




I'll readily admit that I fueled some of the fire regarding the Gallery early on...but I had hoped it would be the "Crit Pit" instead - where people could get honest opinions, instead of ego-stroking and/or blatant ignoring...:rolleyes: You would only post in the Crit Pit if you really wanted some honest opinions...not just looking for validation. That could/can/will take place in ShopTalk and it's perfectly fine with me. :p


Personally, I haven't had any problems selling stuff in the Knifemaker's Area as-it-is...but I wouldn't mind getting a few more eyeballs in The Exchange (where it really should be).
 
I think doing away with the knifemaker gallery and just posting pics in this section is fine and dandy :)

Getting lots of critiques online just ain't gonna happen... between not being able to accurately look the knife over, and the ABSOLUTE that you're going to hurt somebody's feelings.

I've seen plenty of knives around here from newbies and "veterans" that I thought had horrid, HORRID flaws... but it wouldn't do me any good to say anything. I'd just look like a dick!

I'm not sure why the for sale by individual and for sale by maker couldn't just be lumped together either... but I don't really care to much either way :)
 
Daniel Koster said:
Jeff - there's always the Custom Knife Forum - for showing off the stuff to collectors, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you said in the post before this too, Daniel. So this ALSO only serves to reinforce what I am saying about the knifemakers gallery... redundant.

I can show it in custom knife forums but not spam it to sell.

I can show it in Knifemakers Gallery to show but not sell...

If its for sale, I can post it in the for sale by maker forums, but not at the custom knives for sale by individuals?

The only thing I cant do is post my knife in here. :mad:
 
I agree with the crit pit idea .personally i'm along way off from selling anything,but an honest opinion from the pro's kinda keeps things in perspective. does my whole design suck or did i just screw up the material choices,or did i just plain make an ugly knife.its not like the dreaded qustion "do these pants make me look fat?" we all know the answer too that one:rolleyes: .
personnaly i dont mind flip flopping between the gallerys its nice to see the eye candy you guys can create.

If you want a suggestion from a part timer like me i think there should be a FAQ sticky. i'm not in here too often but i do see alot of the same questions posted.the search here is the best tool in my inventory but it doesnt always work for me.
 
If you just want to show it, I don't want to see it. I really don't care to see the knives unless it's technical. And the posts are almost always totaly self-congratulatory, nobody even says anything one might learn from. Maybe there is a reason why the show and tell thread is not heavily visited, maybe nobody actually wants to wade through that stuff!

The next thing will be that we should be able to do all the political talk, and general BSing in this forum also. Then what happens is if a person wants to find something out they do a search and a huge pile of unrelated stuff shows up. You want to find out how to grind a bowie and you get a thousand posts that say "how do you like this picture of a bowie I ground this morning".

If anything there aren't enough forums here there should be one on tools, and one on metal, and one on forges, etc...

Anyway, I'm pretty conservative. If you reviewed the pre-split posts I was almost certainly saying "why do that?".
 
NickWheeler said:
............................

... but it wouldn't do me any good to say anything. I'd just look like a dick!

..................
Click to expand...

Well, Nick, you are, but we don't hold that agin ya.;):D
 
Has anyone had their hand slapped for posting pictures of their knives here in shoptalk? This is pretty much the only place I do post something I've made for the specific pupose of Q & A. Unless it's a hawk and then I'll also post it in the tomahawk section.

I dont see where anything has changed unless something is going on I dont know about.
 
Nick Wheeler said:
but it wouldn't do me any good to say anything. I'd just look like a dick!
Click to expand...
hehehe :p :D
Mike Hull said:
Well, Nick, you are, but we don't hold that agin ya.;):D
Click to expand...
Gee Mike that comment of Nick's could make this thread go off topic fast.:D

Back to the original topic, it doesn't matter to me, what ever the majority wants.
Scott
 
I read through here, and I like the idea of a FAQ. I'm also a little curious as to why you can't sell in the individual section...
 
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