Ducati? I encounter them a lot while researching my Triumph, European bikes tend to get herded together in the U.S. Winter comes much sooner in MI so my riding distraction is quickly vanishing
. I am certain you should be able to find makers around your area to get things started. If my post makes enough folks wonder, perhaps they will look differently from day one and changes can eventually happen, it is a nice thought.
Amen, Stacy. I never understood the whole pseudonym thing on forums, but I have always recognized that other do so I let it go. I do understand a new guy just wanting to check things out using whatever handle they like for anonymity. But when somebody who has a reputation for knowing what they talk about, or is trying to present themselves as the same, sneaks around under some adolescent nickname quite a few credibility points are instantly deducted in my book. New guys have no stake either way, so I don’t mind as much but I believe if you are somebody who may be recognized, you are just dodging your responsibility to stand behind your words by not putting your name on them. I don’t go by “Kevin R. Cashen” to the pretentious, that is exactly how I sign my name and so you will see it that way on every post that matters that I have written. I will however use aliases to observe but not to post, if I want to be taken seriously.
Once again the average Joe is entitled to a little fun, but guys who claim to be somebody and want folks take them seriously are a different matter.
I had not previously filled in the profile stuff just due to not even really noticing it was there. Now it's full. Unfortunately, they don't give you much room to work with in there.
Yep, I do handle a ton of Ducks.
For the longest time (seemed like an eternity) I was a graphics/multimedia/web designer, marketing consultant, marketing director, government proposal manager, and contractor for a huge IT staffing and solutions firm. I worked in a windowless room with windowless people about 14 hours a day when I didn't have too many contracting jobs at once. For years and years I sat in a cubicle all day everyday. I had a headache every minute i was awake and when I would sleep, I would dream I was at work. The money was crazy big. Between my salary and my contract jobs, I would pull about $180,000 anually after taxes. For a young guy in the business, that is unbelieveable. Unfortunately I hated my existance.
I have had and worked on motorcycles ever since I was a little kid and had several bike shop owners offer me jobs. One owner of a big Yamaha/Suzuki shop in MS just outside Memphis had been begging me for a couple of years to come work at his shop and I had turned him down over and over again. He would tell me everytime I came in "the offer is still on the table."
One day I was sitting in my cubicle with a splitting headache and I looked at my hand and realized I had formed a callus (sp) on my index finger where it touched the mouse button. I sat there and looked at it for a few minutes and thought back to a no money job I had for a while when I was a teenager in a sheet metal shop. I smiled for a while remembering how much I enjoyed that job and even though I didn't make any kind of good money I was still happy all the time. Then I looked at all of the project stuff I had hanging all over the walls of my cubicle and my headache started getting worse. At that point, what all the old folks told me finally made sense. "Money can't buy happiness, especially if you never get to spend it." I stood up and walked over to my bosses office and said "I'm going home." He looked up at me and didn't argue, just said "ok. we'll see you tomorrow." Then, I said "I'm not coming back tomorrow. I'm never setting foot in here again. I'm not giving two weeks notice. I'm leaving right now." He called the owner of the company and had him leave a meeting with some big wigs to come talk to me. Both of them begged me not to quit and offered me more money, an office and everything else to stay. I appologized for leaving without notice and told them that I really appreciated them giving me the job for so long and that I really enjoyed working with everyone. Then, I turned around and walked out. On my way out the door, a recruiter named Brian Baird said "you're my hero." My headache was instantly gone.
The next day i called the owner of that shop and said "offer still on the table?" He said "Does a cat have an ass? Can you start tomorrow?" Thus started my motorcycle career. Since then, I was a sales guy for a while, then a mechanic, then a service writer, and then a service manager. After a while, some big wigs in a Ducati, Aprilia, Motoguzzi shop in Atlanta called me and offerred me a job as a sales guy. They said they had heard about me from serveral district reps for Yamaha and Suzuki and I had a great reputation. Since I had been wanting to move back to ATL for a long time anyway, I took the job. Now our shop carries Ducati, Aprilia, Motoguzzi, Yamaha, Honda, and Kawasaki. I love the Italians. One of the perks here is that I get to take home whatever i want on the weekends and tear the North Georgia mountains to pieces. I don't have any money. I've got a decent apartment with my own garage full of bikes. I live month to month at best. However, I'm happy almost all the time. I have had several people try to hire me back into the design and multimedia world and I always respectfully decline with a big smile on my face.
For me, the edged tool world (knives) is another thing I've always wanted to be a part of, even if it was just for myself. Ever since my "great epiphany" I have believed in doing things for myself, not money, not recognition. Knives and guns have always held a special place in my heart. I don't want to know how to make guns. I know how to shoot, clean, repair and customize them, that's enough for me, but knives are a totally different story. I would love nothing else than to be able to see my ideas and designs come to fruition in my own hands. Something about watching something take shape because you are making it is a very special experience. That's one of the reasons I loved working at the sheet metal shop. When I wasn't building them chimney caps and regular stuff like that, I was using scrap to make everything i could think of. It was so much fun. That's what I want out of knife making. I want to create things that start in my head and have the skill to do it correctly. Hense, trying to find someone in my area that doesn't mind me hanging around and asking questions/ learning to make knifes. I think that the most important base for any future in anything is having the right motives. I think that effects the final outcome and craftmanship more than anything else. Do it because you love it and want to be creative, not because you want to sell something and mass produce for the best ROI.
More than I want someone to look at my knife and say "WOW! That thing is spectacular. How much do you want for it?" I want to look at it in my hands when I finish and say to myself "wow. This knife is gorgeous. I'm going to use the crap out of this thing."
. Most knifemakers curse every second wasted on that leather as it could have been better used on making a better knife! I finally got over my absolute hatred of the sheath making by buying good tools to do it (sounds like a reoccurring theme here doesnt it?). I had some extra cash at the Blade show and was looking for knife tools and materials when I saw some leather working stuff and I asked myself why am I spending all of my money on tolls that will speed up the jobs that I love doing, while continuing to work with junk that makes the job I detest last for hours longer than it needs to? I dropped about $2,000 on leather tools and built a special comfy area in my lab just for that job, and guess what? In no time my sheaths looked better than they ever had and I longer had thoughts of suicide when it came time to make them.
