Wasted Blades & Wasted Nites

[Ice Tigre]

Heat treat is always on before I start a knife, usually its some bit of bad design
or a tweak here or there that was wrong. Seems I screw up way to many blades
just grinding the swedge---at that point 90% of the knife WAS finished.
Ken.

I'd call that a good reason to Never put a swedge on a blade...

Unfortunetally, I know the feeling, oh too well...

 

[Rusty McDonald]

Heat treat is always on before I start a knife, usually its some bit of bad design
or a tweak here or there that was wrong. Seems I screw up way to many blades
just grinding the swedge---at that point 90% of the knife WAS finished.
Ken.

I can feel your pain on this, I have about 10 or 15 in a coffee can that will never have an owner because of a last minute adjustment or I get it together and just cant for the life of me get the Blade to open at all after peening(only happend 3 times so far), even after having the right pull set on the blade the nail nick in just the right place with just the right amount of depth for the type of blade. I just put them in the can and try to forget about them.
Or what about peening the bolsters and cracking the handle material? There are so many things that can go wrong!

 

[Steven65]

A little welding there Ken and you would have an awesome piece of modern art
You could call the sculpture..... "Slip Sliding Away"

PS- Looking forward to seeing you on Friday......

 

[artmichalek]

Corey...any such requests should be handled privately via email or PM...and...secondly, most makers don't want their "rejects" getting into the hands of the public lest someone seeing the work think that it is representative of the quality of the work that is released for purchase and sale.

(It is a lot of extra work for makers to permanently mark blades and parts as "rejects" and most don't want to chance having their names and reps sullied by some innocent mistake in judgment on the part of someone who might not know better.)

I once took a tour of the Martin guitar factory, and someone asked the guide about discounted seconds. She pointed to a row of guitars in various stages of completion sitting in front of a big band saw. There were some instruments in that room that failed quality control right before the strings went on for things that a lot of companies would have let go. Factory seconds were available in the gift shop as paper weights. The pieces they were selling may have even excluded any part that says Martin on it. Once you reach a certain reputation and price point absolutely nothing can leave the building with your name on it that isn't flawless.

 

[FOG2]

Oh yea those swedge,s cause a pucker factor in my shop ! I,ve been doing them freehand w/o any reference marking,s which i,m sure isn,t the best way.
I have read about folks who do them 1st and that seems like a good idea but i haven,t tried that yet either.

 

[waynorth]

I get it, that cutting swedges isn't for the faint of heart, but on a tour of the Queen factory, I saw a cutler grinding swedges, one pass each side, left hand for mark side, right hand for pile side. I picked up some of those knives with his permission, and they were dead on!! I didn't ask how many he ruined as an apprentice!