Noob mistakes don't be afraid.

Ty Adams

Ty Adams

KNIFE MAKER
There has been a lot of talk here about mistakes that new knife makers make. Being a noob myself it is hard to give advice to other new makers. Mistakes happen..... At every step they happen. Try to fix the mistakes you might surprise yourself. What you do with those mistakes can be a learning experience. Or it can hurt you.

Almost every knife that I wreck I try to turn into a positive. They get tested. Is my heat treat good? .10 or .20 at the edge? Would one be better for an EDC or a hunter. Convex edge or straight bevel? What degree to sharpen them at. 220 grit or 600 grit when sharpening.

What happens when you throw it at a tree 300 times. ( I'm not a ninja.) Will your 4" blade hold up to being batoned through a 4X4 oak board. (Yes but it's not easy.) How did the edge hold up? Did it roll or chip.

Don't know if your glue up process is good. Test it. Hot roll material and trim boards from Lowe's are cheap.


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Mistakes happen.... Don't be afraid.
 
Ty

That is a good looking pile of misfits. I think every knife maker has one or two of those in their shop.

Just remember, you cannot fail if you do not try.

DeMo
 
Sage advice Ty.

Also, there is no such thing as newbie mistakes or intermediate mistakes or experienced mistakes.....there are just mistakes. They're not exclusive to newbies. :D
 
The ONLY difference between a GOOD Knifemaker, and any other Knifemaker is this..... A GOOD Knifemaker knows how to minimize or hide their mistakes.

We all make mistakes, no matter the level of experience. Personally, that's what's kept me so stoked about knifemaking for so many years.....every single day that I walk into the shop, I learn something new. If you're personality demands that everything be "right", all the time, then knifemaking probably isn't for you. :) It's all about the "race"....not about the "finish". :)
 
Just remember, you cannot fail if you do not try.

DeMo

That's a good saying Dennis. I always tell my guy's at work. If you're not making mistakes you're not trying to improve.

And yes some of those blanks are fixable. And will be fixed at some point. I am just trying to get caught up on orders.

My grammar is horrible so I tried to keep it short. Fixing mistakes has usually helped me find a better process for what I was doing at the time. But I won't pass up the opportunity to break stuff for fun. I enjoy testing....
 
Great thread Ty and something I need to keep in mind all the time.

I make TONS of mistakes. Even when I check, double check and double recheck I somehow always seem to screw something up. BUT I'm getting better at fixing them and moving on to new mistakes.

I jumped into knifemaking with both feet knowing nothing about how to make a knife. I don't have a mentor and I've never actually watched a knifemaker work, other than videos.

I'm just brute forcing my way through it which gets frustrating and expensive.

I've thought about doing a WIP thread here. NOT as a tutorial but so that I can *hopefully* get some advice from some of the veteran makers around here about how to do things easier, faster or better.
 
The latest noob mistake. In an effort to even my bevels i some how pushed back my plunge line about an 1/8". Oops. At least the bevels are some what even. I drilled the pin holes for some stainless steel tubing. Some how a larger drill bit found itself in my pin drawer and I drilled the holes over size. Oops again.



Jake
 

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I just spent an entire day correcting mistakes. I spent nearly 10 hrs at the grinder carefully reprofiling 6 blades that were screwed up one way or another during heat treat. 4 severe warps, 1 minor warp and 1 broken tip and surface cracks on all but 2 of the blades. Man, post HT reprofiling sucks! Grind for 1-2 seconds then dunk in ice water, and repeat about a billion times


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