- Joined
- Apr 30, 2001
- Messages
- 1,742
I am by no means truely a newbe maker. I am pushing ten years since I built my first knife. However, I am new to pushing my product onto the open market.
What I find disturbing is that I have been brought to call over details that many collectors seem to ignore with the "old timers". I have several customers who seem to feel that I can do no wrong. They are to the point of bringing other makers work to me to "clean up". I have worked on WH's, Ken Mcfalls, and many many other WELL known makers. I leave out some names because they are friends of mine.
The most recent is a custom Akuchi from Watnabi (sp?). This was a custom order that my customer recieved just a few days ago. First thing he did was call to meet with me and discuss fixing a few things.
Before I go into detail let me say this. I always explain that it is a handmade knife and as such should not be expected to have computor tolerences. I also let them know that my working on it may hurt any returns to the maker. And that the best way to go is to return it to the maker and have the problem fixed by him. Never the less they still ask me to do the job.
Well, if I put out grinds like this I would not last very long as a custom knife maker. A simple roll over review clearly shows, to even an untrained eye, that the grinds are all off. The plunges do not match at all and the grinds themselves are a differant hights.
I have smoothed finishes, buffed out waves and orange peel, filled voids in spacer material, replaced bolsters, flushed out pins, evened plunges and grinds, reshaped handles and on and on.
I have also spent many hours at knife shows looking over handmade knives. It seems that most of the problems come from the "top" makers.
Why is it they get a free pass on their name alone and new guys get their work passed over for flaws that are less than that of the big names.
Makes no sense to me at all. What do you guys think?
What I find disturbing is that I have been brought to call over details that many collectors seem to ignore with the "old timers". I have several customers who seem to feel that I can do no wrong. They are to the point of bringing other makers work to me to "clean up". I have worked on WH's, Ken Mcfalls, and many many other WELL known makers. I leave out some names because they are friends of mine.
The most recent is a custom Akuchi from Watnabi (sp?). This was a custom order that my customer recieved just a few days ago. First thing he did was call to meet with me and discuss fixing a few things.
Before I go into detail let me say this. I always explain that it is a handmade knife and as such should not be expected to have computor tolerences. I also let them know that my working on it may hurt any returns to the maker. And that the best way to go is to return it to the maker and have the problem fixed by him. Never the less they still ask me to do the job.
Well, if I put out grinds like this I would not last very long as a custom knife maker. A simple roll over review clearly shows, to even an untrained eye, that the grinds are all off. The plunges do not match at all and the grinds themselves are a differant hights.
I have smoothed finishes, buffed out waves and orange peel, filled voids in spacer material, replaced bolsters, flushed out pins, evened plunges and grinds, reshaped handles and on and on.
I have also spent many hours at knife shows looking over handmade knives. It seems that most of the problems come from the "top" makers.
Why is it they get a free pass on their name alone and new guys get their work passed over for flaws that are less than that of the big names.
Makes no sense to me at all. What do you guys think?