What do you aspire to?

J

Jason Fry

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
3,160
I was reading some old stuff and found this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-adventure/page3?highlight=knifemaker's+guild

On 12/27/11, I said:
"As for me, I started this journey not sure where I wanted to get. Since then I've made 180 knives or so over nearly 4 years as a hobby maker. My immediate goal is to keep improving my knives, and to keep upgrading my equipment. That strategy alone (better knives, better equipt.) ought to get me somewhere. Won't rule out the Guild or the ABS, but not aspiring to that just yet."

As of yesterday I'm up to 281 knives and am a probationary member in the Guild.

One of the tenets of my profession is that if you want something, you need to be making immediate concrete steps in that direction. In my quest to make better knives, I joined the Guild.

What do you aspire to as a knifemaker? What concrete steps are you taking right now to get you there?
 
I like this topic. I aspire to make it a hobby, and perhaps sell some. I hope when it comes time for me to retire I will have a good hobby and shop to keep me busy. I would also like to use them for charity auctions and such. I have no intention of doing it as a career. I would like to be a member of the Guild at some point, but not interested in ABS. I also like to make knives that I like, and sell them if someone else likes it also. I don't care for the idea of taking orders.
 
For years I thought I would never want to do it "full time", now its
as Salem says "Lovin every Minute". For me slipjoints have always
been a passion--little did I know how serious one needs to get.
Ken.
 
For me like most everyone I came into this as a hobby. I have about a year in and I see that I will continue into the future. I would like to get my JS Stamp someday and see if I have what it takes to go beyond that. But first my immediate goals to improve on fit and finish and learn how to do guards for my forged work and overall just become a solid reliable maker.
 
Until I retire from my "Day Job", I aspire to have as much fun with this hobby as I can possibly have. When I retire, I will have more time to practice my craft and may shift direction... but that's a couple of years down the road. :)

TedP
 
I aspire to being able to turn out a steady and consistent product, and increase quality. There are some things that I don't do because I don't have the space in the forge for it. Starting and stopping projects, and having to put them away between working on them slows the progress of complex projects. Some projects are on top of other projects, and don't get worked on.

I am getting ready to build the new shop to allow much better flow of work and have everything in one neat place. Storage and organization will be the upmost priority. Also, this build will be built once, not built and continually changed and added to. I have been accumulating equipment and materials for this build for over 5 years. I re-draft the plans about every three months. This winter it will come to fruition if the Good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise ( there actually is a creek beside the new shop:) ).
 
I guess I started this thread with a progress report on my two-year-old aspirations, not a statement of what I'm currently working toward.

My main thing is to keep improving my fit and finish. Trouble areas include bevel flatness and even plunges, and here and there an issue with design flow.

My second thing, which goes to the main thing, is to keep improving my equipment. I'm stuck with the shop size I have, and was pondering the need for a third work bench :) I built a 2x72, which improved my work significantly. I'd like to upgrade to variable speed instead of the step pullies I have, or maybe to ditch that grinder altogether and get a KMG. I'd like a mill, probably just a bench top due to space limitations. I'd like a disk grinder, either bought or built. Some of my struggles with bevel flatness are made worse by my grinder speed and not having a disk.

Long term, I'm probationary in the Guild currently. I have to go back to the 2015 show to get my voting membership. I plan to join ABS in January 2014 to get that clock ticking, so I can test for JS after I finish the Guild certification process. I hope to be able to sneak down to Texarkana for an ABS class sometime in there.
 
To me knifemaking is a hobby and I want to keep it that way.
I want to go for quality and not quantity.
At the moment I made a huge improvement with my grinding. I think I am getting close to the point that I can grind a knife to 600gritt without correcting with files.
Next step is to make some knives and feel confident about my grinding.
After that soldering will be the next chalange.

I'd like to get to the point that people ask me to make them a knife, place an order.
 
Honestly I'd love to turn this into a full time job once i retire... 5 years and 10 months from now. I started making rudimentary blades when i was a kid and have kind of refined it over the years to a decently presentable knife. I'd like to be able to get into it and put solid working knives in the hands of men (and women) who need them most and perhaps keep myself clothed and fed in the process. My job takes up too much of my time currently, but im making steps to streamline my process and hopefully build up a recognizable name in hard use knives.
 
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