- Joined
- Jul 23, 2015
- Messages
- 12,642
S
Sean Riley
I had already been thinking about all this stuff when I saw your post here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/cpm3v-bladesmith-and-heat-treat.1977243/#post-22509060
My first instinct was to respond and say I'd be interested in the job. But I will share my thought process with you that your post put in my mind so you can better understand why I instead created this post in the services wanted section and asked a mod to sticky it:
The thought occurred to me to get your design added to the waterjet cut run that I am days from starting up with New Jersey Steel Baron, but first of all, how soon is "soon"?
I have never worked with 3V. It just happens that I am taking a leap into this steel for the first time with one of my own new designs, and I would want to make a couple of these and test one out through my own use and carry for a bit before I agree to make a custom with it, or even know what I would have to charge. I might have been willing to just go for it, but I am very busy with orders that I already have people waiting for, with new runs in the starting stages, and so it wouldn't take much of a push for me to lean towards not taking the job.
This one line alone is asking for an unquantified and unqualified characteristic that is hyberbolic at best and entirely subjective. Are you asking if the maker will do the heat treatment himself or herself? Probably not, but maybe. Are you asking if the heat treatment will be correctly done? If so, it would be a given. Are you asking if the maker will use a special protocol, similar to the Delta protocol used by CPK? Are you asking for a specific Rockwell hardness rating? Indestructible in what tasks, and with what geometry? Have you considered all the ramifications of whatever that "heat treat magic" criteria means to your actual intended use of the knife?
I am asking all this rhetorically, and as an investment to help you and other potential custom knife owners to get a feel for what a maker will want to know about what you want. When I was brand new, I did not have as many orders lined up, and so I had the actual time to go back and forth for 50 emails and get all this sorted out. Now that I am busier, I came up with the idea to publish what options are available from me so that people can look it over before we start discussing the build, kind of like a "Frequently Asked Questions" to save you and others actually having to ask them. There will still be questions, but if I can preemptively answer 90% of them without you having to ask, then the remaining questions should help us get laser focused on what is to be done.
When you posted in my shop thread, I replied with a pic of my business card and said you could contact me by email, text, or phone call. Two people can accomplish in one fifteen minute call when they might need weeks of ongoing emails to cover. Some people don't want to talk on the phone. I don't understand it, but I respect it.
So when you emailed me and asked me about this build, the 3V is the part of the reason I said it is not a job for me at this time, but also it seemed like we were looking at one of those ongoing email conversations where I would have to ask a ton of questions that I spent almost a whole day typing up a post to preemptively answer.
www.bladeforums.com
Maybe down the road I would take on this build for you once I have better understanding of working with 3V, and if you can articulate 90% of everything to do with the build in an email, OR just give me a call (not within the next couple months though). One caveat, you said you wanted a clone of another maker's design. I made a couple clones before I got my head right about that kind of thing, and so if I do eventually take on a build for anyone looking for a clone of something, it will be an absolute requirement up front that they accept enough design changes to make it at most "inspired by" rather than "copy".
I hope you and other potential custom knife owners can take this in the spirit in which it is offered. Thank you for reading.
My first instinct was to respond and say I'd be interested in the job. But I will share my thought process with you that your post put in my mind so you can better understand why I instead created this post in the services wanted section and asked a mod to sticky it:
The thought occurred to me to get your design added to the waterjet cut run that I am days from starting up with New Jersey Steel Baron, but first of all, how soon is "soon"?
I have never worked with 3V. It just happens that I am taking a leap into this steel for the first time with one of my own new designs, and I would want to make a couple of these and test one out through my own use and carry for a bit before I agree to make a custom with it, or even know what I would have to charge. I might have been willing to just go for it, but I am very busy with orders that I already have people waiting for, with new runs in the starting stages, and so it wouldn't take much of a push for me to lean towards not taking the job.
This one line alone is asking for an unquantified and unqualified characteristic that is hyberbolic at best and entirely subjective. Are you asking if the maker will do the heat treatment himself or herself? Probably not, but maybe. Are you asking if the heat treatment will be correctly done? If so, it would be a given. Are you asking if the maker will use a special protocol, similar to the Delta protocol used by CPK? Are you asking for a specific Rockwell hardness rating? Indestructible in what tasks, and with what geometry? Have you considered all the ramifications of whatever that "heat treat magic" criteria means to your actual intended use of the knife?
I am asking all this rhetorically, and as an investment to help you and other potential custom knife owners to get a feel for what a maker will want to know about what you want. When I was brand new, I did not have as many orders lined up, and so I had the actual time to go back and forth for 50 emails and get all this sorted out. Now that I am busier, I came up with the idea to publish what options are available from me so that people can look it over before we start discussing the build, kind of like a "Frequently Asked Questions" to save you and others actually having to ask them. There will still be questions, but if I can preemptively answer 90% of them without you having to ask, then the remaining questions should help us get laser focused on what is to be done.
When you posted in my shop thread, I replied with a pic of my business card and said you could contact me by email, text, or phone call. Two people can accomplish in one fifteen minute call when they might need weeks of ongoing emails to cover. Some people don't want to talk on the phone. I don't understand it, but I respect it.
So when you emailed me and asked me about this build, the 3V is the part of the reason I said it is not a job for me at this time, but also it seemed like we were looking at one of those ongoing email conversations where I would have to ask a ton of questions that I spent almost a whole day typing up a post to preemptively answer.
Services Offered - What are your options on a David Mary custom knife?
To make the ordering process as convenient for you as possible, here are the options you can select when having me make a knife for you. Anything in strikethrough is not an option, at least not yet. Materials on the list are those I will work with, but their presence on the list does not...
www.bladeforums.com
Maybe down the road I would take on this build for you once I have better understanding of working with 3V, and if you can articulate 90% of everything to do with the build in an email, OR just give me a call (not within the next couple months though). One caveat, you said you wanted a clone of another maker's design. I made a couple clones before I got my head right about that kind of thing, and so if I do eventually take on a build for anyone looking for a clone of something, it will be an absolute requirement up front that they accept enough design changes to make it at most "inspired by" rather than "copy".
I hope you and other potential custom knife owners can take this in the spirit in which it is offered. Thank you for reading.
