[DaveRuhlig]

Ok, I guess I better chime in since I feel partially responsible for putting Ray through this?.

First, thank you Ray for taking the time and putting forth the effort to come up with some sort of consensus on the terms we all use.

I urged Ray and others to do this because in my short time around these forums I saw countless posts on the topics like ?can I put my mark on a kit blade?? or ?I put the handle on it so is it hand made??. As a newbie I know I had some of the same questions, as I?m sure most of you did also. I?m still a newbie so I won?t weigh in on the specific definitions, but once they?re decided on I WILL use them.

I?m a hobbyist knifemaker and an amateur collector and I DO care that when I (or anyone else for that matter) buy a knife from a dealer/maker and ask if it?s ?hand made? that we both have the same definition. I was at a gun show recently and there was a guy at a table selling what he advertised as ?hand made? knives. He had quite a few people around his table when I pulled the trapper kit I just finished out of my pocket and laid it on the table next to his identical ?hand made? one he had for sale. You should have seen the look on the faces of the people standing around. Obviously his definition of ?hand made? and theirs was different.

There will always be scammers out there, but I think we as a knife making/collecting community have a duty to the pubic to agree on some industry specific terminology and USE it, and when you see people use the terms incorrectly call them out on it.

I applaud you all for taking the time to give this some thought.

-Dave