What do you do when things go wrong in the workshop ... ?

J

Jason Cutter

Joined
Oct 9, 2002
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Thought I'd ask ... ! ;) :D How do you guys cope when a (usually) small but fatal error occurs in the workshop ?

EG.- yesterday, I ground and HT-ed 4 hollowground blades with hamons, for a series of small wrapped-handled knives. After I'd finshed them and hand rubbed to 4000 micro-mesh finish and was getting ready for the wraps... I realised that I'd put the dreaded 2inch-dip onto each and every blade on the left sides. Subtle enough to miss, visible only with the fine finish, deep enough to be not practically correctable due to the thin grinds. All of a sudden I had 4 throwing knives. :mad:

Also in the past, I'd epoxied on some handle slabs with the wrong slab surface (not flattened) towards the tang. :mad:

I scream, curse, threaten the offending item with death, etc. :mad: takes me a few minutes to cool it. :grumpy: :rolleyes: :confused:

I know of a woodworker who has a bucket of water handy. When he makes a fatal error like that, he dumps the bucket over himself !!! :eek: But sometimes, he just kicks the bucket and makes a mess in the workshop.

What do you guys do ??? (Looking for tips ! :D ) Thanks ! Jason.
 
I just have to lock up the shop, and leave it. Some times I go for a drive, or just go in the house and sulk. Fishing works well too.
 
SHUGYO, SHUGYO, SHUGYO... :)

I hope I understood you correctly on the rough translation of that. I have been writing it in my workout notebook...especially for things like 20 rep set squat nights. And I think it fits for us growing knifemakers as well.

Sometimes (more for some of us than others) this crap just happens. It usually happens to me when I'm in the last minute crazy efforts the night before a show.

First I say a lot of words I can't repeat here. Then I usually throw something. I most often start to throw whatever the knife in question is across the shop, but then regain just enough sense to flop it on the bench instead.

If I'm being rational (at all) I realize this is a good time to go into the house and do a LOT of stretching...I can always feel a lot of that stress leave my body at that point. Then I'll walk away and just get my focus somewhere else.

All my work-outs at the gym are scheduled, laid-out, and exacting...so a trip to the gym to just hash out some shop frustration isn't ever something I do. But I have jumped on the treadmill here at home a few times and ran off a bunch of that built up anxiety...that seems to work well.

I've been thinking about getting a speed-bag for out there, just for the kind of moment you had.

Whatever you do, don't shoot anyone, and don't throw the knife into the forge ;)

Nick
 
Whaddya mean, "goes wrong?" My shop is so charmed and my work so well executed everything always goes perfectly according to plan. Every project turns out exactly as envisioned; or better.

No kidding!

Really!

But if the impossible-to-imagine were to happen, I'd remove myself from the shop for a couple days. Maybe until I figured out what caused my problems. Or maybe until I just calmed down or got some rest. Maybe I'd start a pile or a drawer full of ruined, failed work... But really, I can't imagine such a thing happening.

Under no circumstances would I ever work out or stretch or freaking run!!! Cripes, that was silly advice!

:D
 
I leave. Go lift weights, go ride my bike, go for a drive(worst idea, as while drivinig, punch roof of truck, which already has a nice big hole in cardboard of headliner, and probalby dent in metal under that. Luckkily, haven4't ripped the fabrtic part yet, so doesn't look quite as bad as it will when I manage to rip through that. :) )
 
I'm like ddavelarsen. I don't make mistakes!

But I often have design opertumities.

When I don't see how the design can be changed to suit me I hang it on the wall behind the grinder. I have to look at it everytime I use the grinder. Not to say something always comes to mind. I have a set of steak knives that have been hanging on the wall for a couple of years. I'll get around to it, eventually.

:) Lynn
 
Shrug my shoulders, admit I made a mistake. Tack the knife to the wall for a while as a reminder to myself.

NOT TO GET INA HURRY! :o
 
I think this is where the skill of knife throwing was developed. Plus the punching bag in the corner of the shop works great!
 
Funny you should mention that. I ruined three hawks last night. Times like that are the major reason I have to go to church on Sunday.
I speak in dead languages, throw things, stomp off and sometimes just quit and swear never to forge again!
 
I like the idea of "design opportunities". Usually what I do when I make a goof is to chunk the thing in the "oops pile" and start over. With me, I just can't modify something I screwed up and get the same effect. It may look okay, but I'll always know its there. Occasionally I'll drag something out of the crap-pile and fashion it into another design, but rarely. Seems like the magic is gone when I do.
 
I go play with my dogs, no one can remain in a bad temper with those smilling faces looking at you.
Jerry
 
A punching bag! That's a great idea for my next shop purchase!!!

When I start making mistakes it usually means I am way too tired to be in the shop. When they aren't correctable mistakes I often pack it in for the night. Some of my particularly stupid blunders on some really nice knives has led me to destroy the knife in a fit of rage. Something about grinding that offending knife into oblivion that is strangely satisfying.

Sean
 
After a period of ranting and raving I take a serious look at the mistake then leave it alone for a while. Then I take another look at it and if the mistake is fatal then I have to chuck it into the iron pile. However if the flaw is not fatal I regrind or repair the flaw. You may be surprised at what you come up with, sometimes better than what you were doing to start with. It has been said that the mark of a true artist is how he handles the mistakes. I have a policy to finish every knife I start so I don't through very much away. Gib
 
The first knife I made was awsome but I hollow ground the blade alittle to thin and it warped during normalization. My Sensi said it would proboly be able to straigten. Nope it cracked :mad: . I was disapointed to say the least. Sensi says let go have lunch. After lunch I started grindig agin and left the edge a little thicker, no problems this time and it took me 3hrs to grind the first only 1hr to grind the second. Learn from the mistakes you make. Take a break come back with refreshd attitude.
Peace
Bob Barnett :)
 
I used to suck down a big bottle of cheap bourbon. Now I just have a nice glass of frosty cold milk.

I'm turning into my Father.
 
I just sit there with my arms hanging down and a blank stare on my face peering into oblivion for a few minutes in total silence without a thought in my mind.
 
This thread is just too funny. Tess says my attitude has gotten better over the last three years. Once I go mad enough to throw an axe through the shop wall. The bag works well, I called it my stress relief system in my shop tour.
:D
 
I have the system down pat by now. I cuss and stomp around in circles in the shop. It is imporant that you do it in a certain order, such as use the correct 4 letter words in unison with the stomping. You should be sure to alternate your direction of circle stomping, or you will probably end up with one leg shorter than the other and one foot flatter than the other. If it's really bad and you have to kick a bucket, DON'T kick the one you keep all your assorted nuts and bolts in. Or your water or pee bucket, if you have one. You gotta watch out a stray kick doesn't clip your shop buddy, too. Mine would probably bite me. After the shop rant, I usually figure I should have just gone hunting or fishing that day instead of trying to stomp the floor in and scaring any neighbors within hearing distance. If you have one bum leg like I do, you sound like a broken wheel junk wagon going in circles in the shop, being pulled by a drunk muleskinner.
 
I've never told this story on myself before but since John is suggesting such dangerous things....... :eek:

In my younger days, when I had a really bad temper, I had an old safe in the shop that I kept gunpowder in. I don't remember what I was working on but I screwed it up.
I kicked that damn safe so hard that I broke my ankle. Try explaining that sometime! :o

Of course I have no temper at all now! :rolleyes:
 
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