Making Plans !

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Dec 12, 2010
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A couple years ago I was reading a book by Murray Carter . In the book he suggested that you make a plan on every knife you build. At that stage I had a dozen or so under my belt and I thought I was off to a decent start. So why would I need to make a plan.

I used to just wing everything , I would kind of put my pins in the same area and sort off shape the fronts of my scales a certain way. What this got me was extremely poor fit and finish and no predictability of what it would look like in the end. As I got better I still didn't have a plan but I was building a better knife.

In my personal assessment of my knife making I found a whole laundry list of things I wanted to change. I wanted to stop breaking expensive wood because I didn't take the time to ream out the holes so there is a little wiggle room to adjust. I wanted to eliminate gaps and so on. What I needed was a PLAN !

So I took Murray's advice and started drawing out my knives and setting up where I wanted my scales to lie and several other things. I do a mix of forged and stock removal . But my passion is forging and old world style but with modern materials. So I don't really use a lot of templates when I forge. I have maybe three designs I work with and the rest I let the hammer do the talking.

So with my new planning I also learned to slow things down. There is no rush . Since I stopped taking orders I have been able to do my own thing at my own pace and I have started to enjoy what I do. I used to do Bushcrafter after bushcrafter with no end in sight. Now that I am planning things out I can do more challenging pieces and try to up my skill level.

How about you .. Is there anything that you did that helped you improve your outlook and skill level that was so simple ?
 
Sound advice I would say. I remember reading a post from another thread about writing down all of the steps in order of operation, and follow that every time you make a knife in order to avoid costly mistakes. Slowing down is definitely a key aspect, especially for someone such as myself who is so new to the craft, yet so eager to finish a piece.
 
I have been making liner locking folders for over 15 years, I think maybe 18 or even 19. I still draw up and then make a hard pattern for each one that is even a bit different than the one I now am going to make. The cost of materials can be pretty terrific and avoiding their destruction by a little preparation can save hundreds of dollars over a period of time. As well a pattern will often give a good idea of what the knife will look like when finished. There are those hard patterns that are good to go and those that are good to go to the garbage. Frank
 
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