N-T?

One

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In relationship to knifemaking, what does “Neo-Tribal” mean to you?… What’s it all about?

What’s do we do here? :les:

I've heard rumors that some of them used to sing and dance around under a full moon and forge meteorites and sand into blade,... about as real as it gets!

I think I might want to join up. :)
 
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As a relative-newbie... N-T to me is applying a very high level of craftsmanship and old-world-techniques to reproduce/produce knives and weapons that are inspired by relics from the past.

It is NOT being too lazy to fix mistakes or mis-strikes, it is NOT sloppy craftsmanship at all, quite the opposite.
 
As a relative-newbie... N-T to me is applying a very high level of craftsmanship and old-world-techniques to reproduce/produce knives and weapons that are inspired by relics from the past.

It is NOT being too lazy to fix mistakes or mis-strikes, it is NOT sloppy craftsmanship at all, quite the opposite.

Yeah, and maybe preserving old world techniques and adapting them to the times we in, innovating,... making the old new again.

... Trying to breath new life into our craft, without losing our connection to the past..
 
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For me it's a core extension of a compulsion toward self-reliance and minimalism, or true fundamentalism.


Being able to effectively create function and utility in as fundamental or low level way feasible. The basic hand tools, providing the least delineation between human creativity and the subsequent creation. Total control, and power. Total responsibility for the result.


If I could shape steel with my bare hands, I would shun the hammer.
 
Extreme newby here as I am just now starting to put some basic tools together to begin making knives. So please bear with me here...

Right now, making some functional blades with a minimum of tools is my only interest in regards to making knives. I have no desire to use grinders, drills, propane etc...things that I can not count on always having.

What I have recently found to be known as "Neo Tribal" is just the closest thing I have seen to what I want to do. I want the knowledge to produce a tool, a blade, with just the various basic things I can find around me.

To me it is about seeing what you can do with almost nothing. Not intersted in creating art right now, only functional tools. I try to think of what someone in the third world environment would do. The need for the blade comes before anything else. The blade does not come for its own sake. It does not come from the motivation of a sale. There is no celebration for "it" only the task at hand.

I do not care about hammer marks as they do not alter function. Some embelishment as an expression of ones "style" is fine and part of being human but to me too much decoration or non functional elements distract and do not fit my idea of what a maker would do if making a knife as a tool because of an urgent need.

1.What needs to be done? make a shelter? gut and skin an animal? chop a head? (cabbage of course).

2. What do we have? no power, found some rusty steel in the woods, some rocks, some fire, a few odds and ends, desire, want, need, a little energy and a human brain.

Is the tempering perfect? probably not. How many cups of salt did you put in that water? Is peanut oil better than canola oil? Did I breath in too much micarta?

forget all of that. what you have made is better than a piece of bone or stone or a sharp stick. Go use it, make more, figure out what you did wrong, feel good knowing you have the knowledge to create something of extreme value to your survival with just a few things you have salvaged around you...etc....blah blah blah......

Thats about my take. I certainly do not expect to be on the same page as anyone else.

This should be a good thread.

Cheers.
 
Here's my take on it at 1:30 in the morning. :)

To me, Neo-Tribal Metalsmithing entails:

1. High quality craftsmanship with an emphasis on the use of forging to achieve the final goal. This doesn't mean that all of the blades have to be forge finished; but it should be distinctive from a ground-from-a-bar stock removal blade.
2. Heavy reliance on hand skills and muscle powered tools more so than upon machine skills and power tools. This doesn't necessarily mean that you never use electricity or propane (although if you want to play by those rules, you may and proudly proclaim so); it does mean that if for whatever reason the power went off and the supply chain broke down, you'd be able to make a few adjustments and keep on banging out useful tools like before. Remember: After the Russians nuke us back into the Dark Ages and the rest of the country is under the iron grip of the Amish overlords, we blacksmiths shall be free!
3. A tendency to make use of recycled and natural materials.
4. An indefinable aesthetic that evokes a sense of other cultures than 20th and 21st centruy America. 1830s fur trapper, Filippino head hunter, post-nuclear barbarian, lost continent of Lemuria, alternate universe where the Mayans learned to smelt steel, alien warrior, all good. The tendency is toward a more primitive aesthetic, but refinement of form and finish are good.

Within those parameters, the field is pretty darn wide open. Go play!
 


Definitely!

Having fun and "playing" has always been a big part of it to me and I've always tried to encourage people in the importance of play...

In the beginning of the NTMs the "recreational" side of the craft, was a big part of it. It wasn't until some time later that a few of the members and practitioners started selling NT knives, which actually came as somewhat of a surprise. That really changed things,... some for the good and some for the not so good. After the group made the cross over into the market place, things did get a lot more serious,... However, it showed that there was/is an audience willing to pay for the work and there was a serious side to it as well. In essence a whole new market was created, spontaneously.

The roots of the movement however, were not about commercialism and I hope we never lose site of that.
 
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For me personally, it was a way around a severe creative block and "knifemaker burn out". NT made it fun again. :) At the time I had already been making knives professionally for 15-16 years but just wasn’t having fun anymore. The learning had stopped... I was just taking orders and making the same types of knives over and over. I almost quit knifemaking. I had a big shop full of power tools, but decided to go out back and set up a psuedo primitive forge. I just started experimenting and playing around with it. Not only was it fun, but I was learning new things everyday. Anyway, that’s how I got hooked into it.

For me, it really did help breath new life into the craft. It got me excited about making knives again.
 
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Tai, I'd be interested in seeing what those knives looked like at the point where you felt burned out. It would be very interesting to see where you were coming from when you went Neo-Tribal.

I remember reading Virgil England saying that he'd rather haul trash than make another 4" drop point hunter. :D
 
Definitely!

Having fun and "playing" has always been a big part of it to me and I've always tried to encourage people in the importance of play...

YES! This is what makes it a joy for me! That along with the fact that it has become a larger part of my own spiritual-practices than I would have ever guessed at the outset of making knives.

Simplicity is King! I also like taking the old and making it new again reality in the Neo Tribal realm......just like how so many forgot about soaking their grains and culturing their freshly ground grains or meats. Most of the cultures that did this had strong teeth and bones late into life. What does this have to do with Neo Tribal Bladesmithing? I'll let your imagination and logic find your way with that one.

Blessing to all that go slow and keep it simple.

-DON:)
 
"Tai, I'd be interested in seeing what those knives looked like at the point where you felt burned out. It would be very interesting to see where you were coming from when you went Neo-Tribal."


When I started this old work, it was considered innovative for it's time,... but wasn't too long before it became sort of mainstream... which was never my goal.

After enough time went by, it was actually painful for me to do this type of work, although I'm sure that there will always be an element of it in everything I do,... to one degree or another.

Matching pair of meteoritic daggers with mokume handles
Tai%20Goo%20Presentation%20Dagger%2002-1.jpg


Sticker with meteoritic damascus and mokume handle
Tai%20Goo%20Presentation%20Dagger%2003-1.jpg


Tai%20Goo%20Presentation%20Dagger%2003-2.jpg


Dagger with sterling silver handle and meteoritic blade.
Tai%20Goo%20Presentation%20Dagger%2004-1.jpg


Meteoritic damascus bowie
Tai%20Goo%20Presentation%20Damascus%20Bowie%201-1.jpg
 
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I've heard rumors that some of them used to sing and dance around under a full moon and forge meteorites and sand into blade,... about as real as it gets!

Where do I get in this line?
 
for me it was just the idea if i could do it. i started looking into making knives on '04 after about a yr of research the only thing i found out was i needed a lot of money to get started. or so i thought, enter the $50 knife shop. I though hey i can come up with 50 bucks. with the section mr. goddard did about NT with tai and tim, i was hooked. I ordered the woodsmastervideo then tims video afterwards and i took off.
 
My idea is that the world outside—the so-called modern world—can only pervert and degrade the conceptions of the primitive instinct of art and feeling, and that our only chance is to accept the limited number of survivors—the one- in-a-thousand of born artists and poets—and to intensify the energy of feeling within that radiant centre.
Henry Brooks Adams 1918
Reading this years ago opened a door that I've yet to close
 
NT means making the tools out of nothing to make a knife out of nothing with the tools that you just made out of nothing & so on and so on.
 
I am proud to see people who are still happy making _______(anything really). a uli was because it's cold, and the task it was to be used for. When bowie (jim not david) cut his hand in a fight w/ butcher knife, coffin handles. forging a meteor bybrammies lol. The thrill in watching a man work a piece until it meets his standard. Filing with your body, learning the skill of age, have you ever hand scrimshawed a piece w/needle? many sailors nights were in one piece and when he got to land sold it first thing for a tankard of mead, arrgh. knowing a leaf spring on a 68 apache is 5160 having the skill in the immortal words of brooks and dunn "to do thangs with my hands most men can't". able to build a fire plunge a piece of steel into it and draw it out to mold it w/my hands, making s hooks till you would ride of the back of a trashtruck to keep from making one more. To sell a knife to a man and watch him go dig a fire pit w/it. from "knowing" how a piece of metal is hot (think a min) to forge welding cable I love it all. The time when man was lockmaker, machinist,welder,electrication,trap maker,making nails when its raining and you can't get outside. being sure that whatever comes you can make,fab,layout whatever it takes. Ladies and Gents i will kindly yield my soapbox proud i have found a site where others of my kind dwell.

walks away folding the flag remembering ira hayes, humming "workin man" from The Hagg" lol
 
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When I returned to knife making after many years I decided that making art knives would not be my style. That type of work has its place and I admire the early work Tai has done here immensely. For me, it was about making useful tools that would last. Practicality is king. Form following function as well as looking at really old steel blades and stone tools. Now those designs last for thousands of years. Some things are just ageless. When we lose our inspiration (Imbas if you're Gaelic) then our work suffers and we might as well be hauling manure. Gotta keep the muse happy. If you are not being creative then, whats the point?
 
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