What do you makers do with "not quite there" knives?

There is no perfect knife when you look at it with the makers eyes. You can beat yourself up to the point you quit. I had a friend whom I was teaching to make knives and he kept comparing his work to mine and could not get past that he as newbie could not equal me, he had great promise but he quit despite my encouragement. I had some of the same tendencies when I started but got over them as folks kept bugging to buy what I had deemed as a failure due to cosmetics. As long as functional quality is still up to par like good steel, heat treated correctly etc. I don't trash it. I have had many people get a great deal on a cosmeticly challenged knife that would have NEVER been able to obtain a handmade knife.(I am always up front with them on the cosmetic issue and the issue is minute not major). Or I am inspired to just give it to someone and make their day. These folks have become some of my best "word of mouth" sales people. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I know this philosiphy may not be shared by all, but I would not trade it for all the smiles/thanks I have received.
God Bless,
Jim
 
The whole idea of never having any knife out there that isn't perfect is ridiculous.

If everyone were that way there wouldn't be any knives for sale. Nothing is perfect. You'd all spent 10-15 years perfecting your craft before ever selling anything. See a problem with that?

I've seen and heard of makers trying to buy all their early knives back. To my way of thinking, it's unrealistic, constitutes a huge ego and a person that's extremely vain.
A maker should never be ashamed of their early work as long as they did their best for their skill level at that time. No one expects a makers early work to be perfect.

Makers follow a progression in talent. The longer they make, the better they get. If later work is not better than that at the beginning then they'd better take up bus driving.

That's one reason a new makers work should be priced less.

I gave my girlfriend one of the first knives I ever made, an 11" slim fighter. IMO, it's ugly, but par for the course for my talent level at that time.
We're married now and she won't hear of me redoing it.
She carries it in her glovebox at all times.

If you don't like the idea of women being appreciative of larger knives, then you might want to reevaluate your ideas of women and their likes/dislikes.

Some will like it, some not, just like men. She would like it because you made it. But maybe charity is actually the best option in this case.:(
 
:) Thanks for all the reassurement. I think, in this case, its not so much a "im a relatively new maker and its to be expected" as it is "I know what I can produce and what I consider acceptable for me"

Im not saying ANY knife I have sold has been perfect, and none ever will. But I'd like to imperfections to be due to my current skill level at that point and not because I simply "let that one go," knowing full well it wasn't up to par.

As for my GF....has nothing to do with my view of women, and more to do with MY woman. Haha. She likes my dainty knives, what can I do? :)

Heres a for-instance: Here is the knife I most debated with myself and ultimately kept and I use as my EDC.
left4.jpg


Can you see that visible epoxy gap between the carved bolster and wood? No, it doesnt affect usability. No, it is not a major flaw. No, most people wouldn't care given the whole package. BUT, its an art knife. Lots of people urged me not to worry, not to care. But as a knife lover and collector, it was an etchical decision to keep it. I guess its a decision every maker must make. Don't get me wrong, 99% of the knives I make, I sell. But from time to time, something deep inside me wont let one go, and I am proud of that. Its not anxiety over imperfection, its not fear that a customer will hate it or badmouth me, its just my own business practice, for better or worse. Luckily as a part time maker, I can afford it.

I can see already from the responses that attitudes greatly vary on this subject, and its really really interesting to me to hear them all and then look back in on myself and decide if I am doing things for the right reasons, or if it is indeed some sort of ego trip. Anyone else have pictures of flaws they wouldnt let out of the shop? Tell me I aint crazy, or confirm that I am crazy!
 
Damn, that is one nice knife, tictok. I am not a maker, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind being the owner! :D

I love the bladeshape and the hamon line is gorgeous!
 
Give 'em to your buddy's, I have done that a bunch of times. You've made a knife that only another maker could find a flaw if he really looks for it? You know you could do a little better but the blade is perfectly usable? The average guy probably would never see the little imperfection that keeps guy's like us up at night. Give it someone who will use it hard and enjoy it.

Rick
 
thanks for all the good advice, guys. I will take it all to heart and find a home for this lil sucker...or a grave :)
 
Although neither of the knives shown qualify for what I'm fixing to say, here is what a Master Smith told me last weekend at the Arkansas Custom Knife show when the subject of 'knife failures' came up:
He has a special "graveyard" in his back yard for knife screw-ups, and he just goes out to the "graveyard" and hammers it into the ground and leaves it there...buried in the ground.....r.i.p.
Another guy just puts on a brand new 36 grit belt, turns the Bader up full speed, and "feeds" it to the grinder until a pile of steel powder is all that's left.
But like I said, both of the above knives are WAY better than that.
 
Tik,
I think it's important for you to keep this knife. You need to be able to figure out what it is you don't like about it. I think a maker needs to keep one of his knives every once in a while...then you can look back and see your progresion.. and learn from your mistakes.
Mace








Or ya could mount it on the roof of your gay car!:eek: :D
 
Heck i think this categorizes most all of my knives..i got a bucket full of them and the creek behind my house probably had more steel in the bottom than most mines do..but thats part of my anger managent problem i guess..
 
Loveless once told me that every hand made knife should have a tiny flaw in it some where just so that te folks know that it really is hand made. Of course Bob's flaw, is way different than most of us. But I have indeed had(a gun shows) people walk right by my table and go to directly to one where the work on it looked like it had been put together from scraps from a bad reck. OH< Look! You can tell that these are reall hand made knives. You can tell by looking at these, that that guy's over there are just factory knives that he put his name on. No body can really make a knife like those by hand. Any body here ever heard this before. You know instantly that your at the wrong show. Usually you can imagine deliverance being played in the backgroundk Haaa! Oh< adn the Knife looks nice to me. Here's some of my Factory stuff Heee! Junkers all. If you don't want it, I have a place for it. Sweed, keep that crap out'a the creek. Its not a junk yard. Steel adn Iron do contaminate. Mike
 
I like the idea of a little gay VW beetle with a 15" blade strapped to the hood. Might keep those pickups from cutting me off....
 
Don't that car come with a "bud vase" on the dash? Why don't you stick it in there with a couple of daisys?;)
 
I think it is quite alright but agree there is something about the blade that makes that look realy good to me but something in the handle that I just can not put my finger on. Very nice just not what I am used to. I think maybe photoshop on a dozen different handles and see if anything takes your fancy.
If not leave it as it is.

Good turn out just the same.
 
TikTock: That's a horrible looking knife!:D Your best bet would be to give it to me, then I'm sure you would feel a lot better! I know I would:D All kidding aside, it's still a gorgeous blade, and if it were me, I'd cut the scales off and jap wrap it!!
 
Dig a groove all around the scales and do inlay with a complementing color and change a mistake into art.
Jim
 
And the great suggestions just keep coming in!
The handle is my gripe, too. I was iffy about it, then when the epoxy line showed, i got testy with it and now its my bastard stepchild.

Ive decided to sideline it for a while...work on other knives, then at some point come back to it with fresh eyes and decide its fate. The idea of hammering it into a tree in the middle of the woods someplace and posting the GPS coords has always been appealing to me...heh!

(yes, it has a bud vase, and no, i dont want to talk about it, hahah)
 
I think the handle doesn't match the character of the blade. But somebody will love to pay you for it. If you're satisified that the knife is constructed well and won't fall apart when used, I see no problem with selling it. I wouldn't sell or give away a knife I felt wasn't constructed well enough but will if I just don't like the looks.
 
Oh yeah, HT and usability should be a non issue. I did the normal testing on the blade post-HT. This knife's future is totally up in the air. Its funny, I too think the handle shape doesnt match at all, but the handle is really really comfortable.....perhaps the best option is to rip those scales off and para wrap the whole thing, and save that handle design for a blade with more width and overall size. I see the problem with it more and more having to do with the sleek lines of the blade and hamon, and the workhorse kinda chopping shape of the scales.
 
[
. The visual flaw is pretty small. Here is an early one I held onto due to a poor scale/bolster fit...you can see the glue line between scale and bolster, and though most people Ive shown it to didnt find it to be a fatal flaw,

It is a beutiful knife that should be somwhere where it is appreciated. What if they threw the mona lisa in a closet because of a tiny brush stroke? my opinion. jim
 
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