This discussion and a couple of others lately just seem a bit heavy handed on my part. This will be a voluminous post but I would like to explain myself and clarify my position on a few things.
I dread the thought of dominating or lording over any forum. Heck, I spend much more time here than a forum that I moderate. I just want to be one of the guys offering sound information and having fun. I dont care to be anybodys hero, guru or mentor. This business and our society have too many people wanting to lead others around on a leash, why would I want to be yet another? I would rather cut leashes than hold them myself.
I dont claim to have all the answers since I cant even figure out the questions on my own! It is the folks on forums like this, and those who send me e-mails weekly, that pose the questions which allow me to learn in an attempt to provide a semi intelligent answer. The biggest reason I enjoy teaching, lecturing and demonstrating around the country is because of how much more I learn than what I have to offer when doing it!.
I dont want nor expect credit for any of the metallurgical information I drone on about, most of it was discovered before I was born and I am not into plagiarism. All I did was open some books and read what could be applied to my work; my hope is others will do the same. I have a couple of my own theories I have developed over the years but until I can prove them I dont care to put out bad information, we already have enough experts broadcasting far reaching conclusions based on assumption. And by the way I am not an expert on anything but pissing off my wife.
I dont believe a reputation or name can support or validate any position, I want the facts to support my positions on which I rest my name and reputation. Much the same way a silly M.S. stamp cannot validate my knives if the knives are not good enough to warrant such a stamp. On a list ranking the worlds best smiths I dont wish to participate. It seems sophomoric, and as soon as one names the best another person will give a different name for entirely different reasons. I do know that the quickest way for me to be undeserving of anything but the bottom of the list would be for me to try to place myself anywhere on it. I use the title master bladesmith in my advertising because it was given to me by a group of my peers, which I feel is the only way to receive such a title. It cant be taken or perhaps even knowingly earned, it must be given. A person who assigns it to themselves demonstrates why they may never deserve it.
There have been some who have come right out and taken me to task on disagreements here, I have to say that I have much more respect for them than the lurkers who will bad mouth me any place I am not present to defend myself. I can have a drink with a man who looks me in the eye and says he hates me, I know where he stands. A man who claims to love me to my face and then cuts me down behind my back is someone I dont want to be around at all, they cant be trusted.
I do not claim my knives have better heat treatment, are better performance, or greater works of art than all others. To do so would require a level of hubris that is not my style. I am proud of my work the knives are just the product of that work. I insist that every aspect of their creation is the very best I can do or they dont leave my shop; that is what my conscience requires. It is up to my customers to decide how good my blades are and to brag them up with their own sincere words not the ones I feed them.
I have no problem with guys starting out with old files and leaf springs quenched in Wesson oil because they dont want to spend a lot on their new hobby. I will be honest and say that I do have a problem with the same guys still doing it 20 years later and charging people $1000 for the knife they are too damned cheap to buy good steel and proper tools for. I do make an exception for the smith who goes for the primitive style and sells it as such, that seems to have an honesty to it that I cannot argue with. But the guy I have no patience for is the one who blindly insists there is no difference from his cheap improvisations and good tools made for the job, because the worst dishonesty is self deception. And I get angry when I hear this fantasy pushed onto others in order for the perpetrator to feel better about themselves. Aside from knifemaking, every craft I have ever been exposed to, the respected names are proud of having the finest tools in their shop and knowing how to use them.
Believe it or not I do not feel that my way is the only way to do things. I do however insist on dealing with reality. I never understood drugs for the same reason, if your reality is so miserable that you need to stupefy your mind rather than face it, why dont you try putting down the hash pipe and fix your life! For me the challenge of overcoming the harshest reality is far better than the warmest, fuzziest, fantasies, and attempts to feed me a more comfortable version of reality shows a lack of respect for my intelligence. I sincerely feel that telling you edge packing doesnt work, and why it doesnt, shows much more respect and concern for you than just letting you go on believing it in order to avoid being seen as a jerk.
It has been said that it appears that I refuse to be wrong. I wished it were that easy, that you could just refuse it! Nobody likes being wrong, and I am wrong all the time, I just prefer not to advertise it; it doesnt exactly inspire confidence. We learn from our mistakes and then only publicize our successes. Some would say that just sticking to facts is a safe way to always be right, but I disagree. It is more like a chess game to take technical positions online. You place your piece and look at all possible angles to be certain you have your ass covered before taking your fingers from it. But I would rather risk a checkmate on a bad fact than to be so afraid of being wrong that I stick to subjective feelings and opinions to avoid it.
As a rule I will not post in a forum named for another smith, propriety demands that I not pee in another guys sandbox and that may require my compromising the truth in the face of B.S. so the only thing to do is not go there at all. For the same reason I will not have a forum with my name on it, and I hate it when people address whole threads specifically to me. If the message is just for me it can be done with an e-mail, and besides I dont need any help in building resentment in others on the forums, I do just fine on my own.
I owe you a cigar
