Ya know what grinds my gears?

victoroni said:
hand stitching a large sheath and after about 3/4 through slowly coming to grips with the fact that you may not have cut the thread long enough.
(fortunately one learns quickly - cut it long !)
Click to expand...

Or sewing through your thread and the one time you don’t pull the thread through the hole before pulling the needle through, so you miss it and end up with big loose loops and a nasty knot. Hooray- I love starting over!
 
Along these same lines...

“Here’s a picture of “x”- (flea market fantasy knife / production knife / etc) . Can you make me one?”
 
This has been a good read.
I have a couple to add.
1. When you take the time to answer someone's questions and they dont reply.
2. When someone complains about pricing or tries to tell you what your pricing "should" be and what your material costs "actually" are.
3. When you make a listing extremely clear yet people dont read it and often ask questions that are already ansered in the post.

I'll throw out some positivity after all this complaining. Here are a few things that don't grind my gears.
1. Answering any genuine questions and getting to know people.
2. Hearing customer feedback
3. Talking to anyone who is looking to start making knives. Trying to help however I can. I have had a few people over to my shop to try making a knife and I genuinely enjoy it.
 
Stang Bladeworks said:
2. When someone complains about pricing or tries to tell you what your pricing "should" be and what your material costs "actually" are.
Click to expand...

Or similarly: "Yeah, but what's your final price with the friends and family discount? wink wink"

Yeah... real original. Never heard that one before. Unless you were directly involved in my birth, or in the birth of somebody who was, you're not getting a family discount, and if you were really my friend, you'd pay double my asking price. :D
 
Stang Bladeworks said:
2. When someone complains about pricing or tries to tell you what your pricing "should" be and what your material costs "actually" are.
Click to expand...
I usually hand them a piece of flat stock and say "Take this and make me a knife of the same quality and I'll buy yours". I do it joking manner with a big smile but after they look at the stock for a minute or two they begin to realize "Yeah, his prices are fair". Most of my knives sell in the $225-$275 price range so I don't think I'm overpriced to begin with.

On the positive points of your post I couldn't agree more. Those are some of the best things about knife making. I really enjoy explaining the differences between a custom knife and a production knife. Usually when they pick it up they came immediately tell the difference for themselves.
 
tkroenlein said:
People that want you to make a knife that looks like "this" and attach this picture:

View attachment 74142
Click to expand...
I recently had someone ask me to make a set of three throwing knives for their friend. I told them i would be glad to do so but they would be better off going to a big box store an buying a set for $20. They were very nice but I think they took my advice because since I quoted my price they have not messaged back.
 
Chris Railey said:
I recently had someone ask me to make a set of three throwing knives for their friend. I told them i would be glad to do so but they would be better off going to a big box store an buying a set for $20. They were very nice but I think they took my advice because since I quoted my price they have not messaged back.
Click to expand...

Yup! Thats what happened!! I had a cousin that was super insistent (barely a cousin) about a price, to the point of being obnoxious. I know hes not gonna buy anything but I gave him the price. I didn't hear a thing. I saw him out and asked him "hey you still looking to get that knife (I was in a mood!) ??" It was kinda of fun listening to the excuses! He was looking for a FREEBIE!!
 
Last edited:
I just came across something else that grinds my gears.... :confused::eek:
When you pull your blade out of the tempering oven, and while unscrewing the C-clamps holding your straightening jig together, a dime drops out of the jig that you don't remember putting there, and then realizing that instead of straightening out the minor warp from the quench, you managed to temper in a second bend into the blade... :(
Here it is 4 tempering cycles later and finally straight enough to start finishing...20200801_150745.jpg
so much for being efficient with my energy usage....:rolleyes::)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top