- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Messages
- 27,732
As an aspiring designer, one of the most exciting things for me is the process starting at conception, and leading toward a finished product which works, and looks good.
It's almost anti climactic when the knife is finished, in that it's the process that really gets my juices flowing. With that being said, when you work with the kind of people I've been fortunate enough to work with, I'm always more than pleased and excited by the finished product.
I've read somewhere that a collector should give his knife maker a great amount of latitude in making a knife, even to the point of leaving ALL the details to the maker and just giving enough input to get started. If this is something that defines a collector, then I don't think I necessarily AM one. Ryan will attest to that, as will anyone else I've worked with.
I'm very particular about design and find that design is where it's at for me when it comes to this stuff. In fact, for me, design trumps materials and that's where I allow interpretation, but I agonize over every line and redraw each design I've conceived dozens of times before I think it's ready to be produced.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but so far, every knife I've designed and had made to the pattern have worked out pretty good. It probably has more to do with the calibre of craftsman I'm working with, however I often produce designs specific to the maker. Not copying any of their stuff, but taking cues from their 'body of work', and trying to help them feel comfortable that they're not selling out by making something so wildly out of their aesthetic that they're ashamed of it
So, this here's a little project I'm working on with my bro, Ryan Weeks. He's making 6 of these. 2 are spoken for locally, which is a little surprising to me but very cool. Amazing how many knife knuts are in the woodwork.
Original pattern;
The first prototype
A slight rejigging of the prototype to make it conform more closely to the original pattern. This is the master pattern which will remain as a template.
The template has been traced on fine grained 1095 carbon steel
The six have been rough profiled and drilled
Knives have been fully profiled, surface ground and cleaned- ready for thermo cycling
Apres thermo cycling
Primary bevels ground in
Now cleaned up to remove scale, tangs are tapered, ready for filework
It's almost anti climactic when the knife is finished, in that it's the process that really gets my juices flowing. With that being said, when you work with the kind of people I've been fortunate enough to work with, I'm always more than pleased and excited by the finished product.
I've read somewhere that a collector should give his knife maker a great amount of latitude in making a knife, even to the point of leaving ALL the details to the maker and just giving enough input to get started. If this is something that defines a collector, then I don't think I necessarily AM one. Ryan will attest to that, as will anyone else I've worked with.
I'm very particular about design and find that design is where it's at for me when it comes to this stuff. In fact, for me, design trumps materials and that's where I allow interpretation, but I agonize over every line and redraw each design I've conceived dozens of times before I think it's ready to be produced.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but so far, every knife I've designed and had made to the pattern have worked out pretty good. It probably has more to do with the calibre of craftsman I'm working with, however I often produce designs specific to the maker. Not copying any of their stuff, but taking cues from their 'body of work', and trying to help them feel comfortable that they're not selling out by making something so wildly out of their aesthetic that they're ashamed of it
So, this here's a little project I'm working on with my bro, Ryan Weeks. He's making 6 of these. 2 are spoken for locally, which is a little surprising to me but very cool. Amazing how many knife knuts are in the woodwork.
Original pattern;
The first prototype
A slight rejigging of the prototype to make it conform more closely to the original pattern. This is the master pattern which will remain as a template.
The template has been traced on fine grained 1095 carbon steel
The six have been rough profiled and drilled
Knives have been fully profiled, surface ground and cleaned- ready for thermo cycling
Apres thermo cycling
Primary bevels ground in
Now cleaned up to remove scale, tangs are tapered, ready for filework
