From the arcane world of knifemaking...

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His best quote from the thread on that other forum was:

"One final note: If anyone requires more information about my knives than what is provided on my website please do me a favor- take your business elsewhere."

Talk about customer service!
 
Mooseyard said:
Deweyknives, you completely missed the joke. Sometimes my humor is hard to see.

I AM NOT BMK. The quote about growing up in the Mountains was a C&P from BMK's website. I am an LEO, and I have NO experience making a knife, and I've freely admitted that on this website every time I ask one of the masters for advice.

Now the part about J. Peterman. J. Peterman was Elaines' boss from Seinfeld. He would travel the world looking for adventure, and then use stories about his adventures to describe the clothing and items in his catalog. I just felt that BMK's description of his life and how he had backpacked in the arctic circle and climbed mountains, and milked rabid porcupines and been a member of every special forces group was a little over embellishing and had nothing to do with making a knife.
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Thank you for the explaination, Mooseyard. I completely misunderstood your post. I apologize for being suspicous and sure don't mean any disrespect to you!!! [now that I know you're not him!;)]

Now I'll go back to the bench where I belong! :D
 
I know, I know...we're supposed to let this die---

I don't think ANYONE here has a problem with a guy using kit blades, in fact, it's how many here got started. And it's for good reason. It's DIFFICULT to learn how to grind a clean, smooth bevel on both sides with matching plunge cuts and GOOD EDGE GEOMETRY.

It's not top secret--many of us have explained exactly how we do it right here on the forum. But it takes practice and determination. For some it's easier than others. Either way, it's not something you just walk up to the grinder and knock out of the park the first time.

Go learn to grind knife blades like the kit blades you are buying, and see if you still feel the same way.

I promise you won't feel the same. And I'm not talking about just "grinding on a blade and making sparks." I'm talking about grinding a blade that is smooth, symmetrical, has crisp transitions, and good edge geometry.

And I'm with the other guys on this whole "engineering" thing. To say that, implies that you are taking your background/experience and drawing up a knife with the profile and geometry that said background influences. I have an engineering degree---- pulling a part out of a catalog may be a part of the entire engineering process--- but to say you engineered it means you designed it. Picking a part out of a catalog is NOT designing it.

And lastly, the whole thing about everybody trying to make knife making secretive and mysterious and harder than it needs to be is crap. Go look at that thread Ms Steve Culver did on his quillion dagger, or the threads Ms Bruce Bump has done on his cut and shoots, or even the thread I did on making a damascus camp knife where I included every little step that I go through to get to a knife at the end--- and tell me we're all making it some kind of big secret.
 
Quoted from BMK

There is a distinct difference between someone who uses a tool and engineers them and someone who only makes tools. I have used knives in more places and in more situations than most, if not all "bladesmiths" out there. I have great respect for the art of working with steel. However, maybe some of you should step away from the grinder every now and then and actually do something besides grindng steel. I approach knifemaking from a different perspective and because of that, my knives look different. They look different because they are different. If they look the same as other knives, please show me.
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Search Robert Terzuola CQB

The funny part is that he keeps stating that his experience leads to "engineering" a better knife, yet he is using prefabbed blades designed by the very same folks he discredits as "couch knifemakers".
 
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I just engineered one heck of a yummy sandwich. Yay, I'm a chef! I'll make one for you too... a mere $200. Trust me, my vast experience in eating sandwiches makes it a bargain.
 
suprised this is still going.

BMK:

Its ok to market to those who are interested in knives designed by those will outdoor experience.

Its a tough market with tons of production knives that fit the bill perfectly.

You gotta have an "Ace" if you are to succeed competing with the production stuff. For most this is the handmade /arcane portion of the craft.

My advice would be to grind out a line of handmades to go with your kit stuff. You make a nice handle, it shouldnt be a huge jump into blades.

This is why these guys are so riled..... you cant just skip the arcane stuff, if you are going to be selling the arcane stuff.

Or.... continue on posting to forums quickly discovering the audience is highly interested in transparency and details you dont want to provide.

Who knows.... it might turn out well either way.

PS: dont be etching kit blades with your name, its poor form.
 
whhhhoeeee, this is getting to be quite the thread.

Without going into W&C territory, a few notes:

for BMK:

The default response of "get off BF and go to my website" for every question is just...rude, uninformative, and generally doesn't move a for sale thread forward.

For sale threads are for the sale of specific knives. When I'm looking at working on a waiting list for a knfie design or something, I post in my subforum.

I understand your are a unique flower. Honestly, that's not meant to be mean, the world of custom and handmade knives is, fortunately, filled with the unique. But the backhanded denigration of all details, knowledge and refinements of steel handling and .. handle handling, by other makers is.. again, rude. Also greatly uninformed.

Your general dismissal of all the "arcane" details of knifemaking shows a lack of knowledge, an overbearing attitude problem, and dismissal of hard won experience and knowledge.

A specific example for a steel you work with - O1- I haven't used much O1 in the past because it isn't possible to bring out the best of the steel in my heat treat setup (I'm working o setting up a kiln now so I can expand some various steel types, including O1). O1 does have some- not very arcane- but some tricks and enhancements over heat treating, say, 1080 in an open forge. All steels aren't the same, and all processes aren't.

Yes, knifemaking itself, when doing stock removal or 'basic' forging, with simpler heat treats, is a fairly simple process. The mastery is in the details, consistency, fit and finish, geometry, overall feel and suitability to a task, and dialing in the heat treats to match the purpose.

No one here deliberately occludes the processes. We're all very good at sharing what we know, and trying to improve and simplify processes since time is money.

for others:

regarding the hardness and suitability of large sawzall style blades, hacksaws, bandsaws, and suchlike:

It's a common DIY task for people to turn hacksaw blades into simple, workable, PSK or tin knives. They work okay. There are people who take ~rc54 bandsaw material and do similar things. (I'm going from memory on the hardness of bandsaw blades, I've never worked one without annealing and doingmy own heat treat, though)

No sawzall style blade will be dead soft low carbon steel behind the teeth because it needs to have the ability to bend and return to form. I'd guess, depending on the quality and type of blade, something in the 48-54 range of hardness. Perfectly adeqaute for a simple utility knife with the right geometry. Not going to temper out at Rc60, but that's okay, hardness isn't everything.

I wouldn't, porsonally, find this acceptable for my knives, but I wouldn't laugh at a new maker using it if it stands up to the intended use.

The dogpile in this thread is somewhat understandable as the maker has provided quite a lot of attitude with complete disregard for skill, experience, performance, and life-experience of other makers. But some more or less clear and functional explanation would be approriate.

Whether or not it will do any good remains to be seen.
 
JCaswell said:
This thread has gotten attention at the Professional Soldiers Forum.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=382544
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As a retiree with 21 years, 8 months and 5 days in the military his statement that he went “to USMC OCS and then to Special Forces training, then have the privilege of serving for 16 years” doesn’t sound right, especially since he claims to be a Army reserve SF Captain. I’m sure there is some convoluted career path to make all that true, but it’s got to be an odd one.

It’s premature to call him a poser, but the knife world for some reason seems to attract that kind of disreputable behavior. Regardless of his military career statements being true or not, his attitude and decorum is seriously lacking and reflects poorly on the officer commission he says he holds.
 
Nuke41 said:
As a retiree with 21 years, 8 months and 5 days in the military his statement that he went “to USMC OCS and then to Special Forces training, then have the privilege of serving for 16 years” doesn’t sound right, especially since he claims to be a Army reserve SF Captain. I’m sure there is some convoluted career path to make all that true, but it’s got to be an odd one.

It’s premature to call him a poser, but the knife world for some reason seems to attract that kind of disreputable behavior. Regardless of his military career statements being true or not, his attitude and decorum is seriously lacking and reflects poorly on the officer commission he says he holds.
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bingo (aside from his less than honest marketing)

I'm sure his background will the brought to light on the other forum.
 
Nuke41 said:
As a retiree with 21 years, 8 months and 5 days in the military his statement that he went “to USMC OCS and then to Special Forces training, then have the privilege of serving for 16 years” doesn’t sound right, especially since he claims to be a Army reserve SF Captain. I’m sure there is some convoluted career path to make all that true, but it’s got to be an odd one.

It’s premature to call him a poser, but the knife world for some reason seems to attract that kind of disreputable behavior. Regardless of his military career statements being true or not, his attitude and decorum is seriously lacking and reflects poorly on the officer commission he says he holds.
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I haven't been speaking to that subject. For a couple reasons, including the fact that I'm aware of more convoluted career paths than a marine officer becoming a guard SF reservist.

MY only beef is the notion that this experience is so unique in the knifemaking world that it alone makes everything said and done by a person superior.
 
james terrio said:
I just engineered one heck of a yummy sandwich. Yay, I'm a chef! I'll make one for you too... a mere $200. Trust me, my vast experience in eating sandwiches makes it a bargain.
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That $200, is that including delivery, insurance and paypal fees? Can I get cheese on it?
 
Koyote - My anecdotal experience sawing things with sawzall blades tells me that they often take a set. Matter of fact, I can't think of one that didn't after a bit of use. They may not be dead soft, but they aren't very bend resistant either.
No sawzall style blade will be dead soft low carbon steel behind the teeth because it needs to have the ability to bend and return to form. I'd guess, depending on the quality and type of blade, something in the 48-54 range of hardness. Perfectly adeqaute for a simple utility knife with the right geometry. Not going to temper out at Rc60, but that's okay, hardness isn't everything.
Click to expand...
 
Sparljo said:
PS: dont be etching kit blades with your name, its poor form.
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He doesn't, he photoshops them. That's what really bothers me about this whole thing. All of his knife photos are horribly hacked photoshop renders. I haven't seen any real proof that he makes anything at all. A simple, non-chopped, photo would clear all this up pretty easily. But so far, AFAIC, you guys are giving him too much credit by even calling him a kit assembler (not that there's anything wrong with that).
 
AcridSaint said:
Koyote - My anecdotal experience sawing things with sawzall blades tells me that they often take a set. Matter of fact, I can't think of one that didn't after a bit of use. They may not be dead soft, but they aren't very bend resistant either.
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yeah, eventually they mostly seem to take a set. So do bandsaw blades (one of the many reasons I anneal and normalize a lot when I do use recycled material) But they are still way over what you'd get from a dead soft 1020-1040

And, of course, they often get smokin hot.
 
Mooseyard said:
That $200, is that including delivery, insurance and paypal fees??
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Yes. Heck for $200, if you include travel expenses, I'll bring it to your house and feed it to you... I'll even throw in a bag of chips and a soda absolutely free.

Mooseyard said:
Can I get cheese on it?
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How dare you ask questions about my processes and materials?!? :mad: *stomps off in a huff*

Stacy, I apologize but I couldn't resist having a bit of fun. I will stop flogging this dead horse now.
 
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This guy is a fraud...this is the one of only two knives he's ever actually [poorly] created—from scratch...All the crap on his website are bought blades, bought handle materials et cetera and assembled by his own hand that he then affixes his logo upon…You could almost call it plagiarism but in actuality it's fraud.

He is not a knife maker but a handle finisher of factory made blades from kit companies like Jantz et al.

This was brought to light on a couple of other forums--where he was banned from one and would have been banned from the other had he not bought a dealer's membership which is now under review.

Believing that they were his own creation I erroneously commented on his knives being good, basically classic, designs, until it was pointed out that he bought some German blades etc. and then lied through his teeth that they were his own creations.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=154450&highlight=Bush+Monkey

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=153996

Some of the text was deleted by the moderators but the general gist of the situation is clearly evident.

He tries to defend his position, badly, here:

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=155007&highlight=Bush+Monkey+Knives

Admits that this is the first blade he ever created in this forum

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=155160

First there was the "Gun Kid" and now we have the "Knife Dweeb"!

I've posted this with the permission of the moderators who I queried before hand

I wish we had a section titled "Disreputable Dealers and Makers" that we could access for info prior to dealing with the company...Not someones complaint that it took them two weeks to respond to their E-mails but two months after billing the credit card they still haven't (and never will) received their order or they substituted a Chi-Comm copy for the real thing and charged them original maker's pricing..

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The problem lies in what is a knifemaker? This and many other knife and knife related forums don't have a definitive answer...I think this should be addressed by the administrator and moderators with our input.

IMO, if they forge the steel and shape it or you buy a blank and grind it down to shape, then they heat treat it--even if they send it out for say cryo or heat treatments, stick a handle on it, in either case, they are knifemakers!

You don't have to make your own sheaths--leather or Kydex but can buy from a professional sheath/holster/saddle maker or just supply a velvet bag or a wooden box for it or not a damn thing.

Even if you buy someone else's semi finished blade and finish it--even altering it more then slightly, to your or the customer's specifications and note in the description of that knife that it was a collaborated effort then not only are you a knifemaker but a damn honest one!

If you go to the ABS-American Bladesmith Society, PKA-Professional Knifemakers Association, TKG-The Knife Makers Guild, AKTI-American Knife and Tool Inst et al, they have what they are trying to do--their mandates but not what actually constitutes a knifemaker i.e. taken from the TKG: "The purposes of the Guild were, and continue to be: to promote custom knives and knifemakers, to assist the knifemaker technically, to encourage ethical and professional business conduct, and to sponsor an annual business meeting and knife show";

taken from the ABS: "The American Bladesmith Society was formed primarily to encourage and promote activities involving the art and science of forging metal, particularly tools, weapons, and art forms";

the closest comes from the PKA with "Knifemakers: Applicant knifemakers must derive a significant portion of their income from the sale of custom knives (knives which the applicant individually handcrafts by grinding or forging the blade from a steel billet or bar stock)". but does not address the part time maker who doesn't "derive a significant portion" nor commercial or semi custom makers and continues with "In 1999, it was further recognized that custom knife purveyors, suppliers of knifemaking supplies and tools, engravers, scrimshanders, and others who's principle business is focused on servicing the needs of custom knifemakers are also a vital part of professional knifemaking. Today, full voting membership is extended to include all of the strategic alliances that comprise the world of professional knifemaking.
The primary requisite for all members of the PKA is to have achieved highest possible level of professionalism in their craft or service."
N.B. emphasis mine.

For a list of real custom and semi custom knifemakers there is The Knifemaker's Database and of course what's on this forum
 
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