Where do your "mistakes" go?

Mostly they just hang around the shop as reminders, even after destructive testing. Bits and pieces here and there. If I screw it up BADDDD, I will test it until it is destroyed. I like to check the grain structure and make sure my heat treating is up to snuff.
My main method fro swedges or clips is rough in with the grinder, variable speed and SLOW, then finish with files. Usually diamond files. I also will mark where the clip will end with tape around the blade when grinding as it makes an easy to see reference tool.

Brion Tomberlin
ABS journeyman
Anvil Top Custom Knives
 
Grind the stuffing out of them...if they make it as "shop knives" so-be-it, if not, one of the coffee cans of unacceptable blades......
suggetion,,,,if you don't know the entire future of a "second", don't even give it away....trash it, or use it yourself but don't put yourself in a position where it has to be shown as "your best work"....sooner or later....
There are some out there that were my best work at the time, that I wish I could enhance to my "best work at this time".......
It is definitely an evolving process...for life....
 
I leave my mistakes sitting around where I can see them. When I get done looking at whatever went wrong I throw them away. That way I can get back to the stuff that's going right.
 
If your handles could be changed to shape to take a good cord quick cord wrap, you could sell them as discounted knives. :thumbup:


edit-might wanna rub out the maker's mark if you don't to mar your name :p
 
first i open a shop window and fling the $#^$#^ out of it. Nothing but woods behind the house so its cool. Scares the hell out of the shop cats though!
 
Basicly if it's realy screwed up, mainly too thin, then I test it till destruction, it's fun and informative to find out just how much abuse it'll hold up. and not just the blade, but you can try out differant handle style and see what it takes to destroy them.

If it's not to thin or short, then it'll be reborn as a smaller knife. Worst case I'll mix it in with some damascus if it's carbon steel.

I don't have a real problem with swedges, even though I don't do them that often, just get close on the grinder after heat treat then a sanding block and coarse grit sand paper and time.
 
I either turn them into a smaller knife, test them to destruction if they can't be made into anything nice, or throw them in my mistake bucket. There is, however, one very nice razor that I was working on that was to be published in Playboy magazine that I lost on the buffer and now resides in the creek out back behind my shop somewhere... a 10 second mistake lost me a good publication, and almost my finger too!

:)

-Darren
 
Ive also been thinking of using failed knives as passarounds. Throw a cord wrap on the handle, sharpen them up, and release them on the public to destroy.
 
I have a big pile of rejects behind the metal cutting bandsaw along with the left over cuttings. Sometimes I can salvage a reject and turn it into a little knife. Many times I use them to apply tar, use them for scraping, or in a pinch they are used as a srew driver.

Most of them reside on the floor, and a really lucky one may find a new home as a 'freebe give away knife' for someone interested in building their own knife. I gave one to a neighbor once, and I was really impressed with how he finished it up and gave the poor thing a chance to live.
 
None of us that have stayed at this long enough to achieve some semblance
of skill, still make the amount of mistakes that we did in the beginning.
If I did, I would just put myself out of my misery, by sticking my head in the press and pulling the handle. That said ; I have a neighbor that searches the grounds around here for metal objects such as coins or jewels or some other objects of worth. I keep him interested by burying my mistakes in areas he searches. He always stops by and lets me know when he digs up one of my blunders. We then sit around the shop and talk knives.
Fred
 
Fred.Rowe said:
None of us that have stayed at this long enough to achieve some semblance
of skill, still make the amount of mistakes that we did in the beginning.
If I did, I would just put myself out of my misery, by sticking my head in the press and pulling the handle. That said ; I have a neighbor that searches the grounds around here for metal objects such as coins or jewels or some other objects of worth. I keep him interested by burying my mistakes in areas he searches. He always stops by and lets me know when he digs up one of my blunders. We then sit around the shop and talk knives.
Fred
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This had me laughing my a** off. I have a neighbor that I wish was a metal detector user now. I think I'll try to talk him into taking up that hobby. I would love to bury things to screw with him!
 
jdm61 said:
Hey Dan.....do you have any of the John Deere steel?
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sorry not right now..
the company wants to go up on the price of it..with the shipping costs and labor,,, I think it's getting to high priced, ??
they haven't gotten back to me yet from my last email to them..I'll have to call them I guess.:rolleyes:
 
scottickes said:
This had me laughing my a** off. I have a neighbor that I wish was a metal detector user now. I think I'll try to talk him into taking up that hobby. I would love to bury things to screw with him!
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It's all done in fun. It gives us a laugh and a chance to get together and talk.

I also don't have to look at my mistakes. Fred
 
Fred.Rowe said:
None of us that have stayed at this long enough to achieve some semblance
of skill, still make the amount of mistakes that we did in the beginning.
If I did, I would just put myself out of my misery, by sticking my head in the press and pulling the handle. That said ; I have a neighbor that searches the grounds around here for metal objects such as coins or jewels or some other objects of worth. I keep him interested by burying my mistakes in areas he searches. He always stops by and lets me know when he digs up one of my blunders. We then sit around the shop and talk knives.
Fred
Click to expand...

Thats great Fred! LOL
Good neighbors are hard to find.
 
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