what is a forum and why do we come here

W

wildthing423

Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
13
Hi all,

I was doing a search on google something about bar stock and this thread about cheating came up. I replied to the thread though the last post was in jan. 09 I believe. Located here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7612599#post7612599

and it caused me to think on all the forums I belong to and all the help one may seek and the question types and the answers the individual may receive. The thread I reference tells me that many people think that if you dont figure it out all on your own then you suck, in a nicer way. I come away feeling that perhaps I should not try or I should ask some where else or I should find another pastime or hobby or I should sell my children into slavery so I can buy a forge and all associated materials. And it for sure put me off on making the original posts that I wanted to make. I came to wonder just what a forum such as this is for and why do we come here. We come here to share and ask questions to learn and to be encouraged not dis -couraged . It also caused me to think on what a bladesmith, gunsmith and blacksmith is. What is a knife maker, what does fix , replace and or repair mean. I am or was a master military armorer for the army but I am not a machinist nor am I a gunsmith, but I can still build fix , replace or repair certain weapons and the end result will still save your life. But I did not make the o-rings, nor the upper receiver parts, because of that is it not my work? Should I refrain from posting and asking simple questions about repair or care of knives or blades in general because someone will inevitably post something that would lead me to believe that I should acquire a different hobby or look for the knowledge elsewhere. I dont know...I see posts like this or similar and it always causes me to never come back or to seek help elsewhere.


Mark Bellamy JD.
CWO4 U.S.ARMY [RETIRED]

aka wildthing
 
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at this point somebody usually says-- fill out your profile---, start your passion, use whatever resource you can to improve, make friends on the way, and dont care what people say. take the good and trash the bad. I think!!--thanks-marekz oh ya and make your own rules!!! kinda
 
Does it really bother you what someone who youve never met or will ever meet thinks? Why should you care if someone who goes by a name like 'stevie69' thinks that he is somehow better than you because he forges blades and you grind them or put handles on them? If you enjoy doing it then do it, if you need help then ask, there will always be people willing to help.

I forge blades and I handle them but I dont look down my nose at people who put handle on blades others make. Its still a very skilled job, infact I think its harder than the blade. To get a perfect handle that looks great and feels wonderfull is hard. Youve still made a knife.

Jamie
 
Just make what you want to make and ask what you want to ask. You might not get the answers you expect, but that's the nature of these things. To be honest, nearly every question anyone here has can be answered by searching through old posts, so there might not be a need for someone starting out to ask those questions.

As far as what makes you a whatever - it never really mattered much to me. Just be honest with people about what you do and let that be the end of it.
 
Mark, thanks for posting here. The things about forums is that people congregate with like minded people. (Although there is a tremendous differing of opinion here!!) There are forums (subforums) that deal with "kit" knives. The persons there would be more in tune with using premade blades. If you look around there are subforums that fit the different types of knifemaking.
It is a lot like religion, in that we all believe in the same thing but minor differences seperate people into different factions with very strong feelings involved. Just read the threads on this page, you'll see the fractures in this group.
Do not get discouraged. Try not to take to heart the badmouthing you receive. Just look for your answers in the civil responses. You will find your answers, but in the meantime you might take a few hits.

Good Luck. Thank You:)
Alden
 
I have found that opinions will vary from one person to the next. I could have got caught up with all the different info. You just have to read into it and take what you can out of it. I think if you profile several blades all close to the same specs and then later decide to have Dave at GLWJ or similar start cutting your blanks....go for it. All that does is save you time/material/belts etc. At that point you know your have enough skill to profile a blade, so screw everyone else and do what you think is right. A big pointer has been said plenty of times "Be honest to yourself and to potential buyers".

Just buy some steel, grind a few blades and have fun. Then make your decision as you progress. If someone thinks its wrong to send out your design to have cut.....so what....thats there opinion. You have already proven to yourself you can profile/grind out the same blade you are getting cut.

Again, just have fun man....thats what this is all about:thumbup::D

Best of luck,

Chris
 
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I think we all come to a forum because we're looking to gain and/or share knowledge on an area that interests us. However like anything else in life, you'll meet some people you get along with and others that you just won't mix with. What's important though is whether or not you're gaining the knowledge that you seek. Not everyone presents it in a way we all may like sometimes, but the way I look at it is... When there are things that I can learn from in any area, the key thing to focus on is to take what you can use or applies to you and discard the rest. That's how people develop their own styles when learning something. The people you meet along the way you can choose to take or leave their advice. Some are polite and have good info, some are blunt or even harsh at times but also have things you can learn from, and some have little or nothing to offer with varying ways of coming across. Also don't forget that sometimes things that are typed can be interpreted differently than the way they were ment. I can tell someone face to face to shut up about something or call them an idiot and they know I'm joking with them. When someone reads the same words they take them very differently.

If everyone made every knife the exact same way then there is no difference between makers then. Everyone would do the exact same thing and make identical looking knives. The path you take to get your result is up to you, but the goal is to get there. Who cares what someone else thinks as long as you've accomplished what you've set out to do and aren't trying to pull the wool overs someones eyes about your accomplishments?

If you're enjoying what you're doing than that's what it's all about. In any area you'll have people that are doing things for different reasons. Some take things very seriously while others are just having a good time.
 
I can understand it from both angles.
I've asked some very basic questions and been told to "read the stickies at the top" and when I said, "Hey all the ones I want to read are gone, broken or missing the pictures" I got a collective shrug.

Then again in the few months I've been bothering these guys, I have seen the same questions come up several times, and I know that can get annoying. Even so, for the most part someone will chime in, with perhaps the same thing they've said a dozen times. But it helps.

I try not to be lazy, and read and search as much as I can, but inevitably there's a specific thing, that's probably common knowledge to most, that I can't find. I figure, the more specific the question, the better the answer you will get.

For example, when looking for quenching info, there's a hundred threads to sort through with detailed info on different products, and differential quenching, and debates on things, etc. But I couldn't find out how long to leave my blade in the medium. I also had no idea the blade needed to get back to room temperature before tempering. These things get glossed over and/or buried because they are 2nd nature to these guys. They've moved well beyond such things. Or if the info is there it gets lost on me after reading several hundred posts on a miilion little details. It can be quite overwhelming sometimes.

If it wasn't for guys like Nathan Bugess, 69_knives, mete, and others, who take the time to explain, what is probably very basic info, I would have undoubtably ruined my first blade and had no idea why.

I stil can't figure out if synthetic fluids are good or bad for quenching though. ;)
 
i come here cuase i have no friends and i enjoy talking with people about things im interested in. ive learned alot, i got yelled at a couple times, i posted some really stupid stuff, but overall i can 9 out of 10 times get the info i need to expand with. thanks yall--marekz
 
Mark, I think you need to relax and enjoy the forums. There is a whole lot of help offered here and some crazy shit too :D
 
First off welcome to the forums...

Secondly, for a retired Chief you sure seem to have gotten your panties in a wad pretty quick.

Thirdly, noone's ever said you had to spend a fortune doing any of this, that's the way you've interpreted the information given out.

Fourthly, if you're letting some threads on a forum stop you from doing what you want then perhaps knifemaking really isn't for you. This is a hobby for pigheaded craftsmen that are willing to work through pain, anger, frustration, ridicule and pain... did I mention pain?

Lastly, you're wondering about kit blades and cheating..... HAH! I and I'll bet some of the other long time makers also remember back in the day the debate in certain organizations if buying screws as opposed to making them yourself constituted cheating, won't even go into the debate over CNC and pantographs.

This is a great group of craftsmen, they'll help you with anything but there's a price for admission.

Edited to add:

You've obviously neglected to read the volumes of information in the stickies, the hundreds of threads where advice is freely given and where noobies are given free stuff and most importantly shop time to get a leg up. We look down on people that don't do their own work and claim the work of others as their own. I'd have expected a CWO4 to understand the written word a bit better.

Wilfred Leavitt
E7 (p) (medically retired)
 
Sadly, there are a few folks who can 'wright well' that can dominate the forum with there opinion. It is in the end just there opinion. Makes all us unedgimacated folks look bad.
We do have here on this forum some gifted blademakers who are also very capable of explaining there techniques and the science behind what they do. walk the walk and talk the talk. However even those makers are sometimes so rooted in there opinion that they use terms like "tried and true" to completely ignore individual experience and experimentation.
 
I'm trying to get over the usual "I'm poor and can't make knives" attitude.... I was very poor when I started making knives, I was making knives because I was poor and couldn't afford custom knives. Money and tools only allow you to make a knife faster and also to mess up faster.

If you want to make knives you need a drill, hacksaw, files, sandpaper, steel, handle material, pinning material, some clamps, epoxy and adhesives. You can make your first knife with less than $50 in tools. You'll need about $49879087 in sweat and elbow grease but that's the trade off.

My first set up was this.
Forge made out of a barbeque grill I found in some trash with a hair dryer for a blower
2# Ball pein hammer I bought at a yard sale
Anvil was a 8# sledge hammer in a 5 gallon bucket of quickrete
10" mill bastard file I bought at a yard sale for $1
Hand drill I bought at a yard sale for $5
$10 in sandpaper from Home Depot
4 C-clamps I bought at a yard sale

This set up allowed me to make and sell knives until I could buy more tooling. I also made some KIT KNIVES and sold those to people with the understanding I didn't MAKE the knife, I did the handle and sheath.
 
Wade Jones said:
I can understand it from both angles.
I've asked some very basic questions and been told to "read the stickies at the top" and when I said, "Hey all the ones I want to read are gone, broken or missing the pictures" I got a collective shrug.

Then again in the few months I've been bothering these guys, I have seen the same questions come up several times, and I know that can get annoying. Even so, for the most part someone will chime in, with perhaps the same thing they've said a dozen times. But it helps.

I try not to be lazy, and read and search as much as I can, but inevitably there's a specific thing, that's probably common knowledge to most, that I can't find. I figure, the more specific the question, the better the answer you will get.

For example, when looking for quenching info, there's a hundred threads to sort through with detailed info on different products, and differential quenching, and debates on things, etc. But I couldn't find out how long to leave my blade in the medium. I also had no idea the blade needed to get back to room temperature before tempering. These things get glossed over and/or buried because they are 2nd nature to these guys. They've moved well beyond such things. Or if the info is there it gets lost on me after reading several hundred posts on a miilion little details. It can be quite overwhelming sometimes.

If it wasn't for guys like Nathan Bugess, 69_knives, mete, and others, who take the time to explain, what is probably very basic info, I would have undoubtably ruined my first blade and had no idea why.

I stil can't figure out if synthetic fluids are good or bad for quenching though. ;)
Click to expand...

Wade,
I would be happy to cover some of those gaps, if you have any left in basic knowledge, there are a thousand things just as you have described that I do every day without thinking that are gems to the newer knifemaker. Fell free to contact me. And this offer applies not just to Wade, but anyone who likes to talk.
Del
 
delbert ealy said:
Wade,
I would be happy to cover some of those gaps, if you have any left in basic knowledge, there are a thousand things just as you have described that I do every day without thinking that are gems to the newer knifemaker. Fell free to contact me. And this offer applies not just to Wade, but anyone who likes to talk.
Del
Click to expand...
Thanks Delbert, I may just do that.
:thumbup:
 
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