What made you decide to make your own knife?

I always loved knives. I bought my first knife from a classmate in elementary school, a buck folder for 50 cents. I don't know if my affinity for knives started with that first knife but I was very young. I have been an artist all my life and get much satisfaction from seeing things I imagine come to life. Knives are ancient and among the most useful tools ever and are made from earthy materials like metals and woods. These are all things that I connect with on a primal level. I admire the work of many of the makers whose names we all know but did not think I could afford them. So it was inevitable that my love for making things with my hands and my love for knives would lead to making knives. I suppose for me it was something along the lines of "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". The funny thing is that for all I have invested in tools and materials, not to mention the time, I could have bought all the custom knives I lusted after by my favorite makers. But it is far more satisfying to be able to make my own designs and know if one fails or is lost I can make another even better.
 
I bought a Buck 500 Duke as a birthday present for a friend and after holding it I was instantly fascinated. Started looking at knives online and boom, it was done. I just had to try making one!
 
As a machinist and part time gunsmith I was gifted a custom knife by a client who asked why I didn't make knives since I seemed to have all the tooling...Well buckets of steel dust later I'm still perfecting the craft. Seems that gunsmithing is now getting in the way of REAL work making knives....Daaaannnng It!!!
 
I've always loved camping, backpacking and hunting, so sharp pointy things kind of go with the territory but always just bought commercial junk. I bought a custom hunting knife from Michael Morris for my son for Christmas a few years back and it started my interest in custom knives. I bought a Fiddleback knife which brought me to Blade Forums and then Shop Talk where the silly notion hit me to try and make one of my own. Much reading here on BF and many Youtube videos later...
 
i was bored one day and found a little piece of steel. I decided to try and make a knife from it and boom, I was addicted.
 
got out the Marines and wanted a nice custom pocket knife. built and priced one that i really liked but then saw the price. said to myself @#$%#@ that i can make one cheaper. turns out i cant and now have more then 50K in workshop and tools but i do have my own hand made folder for my EDC
its only taken about 14 years
 
I was packing for a sea kayaking trip on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and counted six knives that I thought necessary for everything from cooking to fish cleaning to fire building to a survival/deck knife. I was frustrated that I could not find a more versatile commercial knife and resolved to make my own. $10,000 later, I now know why there is not one knife that can do everything. But I'm down to three knives instead of six.
 
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