What do you do when this happens?

C.Edmondson

C.Edmondson

Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
1,114
SO I wanted myself a good welded quench tank, I found a welder in my area that everyone reccommends and go thim to fix me up. Now when I get to his shop to pick up my new quench tank theres about 20 people outside all sitting around talking etc, and of course someone in the crowd ask what it for. I tell them I am a knife maker and start to explain what purpose the quench tank serves when one guy says " If you want to learn to make knives you need to talk to Mr. !@#$%, he dosent even have to quench his knives because their made out of rail road steel. Now me and Mr.!!@#$% have a really bad past, hes a crook,cheat, and much more I wont talk about here. All these guys start talking about how wonderful his knives are because he uses deer horn for the handles, and believe me I have seen his knives and they are junk, complete junk, but since hes the hometown guy I guess hes the favorite among a bunch of rednecks. I dont say a negative word about their knives as they pull them out and show me, I just say thats nice and wonder what in the hell are these guys thinking, It damn near made me sick. All these guys suckered in and not even having the sence to know it. and to make it worse one guy even told me he could probally get me lessons from him for 50 or so an hour, I bout lost my cool. Here I am trying to do the best I can to make Great knives and be honest towards people and have tested at least 150 knives with different applications to make sure its just right and Im getting heckeled. And believe me these people really think hes the second coming from heaven, no joke. I just thanked everyone and got in the truck and headed back home, kinda sick..... I thought about going home and getting a knife I have finished up for a customer with some sence and taking it back over their but it just wasnt worth it, "when you fight with pigs, you get dirty, and there still happy":mad:
 
CE,
Everything is relative. They just don't know what good is. I felt that same way you do a few times, but then I think back to when I was in school and working part time in a sporting goods store. There were always guys who would sit at the gun counter and yabber on and on about the technical aspects of this gun versus that gun, and how they know this and that.

Then one of them would walk over to where the camoflague duck blinds were set up and the spray paint for making your own blind and stare at it for the longest time. I am not kidding this would happen a lot.... The sign said camoflague spray paint - and there were cans of green, brown, black etc. Never failed the guy who talking the loudest 5 minutes ago, would carry the can over to me and ask....

"How do I get the camoflague pattern to come out of the can like that?"

:D
Larry
 
Haha...I hear you. Everyone seems to know some joe-blow that makes the best knives in the world. And heck, maybe he really does make the best knives in the world, but they sure to look like @#%! most of the time!

Seems like half of the time when someone finds out that I make knives, that someone will bring in a picture or a knife that was made by someone they know. Then, if I show them a knife I made, they look at me sideways and incredulously like, "you really made this?" You can almost hear them calling BS just because they've never realized how good a custom-made knife can be after only seen joe-blow's work.

Of course, then many times you become the "joe-blow" that they tell everybody else about that makes the best magical knives in the world!

--nathan
 
I'm just wondering: Where was your own EDC!? If someone finds out I make knives, or wonders what I do with all of the wood/materials I buy, I whip out my current EDC and even though I'm only on knife number 8, they're very impressed with how well it looks compared to a walmart knife. Can't wait until someone sees how SHARP my knives are too (new paper wheels)
 
Larry and Nathan your both right on the money, This guy has people in a trance tho, like thier his minions,LOL I guess its like my wife said, It probally dont take much to amaze them,LOL:o
 
Mike I never get a chance to carry one of my knives other than a week or so. I have told myself time and time again, Im gonna keep this one for me, and I end up kicking myself in the butt when stuff like this happens. I have a good customer that takes a liken to them and then their gone. but this has given me a new purpose to make myself one, and this one wont get away!
 
Humans are strange creatures... there's a lot of 'em that will latch onto absolute junk and defend it staunchly, to the end of their days. Simply because they don't want to admit they got screwed. (Cable TV late-night shopping-channel knives... 'nuff said)

Doesn't matter if we're talking knives, guitars, cars, guns, women, whatever. Not much more I can say about it, and not much you can do except maybe do a very calm, preferably silent, cutting demo; then walk away after leaving some business cards on the table/bar/whatever. It's not worth fighting over, or getting steamed and letting it ruin your day.

"Never argue with an idiot... they'll just drag you down to their level and whup you with experience... worse yet, bystanders might not be able to tell the difference between the two of you."
 
Don't feel bad Charlie.... I've been in that same situation dozens of times. It's frustrating as hell, but you've gotta just let it roll off.

Not long ago I had a couple guys at the school start going on and on about another guy that comes to school part-time and what a phenomenal knife maker he is. Said I should see if he'd let me come to his shop as he could surely teach me a lot. He came in a couple days later and was cutting "blades" out of some 300 series stainless plate and a concrete saw blade with a plasma torch. Then he ground them with an angle grinder. And was done with the blade work at that point.... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

He proceeded to tell me the ss was good hard stainless for a knife, and the concrete blade (which BTW- clearly had brazed on sintered carbide teeth) was D2 and made knives FAR SUPERIOR to anything at the store.

About this time the other yahoos came around and asked if I was taking notes so I could learn from the master.


;) :D ;)

I'm thinking I'll be taking the integral I'm finishing in to see if "the master" and his peanut gallery have any more advice for me. :D ROFLMFAO :)
 
Nick I would love to see the look on his face when you bring one of your knives to show him:eek:, If I showed up for a lesson with Mr.!@#$% he would probally soil his britches, Last time we saw each other was the craziest nights I have ever lived, Hes just not a good fellow, but I hear he makes the finest damn knives this side of Texas,LOL
 
Charlie,
The way to really get the message out is with some good PR. Have a friend call the local paper ( or TV station) and tell them about you and the fact that you FORGE real handmade knives. Have him/her give them your contact info and some other things that will make them want to come and do an article on you. If you win an award, have a knife in Blade magazine, etc., that is a good time to do this. Or, if you just finished a really nice bowie, or made a knife for a local big wig hunter..... anything to pique their interest in an article.(Most papers are dying for a unique article)


There is a local blacksmith who makes knives out of cable. He does not do anything but quench them in the slack tub when done forging the blade. He leaves them 'Brute de Forge', and only grinds an edge on the blade. Sometimes he wraps cord or leather on the tang, and sometimes he leaves it bare rough. Some look OK, and some look so-so.The edge is terrible, and pieces of the cable break out often, I am told. Despite the poor quality and minimal HT, I have met several people who have been convinced that he invented this process ( he is in his 30's) and that the technique produces the best blade possible. Years back, I would hear the same things you posted. After the paper ran some articles on my knives and other work, I haven't heard many folks say, Do you know Mr. *!#X$? He make really great knives?"

Stacy
 
Man that sucks, I bet one of your knives could destroy one of his in fit and finish and performance. Charlie you are a better man than I, I might have lost my cool, which would have been bad because I would have came back with a sword :D
 
ce, stacy has a good idea about contacting the media. maybe you need to contact them yourself. i have ran across some guys like that who make knives that look like a monkey put them together. the handles fall off when someone goes to use them or they are dull from the start. nick even had some hate mail sent to him and i have had some sent to me also.
a friend i went to school with was checking out my knives last summer when he seen me at a friends place. he really liked them and was amazed at how sharp they were. he told me he is the vice president of market development for a tv show and he asked me to make a knife on the show. if i find out when they are wanting to film the show maybe you can come up and show how to forge a knife.
 
Just remember...........

You can fool some of the people, some of the time.
And you can fool all the people, some of the time.
But you can NOT! fool all the people, all of the time.

What you do is bite your tongue, like you did........:rolleyes:;) Unless you want to get into a pissing contest....... :D
And remember what Bob Loveless said.......

Put it out there and let the public sort it out. and believe me they will.

TA

EDIT to add......
Go back and invite them to join the forums, maybe we can convert them.....:D




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Nick, I wish you would bring your integral in for show and tell to the peanut gallery... and please post the results! That sounds like quality entertainment to me.

I'm just now finishing my first linerlock, and I'll be carrying it around soon. Being a fixed blade maker does not often lend itself to spontaneous demonstrations. Unless you like freaking people out and getting the cops called on you for having a big scary knife.:rolleyes:
 
When I was finishing my first knife I got heckled for bothering to make a knife by another student in the RIT metal labs, He said it was pointless to make a knife because nothing was as good as Solingen Steel
I got tired of his horsepuckey, after all I made my knife out of a real Nicholson Black Diamond file which was meant to cut steel. I had done some reading so I was pretty confident, OK cocky.
I finally told him put up or shut up, took my knife out of the kiln and quenched it in hot olive oil, tempered it at 375 for an hour, put my entire bank account on the table ($100.00) challenged him to match it and bring his Solingen knife. I put his Solingen Stainless blade edge up in a vise, sharpened my knife with about a 30 degree edge bevel (I wasn't taking chances) and cut an inch out of his cutting edge. I still have his knife in my toolbox, I use it for radiator hoses and the like.

About 3 years ago I was getting bent out of shape because someone was killing my market by flooding it with crappy work and practically giving it away. My wife told me that I shouldn't worry about the fact that everyone was saying how great he was, my core customer base was the people who would recognize good authentic work, concentrate on just doing my thing and let my work talk, let him bottom fish until he'd gotten tired. She was right

Now I don't worry about what anyone else is doing, I just do my thing, and people look me up with fun and challenging work, I will not get in a bidding war for comissions anymore, If I want to do something I do it. If nobody buys it, oh well. I've got a day job

-Page
 
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