Where do the stock removal folks fit in?? They didn't make the steel and chances are they didn't do the heat treat or tempering.
I'm not sure how you would categorize them/us. I definitely don't forge the stainless steel I work with, however I do everything from start to finished on my knives. I start with a piece of stainless steel bar and scribe my knife design on it. Cut it out with a band saw(stared early on using a hacksaw) drill, shape, hand file, heat treat everything, hand sand, do the same for the wood, put the primary edge on it. Etch my mark etc.
Forgot to mention on my folders I design cut out and sand flat my bolster and liner material, solder it together, epoxy and peen the wood I cut to fit between the bolsters, and later on I further shape and peen everything together etc.
I am in the process of joining the ABS group because I want to learn to forge blades. However currently I would still consider myself a knife maker(although a very beginning and still learning one) and not a person that purchased an almost completed kit to pass of as my own.
I'll stop rambling now, lol.
John
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
i started working with knives at age 58. I have bought and sold numerous knives made with store-bought blades, BossDog sells them on his site. I always stated, the blade was made by ?????.inc. i still buy store-bought blades when a friend or client wants something I can't make from scratch. Finishing a blade someone else made dates back to medieval times. a "Cutler" was someone who bought blades then mounted handles and created a finished product. here is an interesting article about back then https://myarmoury.com/feature_groundpound.html. this forum is a good place to get help and have questions answered.First of all I want to thank each and everyone of you for your input. Just starting out at this hobby I want to make sure that I do it correctly. If I don't grind the blade my self then I plan on marking it as assembled by. If I actually do the grinding and so forth then it will be made by.
I feel a little odd getting into this at my age of 53. I've always been interested in how knives were made and the looks of them. I am looking forward to my first knife. I'm currently building my grinder.
Thanks again to all for the great answers.
David