What was easier/harder than you thought..

NickWheeler said:
So wait... you guys are telling me there are easier parts?!?!?! :confused:


Damn it... I haven't come to those yet! :eek:
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Agreed.
I only have "hard" parts, and "harder" parts!
The hardest part for me, and I even have difficulty now, is sorting out the b.s. in metallurgy from the truly useful information.
I sort of stress that word USEFUL. Just because it's factually accurate, as far as metallurgy goes, is it actually USEFUL in knife making!??!
I struggle with that.
I wonder sometimes about what people profess to be "the way" of working with our steels, only to wonder if it's just another method of forwarding their own agendas.
I see some people here saying how heat treating was their "easy" part.
I truly hope they don't mean simply getting something hot and quenching it in something wet.
But, then again, I'm an idiot.
Maybe "heat treating" IS easy??!
I just don't think so.
The motions a person goes through can be "easy", but actually KNOWING what you have done or didn't do is another thing entrely.
I find that the most effective way for me to be successful is the K.I.S.S. method - Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Usually the solutions are right in front of me - and they are seldom complex.
My successes come hard.
Like Nick, even if he was joking, I haven't discovered the easy part yet.
 
Easiest: To spend all day sanding, shaping at the shop...
Easy: To make a knife, it its a good one to sell it...
Difficult: To decide how it should look like, to make a good sheath...
Hard: To find right materials...
Hardest: To have a free time with your friends etc. without thinking or talking about the knives ...
 
Well I meant easy relative to the hard parts.

Edited to add some stuff:

The easy part is starting a knife, the hard part is finishing a knife. Lots of people start knives but I'd guess few actually finish them. Heck even the most experienced of makers probably still has a few blades a year that are in the "oooppppsssss" bucket. The great thing and the worst thing about knifemaking is that there are only self imposed ends, you can spend the rest of your days learning new skills and someone will inevitably show you something you don't know how to do.

But at the end of the day I love making knives so it doesn't really matter about the hard stuff. :D
 
Harder - Bevels, hand sanding (ow my finger is breaking), and all the finish work. Patience...

Easier - Messing something up.

I'm almost finished with my 3rd knife right now so I've yet to try a lot of things like forging, gaurds, pommel caps, bolsters, etc. Honestly, I don't think there's anything "easy" about making knives.
 
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Easy: Following lots of tiny steps to complete a larger piece of work
Hard: Following lots of tiny steps correctly to complete a larger piece of work
 
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