We Have a Winner! - Dumbest things you have done as a knife maker?

I almost forgot epoxying jeans to my leg... thinking "aw, this hot melty smoking G10 I'm cutting with a Dremel can't really be stinking up the whole house"... and of course, touching things that don't look hot only to realize, "hmm, that's still hot."
 
Early on after getting my KMG I was grinding a blade with a flannel jacket on. I started to smell something burning and looked around and then down. Turns out that flannel is pretty flammable and about a 10" spot on my jacket was burning very good.
 
I've got two bone head lessons learn to share...

1. When I first started into making knives, I had no idea about heat treat aside from getting it red hot and quenching. So I bought a bar of O1 (because I heard it was really easy to work with) and ground my knife almost to complete finish.... sharp edge and all. Then I thought, "I want this to be the best knife in the world." So I clay coated the spine, heated it up as hot as I could (yellow) and quenched it as fast as I could (in a bucket of iced water). The sound that came from that quench was like nothing I've ever heard..... I truly made myself a worldclass knife that day.

2. My wife is a graphic designer for Parks Canada and was working on a sign that was mounted on an aluminum plaque. I refaced it for her on my grinder, then went about my business as a knifemaker. I discovered the recipe for thermite that day, along with how to ignite it.


Rick
 
I'm no maker but the stupidest thing I have done was not wearing Safety glasses while operating a foot powered grinding wheel on my first knife. I was also peddling the wrong way... It was 2 hours in emergency as the Residency student took out all the metal. You should have also seen the Brand new fully loaded Ford F150 behind me. I killed the paint.
 
Take your pick from these ones:
-Recieving my 2009 KITH knife, loving the thing, playing with it so much all the time that I cut myself in the nose.

-Failing a spine whack on a fence post and needing stiches
 
Bad ideas and doing stupid things are pretty much my specialty....as far as knife making,it has to be the day I received my nickname from Indian George.I was working on building my gas forge at George's,and had been cutting some fire bricks with his angle grinder with the proper masonry disk.A little while later he says I can have some of the old iron anchor chain that he had.So in my rush to cut one link free from the others I forget to change the disc to a metal cutting one-needless to say in the act of trying to cut said chain the disc fetches up and is propelled at about mach 10 into my forehead leaving me with an inch and a half gouge down to the bone above my right eye(luckily George has a strict rule about safety glasses in his shop!)
Well,1 trip to the ER and 10 stitches later I am now know as "Scar" around New Bedford way :o
 
The Contest Winner is
Post #34 - Argel55
Congratulations. Send me an email or PM with your mailing address and I will get your block in the mail.
This block is the prize for the contest.
w002.jpg
 
Okay, I can see that. Post #34 describes something that is about as close to setting yourself on fire and kicking yourself in the nuts as you can get without help. LOL
 
argel55 said:
you said it jdm61= and you even get awesome scars
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I don't think that would be a place that I would want scars.

butcher_block said:
my guess at the wood is spalted walnut burl (you did afterall say you woudl tell what it was )
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It is walnut burl. Not sure about the spalting though. Sometimes the walnut will just get unusual bands of contrasting colors. It came from a big old stump burl. The guy I got it from had it about 10 years. Not sure how long it had been out of the ground before that. The exterior couple inches was all cracked and full of bug holes. My boss thought I was crazy when I wanted to do the trade with this guy but he indulged me. His mind changed a bit after I started cutting it up.

I am not sure if it is from the years of seasoning or what that caused the cool colors but it is a lot nicer than what I usually see.
 
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Burl Source said:
It is walnut burl. Not sure about the spalting though. Sometimes the walnut will just get unusual bands of contrasting colors. It came from a big old stump burl. The guy I got it from had it about 10 years. Not sure how long it had been out of the ground before that. The exterior couple inches was all cracked and full of bug holes. My boss thought I was crazy when I wanted to do the trade with this guy but he indulged me. His mind changed a bit after I started cutting it up.

I am not sure if it is from the years of seasoning or what that caused the cool colors but it is a lot nicer than what I usually see.
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Was that the only block you got out of the stump?
 
Emphasiski said:
Was that the only block you got out of the stump?
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No, there are a lot with every one looking a little different. I got 3 big burl stumps from this guy. This block came from the stump to the far left.
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This shows a few of the other blocks.
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