You know your a Knifemaker when...

C

CitySteel

Joined
Apr 21, 2001
Messages
44
Every time you visit someones house you are looking around for interesting handle material in their back yard!
OR
You Forget to meet your wife for dinner while you are putting the finishing touches on the latest project!
OR
The most often used phrase around your house is:
Ok I will get that done, just as soon as I finish grinding this Blade!
OR...

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http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=205453

[This message has been edited by CitySteel (edited 05-21-2001).]
 
The front desk nurse at the local ER knows you by first name.
OR
All your kitchen knives are completly dull!
OR---

R.W.Clark
 
when you can do the final finish sanding on that ebony handle with your bare hands!
or
when you start having to use your leg hair to test your blades.
or
when the most difficult decision you make on any given day isn't what you're going to have for lunch, but IF you're going to stop for lunch at all.
or
when you start out to make a roasting fork and somehow it turns into bowie knife instead, and it was just mild steel!
 
when you no longer use the tabs to open up the soda cans because you can just punch it out with your hardened finger tips......

when you can kill a dragonfly with your spit because your lugie's contain so much ATS 34 dust....

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www.burnknives.com
 
when someone asks you to borrow a knife and you ask them to be more specific to the use they intend to use it.

you use your optivision to dig out the splinters in your hands.

Your neighbor says your "shop" smells funny and you don't notice anything

your dog joins you in your shop and you have to vacuum his coat before he can leave to remove all the metal shavings

someone wants to borrow a knife and you show them a complete variety of blades for different purposes


....and on and on and on--LOL

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Try a RAK-(Random Act of Kindness)-you'll like it!
 
You know that you forge alot when you throw a hot piece of metal to your dog and your dog makes a bolt for the door!

Stiletto
 
When you go to your photographers studio and you don't even look at all the beautiful model pictures, because you can't wait to see all the pretty knife photos. On second thought, that might be just getting old!!!
smile.gif
Mark
 
When you love the smell of micarta in the morning.

When your grinding bench of plywood is actually rusting from the metal dust.

When you have seen a blade turn cherry red while grinding it and wonder what would happen if you quench it then.

Your fingertips are all burned from steel or kydex.

You have scraps of steel, G10, wood handle material, split belts, "oops" knives lying around, but can't bear to throw them out.

You call in sick to work on knives.

Your supply bill is larger than a months worth of food
smile.gif


You go to your local hardware store for drill bits, hacksaw blades, buffing compound, buffing wheels, files, etc, at least once a week.

You know how to identify different handle materials by their smell...when they are burning.

Your grinding sparks and metal dust have welded themselves together.

You have knife supply catalogs next to the "throne".

When your neighbors see you walk outside with the grinder, then rush their kids inside
smile.gif


you start small fires with overheated metal dust
smile.gif


 
Your eyeballing you mother-in-laws dining room table because there's a nice piece of burl in it.
 
Someone posted this somewhere a long time ago.

You might be a total basketcase of a knifeknut if:

You spend 10 minutes each morning deciding which folder to carry.

You know that KCI and PKVAT are not food or drink.

Your philosophical musings range to "how sharp is sharp".

All of your bandaids are 7/8".

Everyone begins smalltalk with "how's the thumb".

One of your arms is hairless.

Every time you go to cut something at work you have to decide WHICH knife to use.....

You're seriously thinking of buying a single knife that's worth more than your computer.

You're seriously contemplating buying a grinder that's worth more than your car.

Your first thought on finding a pile of scrap metal is, "Gee, I wonder what kind of sparks this stuff with throw?"

You spend more time discussing knives than you do talking with your mate or playing with your dogs, (or kids).

The first thing you do when visiting relatives that you haven't seen in years, in a strange city, that you've never been to, is to look through the phone book for interesting knife stores.

You've ever asked your boss if you could take your entire annual leave, just to travel to see a bunch of guys take a red hot
piece of metal and beat the heck out of it.

If you've ever been frustrated that of the nearly 300 different commercial blade blanks available to you, none of them match
your "ideal" knife pattern.

If you spend a week obsessing which knives to take on your fishing trip.

If on your fishing trip your assorted knives weigh more than the rest of your gear.

If when you finally catch a trout you are caught only with your serrated Endura - probably the worst choice to clean fish with

If you have a work-day knife (a Michael Walker lightweight), because your usual serrated Endura used to scare the nurses

If you can recite from memory the laws on knife carry in the 50 states, 12 Canadian Provinces, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
and Marianna Islands

If you carry a small ruler with you wherever you fly just to be able to show the airport security that your blade is indeed shorter
than 4 inches

If you haven' bought a new knife for a month you have a tendency to talk to yourself and dress up small animals

You call around to several Spyderco dealers to get a first production run knife with the lowest serial number.

All of a sudden you have a strong desire to relocate to Oregon.

when you go to a knife shop, you ALWAYS buy a new knife.

You coworkers ask, "How many knives do you have on you today?" at least once a week.

And, you keep forgeting the one on your key ring and the Tool Logic in your wallet when you reply.

You remember nothing from a recent movies except a character displayed a cute-looking folder in a flash, and now it's so
challenging to find out which model/who made the knife? You even think about watching it again.

You can remember everything in Bob Engnath's catalog.

Your favorite video is Cold Steel's PROOF.

You spend hours on your new AFCK finding out how many washers it actually has.

You never fail to recall that AFCK stands for Advanced Folding Combat Knife. But what the heck are those BTW,IMO, and FYI?

When the mail comes, you check out the knife catalogs before the Victoria Secret catalogs.

After you've eloquently elaborated on the design and use of the fighting knife, your mother apologetically tells the group, "He
wasn't this weird when I sent him out to California."

You use your knife to cut open plastic bags and scotch-taped boxes (anyone else do this? I use my knife to cut open everything, even when I could open said item by just ripping it with my hands)

Your beloved says, "What do you think of this new see-through "teddy"?" And without even looking up, you reply, "Be with
you in a bit, dear, I've not yet finished this blade."

You own more sharpening systems than ties.

You own more books on knives than on religion and politics combined.

Somebody mentions "Levine's" at a party, and it takes you several minutes to realize that they're talking about a clothing store.
(Or was it diamonds?)

You show up at a potluck barbeque dinner with your own cutlery.

Your idea of the history of man, involves progressing from flint to bronze to ATS34.

You've actually spent a weekend chipping quartz, just to see how good them old fashioned edges may have been.

You've actually spent several hours beating out a copper knife, just to prove to yourself that beaten copper probably didn't play
a major role in the history of man, between flint and bronze.

You've considered casting copper for the same reasons.

It's Independence Day for your country, and you're sitting around waiting for your work beeper to call you back a third time,
and are typing this kind of thing rather than enjoying a parade or some fireworks somewhere.

Your spell checker ignores spyder.

You go to touch up the kitchen knives and spend 20 minutes picking out the sharpener.

You know that a choil is not a little kid.

You look at a piece of linen and wonder how they turn it into knife handles. You look at a checkered table cloth and think the
same thing.

You keep switching your butter knife from sabre to reverse grip. and - wonder what kind of edge it would hold. and - how it would work in a wrist sheath.

You carry a politically correct knife along with your everyday one just so you don't scare the natives.

Someone says "hey get a grip" and you think G-10.

One of your legs and one of your arms is hairless (I can take a hint).

You see an ax and think of shaving.

You have Kydex sheaths for your steak knives.

You hold a ball point pen and think penetration.

You pick out a letter opener. Mmm - carbon or stainless? Serrated or straight?

Your favorite fork has a lanyard loop.

You show up at deer camp with more knives than ammunition.

Everyone at hunting camp wants to borrow your knives cause theirs won't even cut butter.

You go to your stand still carrying more knives than ammo.

When you go to skin and butcher your deer you bring at least a half dozen knives and at least three different types of sharpeners.

You're the only one at camp who knows what steel his blades are made of.

You're the only one that doesn't choke when someone says he paid more than $25 for their knife.

You cut open a box at work with your pocketknife and promptly get the nickname "Soldier of Fortune".

You have all your pants and knives matched for comfort of carry.

You actually have to check the knife laws of travel destinations.

The first time you seriously consider travelling to France is because there's a knife show there.

You add to the "you might be a knife nut" thread because it seems like a way to justify and confess to your own quirks.

Your girlfriend travels 14,000 miles to Korea and asks what you want her to buy for you, and you say "a traditional knife".

 
You are definitely a knife maker/nut when you can't watch a nature show without thinking of all the wonderful handle material running about the forests and plains!

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Take care!! Michael
jesus.jpg


Always think of your fellow knife makers as partners in the search for the perfect blade, not as people trying to compete with you and your work!

My Web Site
Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms!!!
 
when you go on a day trip in to the country with the wife and kids your only motivation for going in maybe the propects of locating an anvil
 
If you read all the replies on this thread. Yep, been there & done that.

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INDIAN GEORGE
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=261337
http://www.indiangeorgesknives.com/
 
when you stop making letter openers.

when you don't even have one of your own knives to keep.
 
You intentional dull your pocket knife so you will not be liable for missing finger tip when someone wants to borrow it at work.

You can hold hot steel that would blister someone else.

You strongly consider not finishing knives to a mirror finish because you can not handle them (when they are finished) with out scratching it.

When you have enough meatal embedded in your hands you begin to hate static electricity and doorknobs.

[This message has been edited by mkoller (edited 05-25-2001).]
 
When you clear your nostriles in the shower and the snot sounds like a BB gun shot against the wall...
When your arms are cleaner shaved than your wifes legs..
When your "friends" keep bringing some piece of crap knife to "Fix"..
These are but a few indicators, of the disease we call knife making..:-)

Trace..
 
yep, you know you're in trouble when summer comes and you put on the shorts and look down and see that the hair on your legs never grew back from those moments in checking how sharp your latest knife blade was.

you know you're there if you bring a bowie to a campfire and the rest of the people have those cute little combination stamped tin fork/spoon/knife

you can tell those aspiring knifemakers at the swapmeets as they are the ones gathering up the old washtubs, hairblowers, anvils and files.

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Try a RAK-(Random Act of Kindness)-you'll like it!
 
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