Why knifemaking?

[Dougster]

I get paid for it

You must have a smile on your face when they go out though Stu.

I started to build, as opposed to make, knives when I couldn't afford a Woodlore. The amount I have now spent goes way over what it would have cost me. There is something special about making something, anything - that as a nation we seem not to value any more. Watch Eastenders and all those of value have a cheap suit and a clipboard.

A skilled craftsman in this country - now they are a rare and special thing. One day, I'd like to be one, I'll have the glow that must be the reason for making them in the first place.

 

[elma]

I started making because like most people I couldn't afford a quality knife, and when I started to buy quality knives I wouldn't use them.
It's a real treat when it all comes together and you produce a tool thats a thing of beauty.

Ian

 

[British Red]

And you do Ian - and a bargain at that.

If you amke a few more you will be as good as your lad

Red

 

[cybertrix]

I do because I like working with metal. I don't have a knife I use regularly, I don't do bushcraft although some aspects I would like to try and I don't hunt, camp, fish or shoot. I just like working with metal, especially with hand tools. The sounds and feel are relaxing although tiring. The problem is most of the knives I have made I have given away to friends and family etc. I have only just started to sell the odd one to support my hobby but until recently I have not considered them fit to sell.

I find when you do something for the pleasure of doing it, it doesn’t matter what they look like as long as you enjoy it.

 

[British Red]

So bung that baby one up on here when it has a sheath - it'll sell!

 

[tom miller]

I made knives when I was a young apprentice (engineer not jedi ) and I am giving it a go again after all these years.

 

[rancid badger]

I make knives occasionally, to me it's another thread in the fascinating web of traditional,hand made craft work.
My tools are (nearly always) made to suit a specific job and I rarely, if ever, buy something, if I can make it.
I call it a "web" by the way,with good reason; once you become tangled up, it is often difficult to escape!
Seriously though, when you make something with your own hands, I believe it has a touch of your spirit which will travel with that thing, be it knife, sheath, spoon, bag- what ever, until it eventually decomposes and returns back to the Earth, to start again.
Where the little bit of "spirit" goes?:bluThinki
I'm buxxered if I know
cheers
R.B.

 

[Wade]

If you don't mind a comment from someone across the pond and a newbie here. The main reason I love to make knives is the joy of getting an idea in my head and keep working that idea until the end result is a knife that hopefully myself or someone else will enjoy keeping and using.

They are a thing of beauty that just touches a man all the way to his soul. My wife once asked me when would I have enough knives and I simply told her about the day that she had enough jewelry. For some reason she did not think my comment was the lest be funny.

 

[British Red]

Hi Wade You found us then

 

[fishy1]

I make things rather than buyying them as it's cheaper, I do a better job, it's made to my specs, and if it breaks I know exactly how to fix it.

 

[Wade]

Yes Red I found yall. Thanks for telling me about this place. I spent hours yesterday reading allot of the posts here. There are a bunch of very knowledgeable folks here and I am going to be able to learn allot. Thanks for letting me in.

 

[brancho]

Like many I started because I couldnt afford what I wanted (woodlore at the time) I do not make in the calssic bushy style but I like what I make. I am just finishing number 8 which is a rescue job for a kit he started and I probably better than he would have done .
I made a couple of others as presents.

I think I am getting better at it though.

 

[stuart m]

I get paid for it

if that was the only reason they would not be as good as they are

You must have a smile on your face when they go out though Stu.

First off, thank you joejoe...

I just read through this thread again and my reply, a feeble attempt at a joke, sounds terrible, sorry about that...

Of course there is more to my knife making than getting paid, I enjoy every second of it, well most anyway

I do think I differ from most in as much as it is my work, my business, and it is run as such, overheads, tax liabilities etc etc

And I differ in as much it is all I have ever done, I'm not saying it makes me better or worse than other makers but knife making is as it always was, 'Plan A' for me... There was never a time in my life when I didn't think, the whole family didn't know, that I would be a Cutler...

I often wonder to myself, is it pure luck that I enjoy making knives so, or is it just because it is all I have known... You tell me?

I don't know how to do anything else.....

Yes Doug, I take great pride in the knives that leave the 'shop, I speak to many makers who tell me that they feel saddened as knives leave, they feel attached, not me, I never see the knives as my own... From the weeks/months of design work through the following months of build to delivery, the knife I am working on always belongs to my client, it is their perfect knife, it is never mine!