You know you might be Neo-Tribal if...?

[Tai Google]

You know you might be Neo-Tribal if??

You've ever forged a blade naked with your butt painted blue under a full moon, in a hole in the dirt with an extension cord and a hair dryer, danced around wildly, howled towards the heavens and cried out?

?.OOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHuuuuuuugGH !!! (Tai Google)

if you think steel is alive...

if making a knife is a religious experience...

if full moons always make you think of knives...

if you embrace simplicity... (toddhill)

if you dream of more lessons at the school of Goo... (toddhill)

If you bow toward Tucson on a full moon. (BTW It might be time to make that "Haj" again)
If you carry your "shop" out to your forging area when you have the day off.
If your favorite handle material is twine.
If you brake for scrap metal.
If your anvil was not an anvil in it's previous life. (Blaine Whitney)

if your hammer never strikes the hot steel unless your facing true north. (azmike)

. . .if you've been standing in the smoke too long. . . (Armory414)

If ya got drawfilers fingers.

If your boogers bounce back when ya fling em. Or if they're magnetic . Or if ya can forgeweld with em (nifeman)

...if your shop is also the chicken coop...I'm getting sick of all the chicken crap!

...if your favorite forging shoes are wingtips from Goodwill...

...if all the tools you use are handmade...

...if you refuse to be put into a box or wear a certain label... (toddhill)


...if you ask what language the words "KMG" or "Bader" are in...

...if your copy of The $50 Knife Shop is held together with duct tape...

...if you see a knife from Thailand and start trying to copy it...

...if you can't stop sniffing your bag of pinyon rosin... (toddhill)

...if birds think your forge is a good place to nest...

...if your knives demonstrate highly skilled hammer work...

...if your three year old knows who Tai Goo is...

...if you have a funky name like "NT Cough'n Toad Hill"... (toddhill)

If the night of the full moon arrives and you haven't gotten the "call to come forge" and it puts you in a funk (thank God there are two full ones this month--they only come around once in a "blue moon" ya know). (azmike)

...if your forge doubles as a grill... (toddhill)

...If you've ever forged to Blaine's didgeridoo.
...If you've ever made a knife titled, "Coyote Poop". (Tai Google)

At the end of the day your eyes are bloodshot, your ears are ringing, your hands look too dirty to eat with 'em after you washed them, and your wife and kids wont get within 10 feet of you. (Tim Crocker)

a Martian metalsmith shows up at the FMP. (Tai Google)

If you stay up so late forging that you see fire spooks in the flames. If you get all excited over an old wagon wheel rim. If worn out files get your creative juices flowing. If you're depressed for days after missing a load of chain saw bars that went to the scrap yard two weeks before you stopped by. If you have to think for a while to remember the last time you used a piece of fresh bar stock. Uhmmmmq!! (Martin Brandt)

if your PROUD to have about a 1/4 acre of scrap steel in your yard. (metalbender)

If you've ever caused a traffic jam to get a length of cable from the side of the road into your trunk....

If you've ever been seen "dumpster diving" in the back of the Chattanooga Saddlery.......... (Lawrence Kemp)

If you spend two evenings a week wandering your neighborhood with a flashlight, checking out your neighbors' trash for scrap metal, old vacuum cleaners, buckets, bicycle chains, etc.

If you habitually carry a magnet and hacksaw in your car.

If you've ever burnt wood for charcoal at 1:00 a.m. on a weeknight in the dead of winter, to get around the fact that you live in a townhouse and burning it any other time would generate a call to the fire department and/or the cops. (Matt22191)

you LOVE the smell of coal burning in the morning. smells like, victory.........?(metalbender)

...if at the end of a forging session your hair looks like Dana's from all the ashes.

...if your woman's curves make you think of knives, and a knife's curves make you think of your woman, and your woman calls knifemaking your other wife.

...if you know what a muffle furnace is.

...if you use a Mexican raising hammer to make knives.

...if there's no place like Windy Lou.

...if you're thrilled by the scratches, stains, and patina that come from your knives being used. (toddhill)

...if at the end of a forging session your face and arms are black like mine from the charcoal dust from grabbing it from the bag :-P

...if parts of your forge are held together with duct tape.

...if your forge consists of the following ..bbq grill/cat litter/fire bricks/pipe/duct tape/cinder blocks/hairdryer. Yet still gets the job done! (EdgarFigaro)

if you get a vicarious thrill every time you replace a power tool with its pre-electric counterpart. ie electric blower to crank blower to six foot leather bellows. (metalbender)

If at the end of the forging day you still want to hang out around a fire, oil lanterns and Tiki torches.
If your shop has no walls or doors.
If your hands never quite get clean.
If you've made blades on your knees.
If you mentally get into a "happy place" while forging.
If Duct tape + toilet paper = Band-Aid. (Blaine Whitney)

...if you like hanging out along RR tracks.
...if you like making knives out of RR spikes.
...if you like the way file marks look on your knives.
...if you try to incorporate turk's head knots into as many knives as you can.
...if mainstream knives and designs bore you.
...if you stand out from the crowd.
...if you're not afraid to cut all your hair off and show your bare chest (only applies to men).
...if your shop would never pass code.
...if you have more connection with and admiration for a Javanese kris maker than an ABS mastersmith. (toddhill)

if every time you go to your shop to do "other" things (cleaning up/re-arranging things) and before you know it there is a fire going with a hot piece of steel waiting for your hammer, and thinking that the other things can wait. (azmike)

[NJStricker]

EXCELLENT!

[toddhill]

I guess that pretty much includes us all.

[nifeman]

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

[mariano gugliot]

I think, when you choose to use less to do more.

Saludos

Mariano

[ERASTUS]

This thread has caused me to join the OUTPOST. I could not resist. So many hit home.....

Thanks
Erastus

[toddhill]

Welcome to the gang!

Todd

[Voltaire]

I understand that some people consider these traits to be "Not Normal".
...wonder what that means.

[Tai Google]

Well I don't know,... seems normal to me.

[Blaine Whitney]

Originally Posted by Tai Google

Well I don't know,... seems normal to me.

Normal is certainly a "relative" term.

[mariano gugliot]

Originally Posted by Blaine Whitney

Normal is certainly a "relative" term.

Agree!

Saludos

Mariano

[Tai Google]

[Sam Salvati]

Mariano, that's just the coolest picture! Weird is relative, as is normal.....ness. The caption for this picture should read, hail to the king baby.

[Gene Chapman]

Haven't made a knife for quite a while, but for years the finish on blades was 220 grit, except pattern welded, 600 grit.

[metalbender]

you know your neo-tribal if
you've ever had a argument with your farmmates about what wood is going to be firewood and what wood is going to become your charcoal.

youve ever gazed upon a friends fine deer/elk/moose rack on their wall and thought to yourself, sheesh what a waste of perfectly good knife scales and handles

your inthe proccess of slowly replacing the houses cutlery with stuff youve made

you can hold the bowl of mashed potatos without the oven mitts, comfortably

used motor oil ranks high on things to stock up on on a monthly basis

you want the blacksmith at the farmer museums job