You Know You're a Hardcore Knifemaker...

W

Will Leavitt

Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Messages
3,953
when you set your shirt on fire and you get a couple more hits in with the hammer cause you don't want to waste a heat. :D

This happened today, I didn't notice some oil on my denim shirt, was bracing the bar against it and my shirt caught on fire :eek: in front of my 9yo daughter, fiance, her mother and grandmother. I put the bar back in the forge, put on my welding apron and I was good to go for the rest of the day :)

I'm bored, about to go out with my fiance and thought I'd start this thread for fun.
 
That's funny. Reminds me of a time I was setting a weld on a damascus billet and a piece of slag squirted out onto my foot underneath the tongue of my sneaker. I was hopping on one foot, shaking the other, and trying to finish the weld all at once.

It worked, but I still have a little scar on the top of my foot.

Shoulda worn socks.
 
When you can take a cake pan out of the oven without using oven mitts.
 
When you go out to a Mexican restaurant and the waiter warns you how hot the plate is and wonder what he's talking about after you take it from him. (Happened tonight after forging a new blade.)
 
brushing 'steel dust" off your shirt only to find that the sparks charred the sweat shirt and the only thing stopping your from getting burned is the kydex sheath your necker is in under the shirt (grinding razors and high carbon steel is teaching me things :) )
 
When, while tending the fire in the woodstove, you routinely use your hands and fingers as pokers.
 
When all your down vests have black holes in them, and you don't have a single pair of jeans without a dark area on the right thigh.
 
When there is a trail of rust on the concrete from the shop to the house. Also when strange rust spots appear in the spa.
 
Two weeks ago I was getting the mill scale off of 5 blanks had rough profiled... I was tired, and had wrecked a knife that I'd sunk 12 hours into that morning. I had the mindset that SOMETHING was going to work for me that day...
...so after wasting a 60 grit belt and still trying to get more life out of it by pressing ever harder, I hit my index finger knuckle against the small wheel of the top of the platen.
Stopped, wiped hands off with windex, wrapped finger in paper towel and electrical tape, and continued...
...after the second knuckle/contact wheel encounter (same wheel, same spot on knuckle), I realized the belt was spent. Replace knuckle bandage, fresh belt on the machine, pick up where we left off...
...third time is the charm. Not paying attention, I DO THE SAME THING, this time running a fresh 3M 80 grit 967 through the paper towel/e-tape booboo cover, into the hole on my knuckle, and scuff the bone.
No matter what I did, it wouldn't stop bleeding, and when the piece of steel I was working kept slipping out of my hand (amazing how well blood acts as a lubricant!), I finally too the hint to walk away.


....my bride didn't even want to know about it. Smart girl.
 
When there are little piles of knife and knife tool parts laying all over the house and the wife doesn't even mention it any more
 
When you are looking at a pretty girl in a nice sweater and all you can think is wow I could use that pattern on the sweater to make some cool damascus. "Actually no I was not staring at your breasts."

When your only social interaction takes place on bladeforums shop talk.

When you bring up things like the increasing scarcity of L6 and 1084 in casual conversation like people would care or even know what the heck you’re talking about. And you don’t notice that they are walking away.

When your wife knows what L-6, O-1, 1084 or 15N20 is.

But then again maybe I am just O.C.D. and antisocial.
 
I broke the wheels on a walker that has a seat on it moving my anvil so I could still work with a broking leg. New band-saw drooped off on front porch, I us it in the living room because I cant get it to the shop on crutches.
 
You might be a serious knife maker if the delivery men hate the packages the have to deliver at your place. LOL. Anvils, steel, grinders motors, drill presses. saws.
 
When it's not actually a bald spot on the top of your head, it's where the sparks hit when grinding and burn the hair off.
 
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