What part of knife making do you like the most?

I'm happy when I see pictures of my knives being used sent by customers.


Pablo
 
When I deliver a knife and the excitement and joy on the buyers faces and then when I see them a week to two later and they are even happier! There are a few other parts, More later!
 
Handle work by far is my favorite. I do it almost exclusively with hand tools and it's therapeutic for me. I love taking something blocky and seeing and feeling it turn into a great feeling handle. Also seeing the wood go from a dull bland look to looking seeing the colors and pattern come out as I finish it through the grits up to the final polish.
 
Hey, How come nobody said that their favorite part was counting up the massive amounts of money that flows in after knife shows and calculating the obscene profits we make for such little time spent making our knives?
 
Grinding

and

The finished piece.

Seeing it all come together and seeing what I did actually came out the way I want.
 
The first look after the etch and seeing how the pattern turned out....it's like finding a hidden treasure!
 
Learning something new!
This week it was going back to Nick's videos and really "getting" how to use that disk grinder to make hand sanding a pleasure instead of an endurance test.
Last week it was one more piece of the puzzle in understanding where the carbides go during thermal cycling.
Then again, there's that moment when someone tells you, Oh- that (whatever blade it was) is all I use now, I put the others away.
 
I think for me, in my short stint in knifemaking so far, my favorite moment is when your liner lock that you've been carefully assembling finally locks open for the first time. Hearing that "click" usually gets a cheer from me.
 
When I'm grinding a blade and the caliper reads .003" and I know it is going to be a cutter.
Seeing picture from chef's of the food they are making with the knife.
Coming up with a new design and just can't wait to start making sparks.
 
Because I'm new at this, it's the consistent improvement I usually see from knife to knife and the affirmation I get from a customer even when I know the final product is less than perfect.
 
I like the forging process, including thermal cycling and heat treat. If I could just forge all day and wrap the tang with shoelace, I would............ wait a minute..... I do!:eek::thumbup::p:D
 
I really enjoy creating and refining designs. I have a massive amount of designs stashed away, most of which I will never have the time to make.

The idea of a design that has been floating around in my head being turned into a tool that someone will use for decades is really exciting for me.

Grinding is probably my favorite process. It's extremely rewarding to see a piece of steel slowly turn into a knife.
 
I've been enjoying the whole process of taking the raw materials from a state of uselessness to (hopefully) useful and beautiful. I would have never considered myself creative before taking up knife making. Discovering this side of me has been a huge surprise and blessing.
 
I like all of it, except the hand sanding. :thumbdn:

I like the rough grinding, heat treatment, and handle shaping the best. I love it when the hamon pops, and hate it when all that effort ends up being blah.
 
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