How did you...

reach your breaking point? Let me clarify, by breaking point I mean, your descent into this madness that is knife making. It has always been a point of interest to hear the stories behind each maker and though most of them would sound almost identical to the none-knife-loving ear, each echoes its unique pitch to mine.

My trek all started as many have, with a childhood obsession with sharp and shinny things but it did not blossom into an attempt at an actual knife until much later. It was not until the stress of two long deployments and an equally lengthy stop-loss caught up with me that prompted for the search of an outlet. Knife making was not my first avenue of approach but fittingly, all the things prior to it only strengthened my knowledge base and resolve. As woodworking has always been a passion of mine, I dove back into it head long reequipping my garage with woodworking tools and ungodly amount of burls and native woods. Making razor scales, shaving brushes, re-handling knives, turning pens and making my own mallets and chisel handles all appeased my need for distraction. That is, until I found myself sharpening my tools for the sheer pleasure of removing and shaping steel.

Buying turning chisels, skews and the likes, left my wallet feeling empty and me unsatisfied, as there was always another tool to buy. Soon enough I ended up buying bar stock and making my own chisels, heat-treating them to the best of my ability using coarse means and getting results that were on par with the mid-level tools that were killing my wallet. Around this time, my time with the military was coming to a close as I had left active duty and was finishing up my contractual obligation with the Army Reserves. The introduction of free time allowed me to push toward a though, one long since stowed to back of my mind… making my own knife.

From that point on, there was no helping me. Night after night, I spent reading forums, databases, books and everything else on the subject of knives that I could find. When I got comfortable enough with the amount of information consumed, it was time to make a few more purchases. The following day I purchased a small 2x42 grinder from Sears and started to shape my first knife. (Luckily, said knife has since been misplaced.) On this day, all of my other interests took a back seat to my knife endeavor.

Now I find myself building a set of grinders, making space for a forge and EH Kiln and adding even more wood to my already gigantic collection of lumber. ( Some pieces are too striking to use on just anything so they sit until my skill can match their beauty.)

This seems a bit long winded but I have written it in hopes to get all you to shave in the like. However, I must admit to having read everyone’s “origins,” that have been kind enough to post them on their sites. It seems somewhat odd to type that last statement, but I promise, no one’s bunny is being boiled.

Regards,
M. Martinez

Thanks for sharing your story. I made my first couple knifes back in the early 90's. Two total. Because of work, space, money, and life in general, that’s all I did. But I enjoyed it and still carried and used my first every year around deer season. I thought and talked about starting up again for years. Then a few years ago, during a boring lunch I saw a bin of metal getting scrapped. The bin was full of A2, O1, D2, ect. Well, I could not let it get thrown out so I started sorting it out and taking it home. The first couple I did was done during lunch on and Burr King 3 wheel grinder in the Fab shop at work. What a blast!


At around the same time, my wife got sick. It took a year before someone was able to diagnose her with a very rare degenerative brain disease. This of course changed things. Making knives changed from not only a hobby I love to my therapy. Making knives take a lot of concentration and it is a great release of stress. If given a chance, I slip out to the garage and spend a few minutes grinding, sanding, buffing and making a sheath. My wife loves to watch me sewing up a sheath and every time either starts singing the "stitch in time" song from Bugs Bunny or says something like "Stitch one, pearl two" and laughs.


As her condition progresses, I find release in my knives. If I can’t get out to work on them, I will get online and read about them. Knife Dogs is my favorite place to come. I have videos from Ed Caffery, Chuck Burrows and a few others and watch them over and over. (I hope their skills transfer by osmosis)

I know I have a long way to go in this journey of making knives, but the bug has his teeth buried deep in me and I love it.

Thank you Uncle Billy for sharing. As an way of showing my appreciation to all who participate in posting their "story," I'd like to put up a nice block (1.5"x6"x3") of well seasoned Lace Madrone Burl from my private stock. If you're not familiar with madrone burl, it is one of the hardest woods to dry, as it has a tendency to honey comb and crack like glass hitting a brick wall. This of course will be a free drawing and your number will be determined by number of your post. At the end of a 10 day period, the winner will be announced using that night's Texas Lotto Pick Three Drawing. I'll cover shipping.

Have fun posting and reading.

* This is a picture of the block being raffled. It has been rough sanded to 80 grit and kept natural. No wax, sealer, or anything else. The grain just gets better as you cut into it.

well mines a little of the wall I'm a avid hunter since age 10,and never really new what a custom was and never really liked the knives i used.well long story short when i was around 33 i was two miles in shot a nice little buck and pulled my brand spanking new wall mart special,and as i was cutting around the anus and started cutting upward towards pelvic the front of blade cut into it and when i went to pull it out i must of twisted it or something and the blade broke can you say pissed.well 3 weeks later my wife wanted to get some books for are daughter at the book store and i came across a book called ten easy knife projects paged through it and thought man i could do that. well 7 years later i'm more obsessed then ever,and still looking for the perfect design well thats my story and im sticking to it LOL

Well I was an avid hunter for most of my life. I always liked quality knives allways wanted something better. I was big into archery and while on an archery forum found a tutorial for knife making and fell into this money pit but fun one.

Well, without writing a book..

My interest in knives came from just simply wanting to know how to sharpen them. I did some reading on the internet to fully understand the process for myself, as I was tired of trying to find somebody who did it to my satisfaction. There are alot of people who claim to be able to sharpen a knife, but many have no idea on the what they are doing. As I studied about it, I also found information on people who made knives mixed in a little. I took a slight interest in it, but saw very quickly it was out of my league.

Fast forward about five years. I had just gotten out of trade school to be a machinist. I had worked in a job shop for a year or so and was now working at another job. This time I was in a tool room. I worked in the tool room (where I am now) for a few years before I picked up the interest again. In that time, I developed a better understanding of how to work with heat treatable steels and what there purpose was. I started studying again and found a tutorial for a guy building a linerlock folder. I decided to attempt it. It took me over a month, but I finished it. I carried this knife for around four years, and finally retired it (before I lost it thanfully) about a month ago.

It was another year or so after the first knife before I tried my second, a fixed blade. Then, I did another fixed blade for charity, and it sold for $500. That charity was St. Jude childrens hospital, and it really got me fired up. I attended my first Blade last year (2010) and although I was only able to hang around for about 20 minutes, I got even more fired up.

Next I attempted one of the hardest things any new maker could do IMO, a slipjoint. I did a WIP on this, and It came out great. At that same time I also started on two small "skinners" as I named them, and never finished them. Right before blade this year, I finished them up and brought them with me. A few of the makers from this site saw them there, along with my first slipjoint. Those two small skinners got donated to the same St. Jude auction about two days ago. That acution ends monday night 8/15/11. The bid right now is at $750. You just can't beat that

When I came back, I was approached by my asst chief of the fire dept I am in about making a knife to raffle off for the MDA charity we do every year. The proceeds will go to MDA, and someone will win it. I had some materials laying around and got a start on it. I finished that one, also doing a WIP on it as well, and it turned out awesome. That raffle is still going, and the drawing for the knife will be sometime around labor day. That's it in my avatar. Shortly after I finished that one (about a month ago I guess) I started on a swayback wharncliffe. It is 90% done, and I might finish it over the weekend.

I plan to keep making slipjoints, because I really like the challenge and they seem to be hot sellers (for other people anyway). Fixed blade knives are nice, but I don't have a desire to make sheaths and the market seems to be flooded with fixed blades that aren't selling. With folders, I don't have to worry about a sheath and there seems to be some market for them. I'm to the point now where I need some better tools and I need to start making some of my money back on these things. Hopefully, as I get better, my slipjoints will start selling. I love making knives, but it has gotten to the point where it is a very expensive hobby, and I'd really like to sell a few knives and get some feedback. I do most of my work at home on the few tools I have - a drill press, 4x36 grinder/disc sander, and a 1x30 grinder. I need a Mill and a 2x72 grinder badly, but I just can't afford them at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to get those soon. The heat treating and surface grinding I do at work, off the clock..I'd like to get a setup like that at home so I don't have to stay extra time at work just to use the tools here. I want to be able to do everything from my home shop.

Most of the knives mentioned are in the album in my profile.

I seem to have a serious "shiny things and nice wood" gene as when I was small I would beat pieces of brass pipe into rings and polish them and was thrilled. I loved shop in high school and then got a degree in gunsmithing here in CO in 1978, and took a knifemaking class they offered at night, where made my first knife, which will never see the light of day. I worked as gunsmith and machinist and ended up an electrician in large corporation where had full access to machines including production belt grinders where made my first hollow ground knife. My dad was a tool and die maker in same corporation and was able to get lots of steel free and even had access to real heat treating dept that did my knives for fun. I ended up getting outsourced as a maintenance electrician and then ended up in maintenance management since 2001. I always did minor gun work but couldn't justify a hobby gun shop or have space for one. I discovered my neighbor, Tom Barminski, who is a well known retired knifemaker and he would give me steel and handle material because he still has lots and we would talk knives. His knives inspired me to get into knife making, as well as finding Tracy's NWG on line, and I haven't looked back. I really enjoy KD forum and all the great folks here and this hobby (obcession is closer) really helps balance my work/life where I stare at spreadsheets all day and talk on phone and am able to work on knives rest of time.

Well my tale is a lot like Franklin's. Hunting has always been what I loved doing. Several years ago I was invited to go on a hunt with a friend I packed three knives so I did not worry about carrying a stone. Long story short I ended up having to use someone elese's knife to finish my skinning job of only one deer as my edeges did not hold up. I was tired of cheap knives I started looking at custom knives at several gun shows and it ended up they were to expensive or workmanship was to poor for asking price so I decided I could do it as well as they could for that amount of money. Turns out I was wrong but in the process I found something that I really enjoy and after my first knife way out performed my factory knives I was hooked. I can now skin out several animals with one knife as compared to one animal with four knives.

Knife making has also allowed me to meet lots of great people and has given me a way of giving back or paying forward for for all the many blessings I have recieved.
so thanks to all you knife dogs out there that have been willing to help me along my way

I can't remember a time when I didn't enjoy playing with knives and other sharp objects. Even as a little kid I would take a ball peen hammer and beat 16 penny nails agaist the concrete floor in my grandfather's garage to make miniature "swords" for my G.I. Joes. I even tried cutting a side off of a piece of 2" mild square tube so I'd have a piece of flat steel to make knife from. The only thing I ended up with was a worn down cut off wheel and a piece of badly warped steel. hahaha Little did I know that mild steel wouldn't have made anything usable anyway.

It wasn't until many years later, while browsing some random knife forum, that I read about a guy using a belt sander to grind a knife. This completely blew my mind as the only "grinders" that I knew of for cutting/shaping steel were the old stone wheel grinders or hand files. I was also under the impression, for some reason, that you couldn't make a "real" knife without 10's of thousands of dollars worth of precision, computer controlled equipment like all of the big name manufacturers use.

Once I found out that the majority of custom knife makers used belt sanders to shape and grind their blades, I then started looking into what kind of belt sander I could afford. That's when I found plans for Tracy Mickley's "No Weld Grinder Sander". I sank about a few months and 5 or 600 bucks into building one of those, and then another 500 or so into building my own heat treating oven. Once I got half way comfortable grinding "practice" pieces out of scrap steel I had laying around, I ordered a couple feet of 1095 and made my first couple of "real" knives.

Since then I've made several knives, each one seemingly better than the last, and I have even sold quite a few to people who have seen them on my YouTube channel or been referred by other people.

Now it feel like I'm constantly looking for better tools, better methods, and better knives, with no near end in sight!

Texas Pick Three for tonight was 199, looks like Andrew has won. Send me PM with your address and your block is on its way. Thank you all for sharing.

Nice! PM will be inbound shortly.

Thanks for you generosity, and it was a great idea to hear some interesting stories from other makers.