" Is that a kit?"

[B.Finnigan]

I was wondering if anyone here has shown a knife they made to someone and had them ask you "is that a kit?". This happened to me the other day and for some reason it really pissed me off. This person knew that I made knives but I guess I did not look like someone who could build a knife of that caliber. That question to me is huge no confidence vote, a way for them to say you don't look like someone that could do that.

Tha last kit I ever built was a gas model airplane when I was sixteen. Since then I have never built a kit for anything. Why would I want to make something that someone else designed?

This is just my nickel rant for the day. I suppose that question could be a compliment in some twisted bizzare way. If it was not for the fact this person was female they would be sporting a serious head injury right now.

[prizzim]

That would irritate the heck out of me, too. That the person even knows what a Kit Knife is, and still asked you that, smacks of the disrespect intended.


Show 'em Ric Furrer's Knife Kit...


Wood for handle, flux, iron to smelt, and more wood for charcoal.

[B.Finnigan]

Right on!!! That is my concept of a kit also. I am in the process of making a draw knife so I can make my own hawk and axe handles. The selection in most lumber stores of hardwood dowels is pathetic, when you consider all the exotic woods out there.

[Tony Graves]

Brent

Man that sucks. I'm afraid I would be rather insulted also.

As to the drawknife / lathe. IF you cherrypick your wood you will be much happier with handles made via the drawkinfe method. Because this tool Follows the grain of the wood. It will in the end make a much stronger haft without splitting or cracking.

That is the way all of the best windsor chairs are made. bowbacks that conform and fit your body when you sit down in one. Very little weight and enormus strength.

With a little practice a drawknife is fairly quick also.

Tony

[Trenton Entwistle]

Not quite, but a co-worker told me he thought they looked store bought. I didn't know how to take it at first, but then realized that he is a very non knife person, uses them to cut steak and that's about it, so it was actually a compplement that he felt it would sell in a store. At least that's what my wife convinced me he meant anyways.

Trenton

[Dragon cutlery]

i get the where do you buy your blades or handles some times even who cromed your blade i have taken blocks of wood and brass or knives with the wood unshaped to show that i do make the handles to some shows

[cricket]

It bothers me a little, and it has happened a couple of times, but the look on their face when you show them a piece of steel and a chunk of wood and explain that this is what I started with.......Priceless

[TikTock]

Agreed....usually they say "what do you mean you "made" that....then you show them a bar of steek and a block of wood and their eyes get pretty wide and their attitude changes....I have made it now a practice to send pics to the buyer of the raw materials the knife was made from. Many people in this day and age cannot wrap their brain around someone crafting something from raw materials into a finished product.

[jph]

Rofl:

Man don't get upset...just do what I do...say kits are too friggin' expensive and that you whipped this out from some scrap in your garage out back...in my case that's usually the truth, sorta...

Some folks have no idea as to what they say.. I get all sorts of weird stuff said to me..like when this one young man was looking at a PW Bowie I done a while back (yes, believe it or not I do make those..)..well he looked..said it was really nice and then put it down and walked away..as he turned he said to his wife/girlfriend "#### for that much $$$ he should at least get the grind lines out of the blade".. I thought a second and as he walked off I said to him in voice I know he could hear... "If you want it polished..that's EXTRA!"".. I hear all sorts of stuff indeed...that was one of the funniest. He has no clue at all, which is sad cause he was at a custom knife show and walking around looking!!

Educating the "public" as they say is very important.. Instead of getting cheesed off, take that opprotunity to educate, you might just swell the ranks of cutlery enthusiasts by one more member that same day. No one is born knowing about custom blades (or much about anything else) and we all start from someplace...


Anyway that's how I look at it.


JPH

[prizzim]

Sage advice, jph. Thanks.

[B.Finnigan]

I might just be the area I live in but nobody in my circle of family, friends, work mates or acquaintances has a hobby or craft or is DIY'er. The concept of fixing, designing and building something yourself seems to be an endangered species. I can not remember a time that I was not involved in something that kept my mind busy and my hands dirty. My parents/grandparents always had me trying something new. I firmly believe that is why I never got caught up in drugs and managed to keep my head above water all the way through school. There were never enough hours available in the day to piss away hanging out with societal dropouts or to get into to trouble, I had crap to build or finish up.

Maybe our society would be much better if more people took up a hobby or craft, something that would keep the creative sides of thier brains connected and active. My own theory is if you do not have a creative outlet that you are passionate about you are brain dead. You might as well be a programmed drone that could self destruct at any moment (and they do quit often if you watch the news!).

I think that was what torqued me the most is the realization that people now days are completely disconected from others and most importantly, themselves. They no longer know how to live, just exist and react to the next crisis. That explains much more about the human condition then you might think.

What would happen if I showed them a piece of steel I made from a couple buckets of sand from the river, some charcoal and ground up sea shells? Thier brain might actually turn inside out and start quivering. The people that I have shown some of my home smelted steel to just gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look, it's was priceless!

[jph]

Howdy!~!

Like I said before, education is the key here. Now I will admit that the public at large has no idea at all about what it takes to do this stuff...and well, it's our own fault as a "community" that this is the case.

Hand crafting anything is falling away and soon, if "we" are not careful, alot of skills will be lost. This is sad. Blacksmithing is what I consider a "Master Craft"..being able to make tools, equipment and implements from nothing is really amazing.

Now there are some skills that are seeing a resurgence in "interest" like weaving, glass blowing and pottery. Custom knives seems to be more cyclic, people come, people go...Yet there is always a "core group" of folks who stay for the "duration" and usually that lasts from when they first get started and ends when they either are forced to stop making or they die.

Once they pass, that's pretty much it for whatever that person has learned and if he or she didn't share any of that knowledge, then that is also lost for good.

By telling folks in a way that they can comprehend and isn't too "complicated" for them to really follow is the best way to get them interested, if there is any interest there to begin with. 999 out of a 1000 couldn't care less.. but you never know where or when the 1 who is will show up.

It's no secret that I write about this stuff. I am a big supporter of "educating the public:.. Now will any of my articles, books or the like make anyone go out and start doing this?? Not hardly. It is up to the individual(s) involved to get motovated and start. All I can do is help them along.

Getting cheesed off by someone's words who simply doesn't know anything doesn't help the situation at all. Now granted there are folks who will have that "deer in the headlights" look, and more times than not, you will get that or the "Oh, cool" response and that's it.

But every now and then you might just run across that one person who will be interested, whether it is as a client who suddenly discovers the "world of custom cutlery" as a patron who wants to buy, use and collect or as a maker who wants to create, whether it is for himself or just because he wants to just learn how to do it. We need both for this craft to survive.

Gee look at me..I am sermonizing...Sorry about that folks..Didn't mean to get up on my soapbox here. It's just that I am rather pasionate about this...

I better go backout and play with Julius...got some barstock to finish...

JPH

[B.Finnigan]

I think that is why I enjoy the forums is it is a reminder to me that there are other people out there that design, create and fabricate and do it very well. It might be a type of nuerosis but at least I am in very good company.

[Raymond Richard]

Brent, Most people are so lame to what we do. I look back to a few years ago when I gave a few of the Saturday Markets a try. I knew sales would't be great so instead of just sitting there for the whole day I brought my portable forging outfit and would spend 3/4's of the time forging knives. It was a good experiense. Some of the older folks would stop by and tell me of a father or an uncle that was a blacksmith. One of the times an older lady had tears in her eyes as she watched me. Guess it reminded her of better times or I just pissed her off. For the most part the younger generation just walked on by like what I was doing didn't even register in there minds. I tell people I make kit knives but I make the kit first and then put them together. Don't let what others say or don't say bother you.

Lets see the Seahawks win on Sunday!

[B.Finnigan]

"I tell people I make kit knives but I make the kit first and then put them together."

I like that line! I will have to use it someday, it is sort of like a reverse insult.