Looking at your early work.....and cringing.

ACLakey

ACLakey

Well-Known Member
Have you ever taken a look at your early work and thought to yourself....damm...I owe this guy an apology. :)

let me preface by saying when I got back into making knives I spent a year putting handles on blanks, grinding knives and improving my fit and finish. I gave all those "gems" as gifts, god knows where they are now. :) I know I am my worst critic and am confident in the knives I have sold but is....motivational to look at some of your work from yesteryear. I was cleaning up the shop this evening and found some that I had forgotten about...the ones that I wouldn't give away. I love this craft, it is a life long leaning endeavor, every knife I make is the best one I have ever made and that means something to me.
 
I get a reminder every time I go through my knife making pictures.
My buddy loves the ugly thing I made him. The other reminder is the first knife I made that was over 5" oal I put the fist pin in a hole for the epoxy to go through the blade. I kept it as a reminder to pay attention to pin locations. Lol It does however help me to keep focused on what I am doing and to not think I am more skilled than I truly am.
 
I am still new but glad that each knife improves. The first knife I made is used for cutting sand paper. I figure it will be a constant reminder that there is always room for improvement.
The day I feel that my knives will not get any better will be the day I give it up. Hopefully that never happens.
 
I've always been a "The Glass is Half Full" kinda person....... I still have the very first forged knife I ever made. It resides inside a drawer in the shop, and whenever I get to feeling cocky about myself, I take it out and look at it, and it gets my feet back on the ground. :)

I always encourage my students to keep their "first" knife.... then, once they reach #10, take #1 out and compare them, and then do the same with #20, #50, and #100....... it gives perspective on just how far a person comes in the development of their skills.

Are there knives out there I wish I could take back? OH YEAH! :)
 
I still have the first knife I made. I gave up after spending too much time on the scales. They came out fine. I never sharpened it. I realized that I need a lot more equipment to make knives than I had. Oh well, at least now I know what it takes to make decent knives. I have purchase knives from ebay that I knew were not nicely finished and refinished them myself. The biggest surprise I got through ebay was a knife with NON bookmatched wood scales. Fortunately I have a lot of scale wood. I am also playing with axes rehafting and finishing the hafts with BLO. I refinished a Condor bushcrafter that came out very nice. I have also put a few hidden tang knives together. Being retired gives me time to "play" with my hobbies.:biggrin:
 
I am in that "early work" stage right now, having made 3 1/2 knives.

I'm happy with what I've accomplished but I don't think they're good enough to give away as gifts and definitely wouldn't dream of selling one.

We had Christmas at our house this year and I gave a tour of my tiny workshop and the knives I've made. A few wanted me to make them one. But I explained that I'm not ready for that yet and that it takes me forever to make one.

However, those that expressed an interest will likely get one as a gift when/if I get to the point that I'm happy enough with a knife to let it go out the door.
 
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