Hello folks,
After my 160 or so posts I realised I never introduced myself here. I have been making knives for 6 years now as a spare time maker. I have 2 daughters under the age of 5 so spare time is not always something I have a lot of. I attending a weekend blade smithing course and since then I have kept on making knives. In the last few years I taught myself to make slipjoint folders and that has become my passion. I have become a full member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild. I am making a couple of 2 blade trappers at the moment and my goal is to have made a 3 blade sowbelly by the end of the year. I really dig those multi-blade folders.
My mentor from my first blade smithing course convinced my to run a slipjoint making course and I ran the first one over the past weekend. I had 2 students, 1 of which had done the blade smithing course before, the other who had never made a knife before. By the end of the weekend (including friday night and 2 very long days) they had both completed 2 shadow pattern slipjoints. I was amazed as I struggle to complete 1 in a weekend. Of course the level of fit and finish was not the same as someone who has been making knives for 6 years but they were over the moon with their knives. Teaching someone how to make a knife certainly improves your knowledge as you need to be able to explain what can go wrong and had a plan ahead to prevent mistakes and what you can do when they occur.
For those of you that have chatted to me before hopefully you have learnt a bit more about me, for everyone else nice to meet you.
Alistair
After my 160 or so posts I realised I never introduced myself here. I have been making knives for 6 years now as a spare time maker. I have 2 daughters under the age of 5 so spare time is not always something I have a lot of. I attending a weekend blade smithing course and since then I have kept on making knives. In the last few years I taught myself to make slipjoint folders and that has become my passion. I have become a full member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild. I am making a couple of 2 blade trappers at the moment and my goal is to have made a 3 blade sowbelly by the end of the year. I really dig those multi-blade folders.
My mentor from my first blade smithing course convinced my to run a slipjoint making course and I ran the first one over the past weekend. I had 2 students, 1 of which had done the blade smithing course before, the other who had never made a knife before. By the end of the weekend (including friday night and 2 very long days) they had both completed 2 shadow pattern slipjoints. I was amazed as I struggle to complete 1 in a weekend. Of course the level of fit and finish was not the same as someone who has been making knives for 6 years but they were over the moon with their knives. Teaching someone how to make a knife certainly improves your knowledge as you need to be able to explain what can go wrong and had a plan ahead to prevent mistakes and what you can do when they occur.
For those of you that have chatted to me before hopefully you have learnt a bit more about me, for everyone else nice to meet you.
Alistair
