What level of your knifemaking addiction are you at?

[scottickes]

You guys are humble! I guess that's a good thing. I think an interesting sub-poll would be how we judge each other's work, but that would be impossible unless we could examine the work personally. I think the results would be vastly different.

I don't feel that I'm an apprentice, though I ask a lot of basic questions! I have the HT nailed on my preferred steel, edge geometry is finally there, I've never made a kit knife (except folders, which remain in my own collection), the knives are comfortable to hold and well balanced and properly designed for their intended task. Not to sound like a jerk - because I know most of the flaws in each of my knives - but my work is easily comparable to what I've seen for sale by most makers (not masters!). Possibly that's a function of living in a backwater and not seeing many handmade knives.

It's not that I have little left to learn; I've hardly scratched the surface of what I expect to learn, and I will never master this craft. But I think most of my knives would stand up to most maker's judging in person. Not that I haven't made a bunch of clunkers! They will just never see the light of day. And it's not that I haven't made a number of knives that were pure form with no consideration for worldly function. That's just sculpture with an edge.

Probably the way to assign these levels would be some objective measure of fit and finish, and performance. I can't feel good about assigning myself a journeyman level, because so many makers far surpass anything I will ever make, but probably I could pass the judging for either of the professional organizations. I just hope that each knife I make is better in some aspect than the one before it, and that I can continue to increment my skills until I fade away. I only wish I had someone skilled and picky to work with so I could see my work from a different perspective. There will be other makers - some of you - at the Wolverine show, so I hope to get some honest and instructive feedback. Assuming I get a few knives made to take...

Why don't you look around for a maker in your area to take your knives to for critique. Be up front with him on what you're after, as in, an honest, no punches pulled assessment. Michael Zscherney lives in Cedar Rapids, which isn't too far away from you. He's an extremely nice guy. He specializes in high end folders, and has helped others in the past. I'm not suggesting you take a lot of his time up, but he might be able to give you some help with where to concentrate your educational efforts. If I'm not mistaken Michael Kanter was a student of Zscherney's when Mr. Kanter wanted to get into making folders.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

After 10+yrs. of doing this , one would like ( me ) to say journeyman , but , everytime there is an OOPS!! you know you are at the basic level . Plus I always have questions and then I feel like a newbie . As others have stated , the journey continues .

 

[David Schott]

If I could get in the shop more, I might change my tune, but until I can at least force myself to work there 2-3 days a week, I'll consider myself a newbie.

Zen mind, beginners mind....as soon as I think I'm good at something, I tend to prove myself wrong.

I make 99% 3-piece knives, but ive recently made a few through tang knives and honestly didnt find them any harder. In fact, I found them to be a bit easier for some reason....I didnt think slotting the guard and adding a ferrule/buttcap was any harder at all than fitting bolsters or doing complex curves in handles.

 

[JoshTKnives]

in my opinion people are being far to humble on this!
when i read the description i put myself at a basic, but i am no where near a nick or will! common guys try to judge yourself by the scale

ok here is where i think i am at, ignoring all the amazing makers who are rating them selves low!

for stock removal - high basic. im pretty good at it and have honed my finishing skills a lot on recent knives, but am still working on fit and handle shape. my leatherworking is coming along with this as well since i do all my own work.

for forging - ultra newby! have not forged a knife yet but have been banging some steel around. have not done a heat treat myself (on a knife - did a small drawknife i threw together and it worked!) but i am messing with it and will be doing them soon!

overall - basic

now if we are rating the addiction i am ultra-max-master-junkie!! just dont have the time to keep my abilities up with my addiction!

peace
jt


PS: you be the judge!
http://jtknives.blogspot.com/

 

[Martin S.]

Newbie for sure. Working on knife #6 now and made knife #1 a year and a half ago. I got the heat treating of 1084 down but have a long way to go on fit and finish. Most of the folks that I've given #2-5 to liked them despite the flaws , that could just be because they were free though LOL.

 

[John M Cohea]

I'm heading into my 11th year, and even though I am constantly learning better ways to do things, I voted myself at journeyman level. Even though I work mainly in frontier style pieces, I am still really fussy about design, fit and finish, flow, ect. ect. and aways try to put my very best out there. Even though I don't think I have ever made one I consider perfect, it does'nt leave my shop until I am confident it is the best I can do.

 

[kc custom]

I really don't know where I'd rate myself at. I once read that the learning curve gets steeper. I know I'll never make a perfect knife and am quite sure that there will always be someone with a younger prettier girlfreind, older whiskey, and faster cars.

Ken

 

[scottickes]

in my opinion people are being far to humble on this!

ok here is where i think i am at, ignoring all the amazing makers who are rating them selves low!

http://jtknives.blogspot.com/

Maybe, maybe not. I think that they view knifemaking from a different perspective than newer makers do. If I had the perspective of the best makers here, I'd be able to do better work, using that perspective to help me.

Look at it from their point of view. If they rate themselves at the top, where do they go from there. I think most of us know that we always have something to learn. I do believe that some might be rating themselves lower than at what we see them being, but I didn't ask them to vote as we see them, I asked them to vote as they see themselves. I take their opinion of their skill level at face value and trust that they know themselves better than we do.

Also, though a top of our craft maker can vote secretly, they have nothing to gain from telling us what they voted and why they voted themselves where they are at. If a maker votes himself at the highest level and tells us why in a post, he has trouble doing that without sounding aloof. If a top of the craft maker votes himself lower than the top and tells us why, he opens himself up again for scrutiny.

I'm happy that they are voting and giving us the information in the poll. A discussion as to why they voted themselves where they are in their journey isn't what is important. This isn't about individual makers, but I was more interested in our knifemaking group as a whole. Look at how many brand new or nearly new makers we have, based on the poll results. That tells me why we're seeing a lot of really basic questions at the moment, and tells me to have patience and welcome these new people with open arms and open assistance in moving to the higher levels of knifemaking.

I can see now from the preliminary results that there are a bunch of people in our group that are going to be thirsting for knowledge that many of us that have been here a while will be able to provide. Let's have patience with these newer people and they will grow and advance, and hopefully many of them will stay until they become the humble ones that vote themselves lower than we see them with our eyes. I look forward to many of them passing me by as their skill levels increase. Hopefully, some of these newer makers will teach me something after they pass me by, helping me to move on up the ladder myself.

 

[bjalongi]

By addiction, were you referring to how many hours a day our minds are consumed with knife making, even when away from the shop?

If so, I think many of the people on this sight are junkies. Knifos if you will....

 

[scottickes]

By addiction, were you referring to how many hours a day our minds are consumed with knife making, even when away from the shop?

If so, I think many of the people on this sight are junkies. Knifos if you will....

If you're on this forum and have made one knife, you're addicted. End of story...

 

[fujita yuji]

I've seen great number of masters here but the vote shows only one (so far) ...

I should have vote for newbie.

 

[DustinHall]

If you're on this forum and have made one knife, you're addicted. End of story...

Lol. Isn't that the truth!

 

[Hmathews]

I didn't rank myself and I'm not going to. I never have been much for rankings, because I think when one level is reached it can tend to make you relax a little and then you backslide. I always want to improve and I hope I never get to the point where I don't think I can get any better.

As far as being addicted, I accepted that fact long ago. When you look up at a friends mounted deer rack and your brother says "you counting knife handles too?" Or every time you go to Lowe's, you wander by the ax handles to see if something jumps out at you, it is a good sign that you are gone. There is no known cure, and I don't want one.

 

[ddavelarsen]

Maybe, maybe not. I think that they view knifemaking from a different perspective than newer makers do. If I had the perspective of the best makers here, I'd be able to do better work, using that perspective to help me.

Look at it from their point of view. If they rate themselves at the top, where do they go from there. I think most of us know that we always have something to learn. I do believe that some might be rating themselves lower than at what we see them being, but I didn't ask them to vote as we see them, I asked them to vote as they see themselves. I take their opinion of their skill level at face value and trust that they know themselves better than we do.

Also, though a top of our craft maker can vote secretly, they have nothing to gain from telling us what they voted and why they voted themselves where they are at. If a maker votes himself at the highest level and tells us why in a post, he has trouble doing that without sounding aloof. If a top of the craft maker votes himself lower than the top and tells us why, he opens himself up again for scrutiny.

I'm happy that they are voting and giving us the information in the poll. A discussion as to why they voted themselves where they are in their journey isn't what is important. This isn't about individual makers, but I was more interested in our knifemaking group as a whole. Look at how many brand new or nearly new makers we have, based on the poll results. That tells me why we're seeing a lot of really basic questions at the moment, and tells me to have patience and welcome these new people with open arms and open assistance in moving to the higher levels of knifemaking.

I can see now from the preliminary results that there are a bunch of people in our group that are going to be thirsting for knowledge that many of us that have been here a while will be able to provide. Let's have patience with these newer people and they will grow and advance, and hopefully many of them will stay until they become the humble ones that vote themselves lower than we see them with our eyes. I look forward to many of them passing me by as their skill levels increase. Hopefully, some of these newer makers will teach me something after they pass me by, helping me to move on up the ladder myself.

Wow. That is a good post. I agree. I get far more help here than I give, and for good reason. I know many makers who have come here to learn the basics of our craft and then moved on to become respected full time makers. Not me; I'm still hacking around but hopefully gaining patience and skill. I really appreciate makers like Bruce Bump, Raymond Richard and Nick Wheeler (to name only a few) who are working at the top of the heap and still take time to hold the rest of our hands. Without having something higher to aspire to - and help getting there - it would be hard to improve. I believe this community is special that way.

 

[Fiddleback]

I'm somewhere between newbie and basic. Thats OK with me, I'm striving for better knives. Its my passion, and I really enjoy it.

 

[skilldust]

Well , my feelings about this is.
I am a trim carpenter,have been for 50 odd yrs. Every one thinks I am #1 and pays me
at that scale. I just completed an 8 million $ hse. And at times I was so lost at all the new mat And app. on so many diff things, I felt like a newbe. But had to carry on and keep my mouth shut if I wanted that 2000 per wk. BUT IN MY HEART I KNEW THE REAL SCORE.
Now on knives , I design one that I would like to carry. So I profile it out, then do my utmost to make it to the same level of craftsman that I strive for in my carpentry.
I rated myself basic BUT thinking of my scrap pile I would really like to chang that to
newbe -.
I would really like to make a knife and send it to Will and Nick and Bruce and some of the other guys for inspection I think they would be honest with their comments on it.
Robert Dark said the majic word for me STARTING THIS SO LATE IN LIFE THERE IS NOT TIME TO LEARN IT ALL, OR EVEN ENOUGHT TO BE A JS.
The more I learn , the more I see that I don't know.
JERRY

 

[skilldust]

Robert didn't say all of that just the part about starting so late.

 

[Robert Dark]

Robert didn't say all of that just the part about starting so late.

Maybe I didn't say all that, but I agree. Lots of guys tell me that I need to go for the JS rating with the ABS. If I put my mind to it, I could probably pull it off. I'm just not "mentally" ready to give it a go right now. I have too many other "irons-in-the-fire".

Robert

 

[butcher_block]

i think maybe my post might have me bumped up one but i thought about it and
i think i know most of the basics
i do try some different stuff
and i am asked about how to do some things

while i know what it takes to be at the next level i know i have a good ways to go yet

im no pro tho thats for sure
i will get better

 

[Dave Bowen]

Perhaps I voted in haste.
I've been making knives for almost 19 years, so I figured I would be a journeyman by default, and by sheer bloodloss.

Doesn't take long to get humbled again after visiting the forums after a long absense.

I would say in some aspects I could be a journeyman, but in others I'm a newbie. Overall knifemaking, (forge to finish) I would change my vote to a solid basic level.

It's good to be back by the way. I see lots of new people, which is awesome.