What made you get started

[PLBknives]

What made you guys get started. I must say this board is the best board I am a member of. There seems to be no bickering, name calling or childs play associated with other boards. Not knife making i am refering to.

But what made you get started. did you dive in head first or take the slow approach. How long did it take you to get half way decent at forging a knife.

Thanks for any responses. There is alot of help and info from this site. Cool group of members

[pipecrafter]

I took a slow approach, necessitated by other obligations. But if you ask my wife, she'll probably tell you that I jumped in head first. I'm still not a full-timer, and I don't know if I ever will be, but I'm finally at the point where I can produce knives that get more compliments than criticisms by people who know what they're talking about. That in itself is very satisfying.

I got started for a collection of reasons. Mostly because I've always been a "knife guy", and wondered if I could make on better than the factory knives I had been buying. Then there's my fascination with the metallurgical aspect, and lets face it, heat treating is really cool when you understand the science behind it. Of course there's the thrifty aspect - when I want a new knife, I make one instead of dropping real money at a store.

Forging? Good? Me? Pffft. Even when I do forge, I usually end up spending more time at the grinder to fix what I screwed up on the anvil. That's just practice though, and with time I'm sure my forging skills will develop.

[Ray Rogers]

Like most of us, I made knives as a kid by refurbing rusty old butcher knives or carving them from Christmas trees but nothing 'serious'. Eventually, I started visiting knife shows. At one show, I fell in love with a forged knife that the maker demonstrated would bend about 90 degrees without breaking. Never saw the like of that before and like most greenies I thought having that ability in a blade should make a superior knife. One problem though, he wanted $600 for it. At the time, I could have easily afforded that price and I almost did but my cheap nature won out and I just couldn't part with the cash for something that looked as simple as that knife (full tang, slab handles).

Then I discovered kit blades and decided to try a few and, if that worked out, eventually get to the point where I could make a knife like the one I wanted. Once I became committed to the idea of making knives I started buying everything I could think of that would help shorten the learning curve, books, videos, and equipment. That's the main reason I'm here on these forums - I already made every mistake imaginable, bought most of the crutches new knife makers buy, and want to help others avoid the pits I fell into.

Oddly enough, I reached my goal, I can make a blade that will flex more than any knife needs to flex but I never really learned to forge a blade despite having a fully equipped smithy. I am proud to say that after an investment of about $30,000 I can now build my own $600 knife for free ......

[DaveL]

I started when I met Jimmy Lile many, many years ago, We became close and making a knife was just the next step. We spent a lot of shop time together and he was one of my best friends. What was left? Carpentry? Think not...

[DaveRuhlig]

Originally Posted by Ray Rogers

I am proud to say that after an investment of about $30,000 I can now build my own $600 knife for free ......

LOL!

My story is not much different than the rest of you. I've been an avid outdoorsman since I can remember and spent some time in the military so I knew my way around a knife - at least I thought I did. Anyway, I found this website that described the perfect survival kit which included a kukri. I searched every resource I had and couldn't find a kukri that had a decent handle so I decided to buy one and rehandle it. While researching how to rehandle it I stumbled across kit knives and this forum. After I had a few kit knives and a LOT of reading under my belt the guys around here convinced me I could make a knife for real...... they were wrong! A few years and a lot of scrap metal later I can actually make something that cuts pretty darn good.

-Dave

[10es&]

How did I get started? Well a long story short?
I had been big into pistol shooting but somehow lost my passion so I sold most all of my guns and accessories and decided to look for a new hobby.
Somehow I stumbled on this site and decided to give knife making a try. In short order I got frustrated not having the ?right? equipment and all but gave-up.
Then I found Ray Rodgers web site and read everything he had on there, Ray?s very well written liner lock tutorial gave me the courage to give it another try and now I am HOOKED! (and considerably poorer)

[squigly1965]

I've always been a knife guy. Buying this knife or that knife. Always bought what I considered good brands. Wouldn't see a Chinese stamp on one of my knives. But then I bought a Buck it had a Chinese stamp and well I lost faith in My Brands. Knives kinda lost it for me thereafter.
But then much like Ray did. I seen a knife i was impressed with and refrained from buying. It was a folder in a shop in Santa Cruz, CA. Makers name had Henry(first or last can't remember) in it and it cost $595.00.
I always wondered what makes a knife worth that much. Well then I saw a thread on an archery forum asking what type of knife he ought to get. All of them were crafted knives. And it brought back the memories of that knife in Santa Cruz. Ever since then I've been drawn toward making my own.

So far I've made 2 complete knives both were for friends. I'm currently making one for my son and one for myself. All have been great fun. And I cant wait till I get my grinder together and my new forge going so I can really have some fun.

[Rick McGee]

Thanks Ray for repeating that story.I remember reading it once before a year or two ago and couldn't remember who said it. It is one of my favorite quoates. I been searhing for it since.
I'm afraid that will be me someday.

[NJStricker]

Even though I've always been a "knife guy" the idea of making a knife of my own never occured to me until about 15 years ago when I was lost and turned around in the parking lot of a custom knife supply business, Koval Knives. For a few years I made kit knives from there. After Koval went out of business I ordered a few blades from Texas Knife Supply, found a link to The Knife Network, and the rest is history.

I ordered my first steel (ATS-34) from Admiral, made some blades, and sent them off to TKS for heat treat.

Then after reading some links here, I bought Wayne Goddard's book, $50 Knife Shop. Spent WAY more than $50 trying this and that (read, then re-read, Ray Roger's post). I ordered some 1095 from Admiral, got some fire brick from Darren Ellis, and started heat treating my own knives.

After reading some of the comments on home heat treat and 1095, I switched to 1080 from Kelly Cupples. Also picked up Tim Lively's video on neotribal forging, and put together a railroad track anvil last summer, along with a basic stove-pipe mini-forge.

I'm a hobby maker. I only make a few knives a year, so the learning curve is very slow, but I'm having fun.

[Geno]

I love to learn.
Knifemaking is the only craft this open to mixing ideas.
There are many ways to do the same things with different results.
Our minds are our limits.

I started with a hand forged 440-C bowie blade( before I knew better) and it kept getting harder to work.
There weren't many teachers back then and we all did trial and error experiments to get where we are today.
Todays videos eliminate most of the guesswork. Information is at an all time peek to the point where a man with a disire can make a decent knife in a short time.
The Custom Knife Directory (before knifenetwork) shared ideas, and has grown into this forum today.
I love tools (moderator of tool time forum), and many were made here in my shop.

Why did I get started?
It allowed me to combine ALL the loves of my life into one package and presentation, called Center Cross.

[cdhumiston]

I grew up on a farm and always had a knife of some sort.

In High School I made a knife from an old file on a disc grinder with the help of my teacher.

My Dad has always collected knives and i was always buying him one for Christmas every year.

Fast forward 30 years. I decided to make a knife for my Dad for Xmas. I bought a blade that was already finished, did some file work on it and made the scales, etc...

When I was finished I didn't really feel like it was my work so I jumped in with both feet and bought a Grinder and various other tools. I started off with a Wilton 1x42, but within a couple months decided I needed a KMG.

It took me a while to figure everything out, but with the help of all the great people in the knife community I was able to finish the knife and give it to my Dad this past Xmas.

I'm hooked now and can't wait to work on new knives every chance I get.

Here is a picture of my First knife that now resides in my Dads collection.



Thanks,
Chris

[CWKnifeman]

I rebuilt my first knife when I was 12 years old, boy was that a long time ago. I have collected knives from all over the world. I started making knives as gifts initially butthen after retireing from the USAF I started selling some. My first grinder was a 1" x 42" with a 8" disk Still have the 8", then a 1" x 30" still use it for specific items, on my second
2" x 72" grinder along with mutiple other tools. I really like making things to use both in the kitchen and in the field, and in everyday life like folders. I started doing Scrimshaw about 31 years ago, and have been doing engraving for some 15 years, Mainly secic type engraving but I do some scrollwork as well. I should have some folders to post in a couple of days with some engraving.
I guess it was mainly that I needed a better knife to use in the field, and what was available just wasn't cutting it. So I decided to make one that would. Been doing that for some 25+ years.
Curtis

[dbalfa]

As an Eagle Scout and overall outdoorsy type fella, I always appreciated a good knife but never could really afford one. My first purchase of a "good" knife was when I was 14. I bought a Camilus survival with leather handle from Gander Mtn. (still have it) I believe I paid about $20, which was a lot for a impoverished kid back then. I promptly almost cut my hand off with it trying to hammer a tent stake with the "hammer" pommel.
Now, some 20 years later, I wanted a small carry fixed blade, one under 6" OAL but could not find what I wanted. While discussing this with my FIL, he said "let's make one>" Iknew he was an accomplished gunsmith/maker, un-beknown to me was he had made several knives in the past as well as modifying several Liles and Randalls for his hunting buddies (a travesty I'm sure to some of you). But in the 60's, the aura was not there, they were just knives. He helped me make my first knife with files and sandpaper- and the rest is history.
I only remember one other thing so quickly dominating my mind and body......but we wont discuss that here....

[Mungo Park]

I was never a knife guy, still not one.
So why would I make knives.
My father had a hunting knife when I was a kid and I threw it into a tree and broke off the tip. He had it ground to a point again. Fast forward to a few years ago and I thought my son would like his grandfathers knife but it was in rough shape. I tried to fix it up and it still looked rough and figured he would not really care much for it. So I looked into making a new one for him. I read up a lot and figured it was a mighty intersting hobby, so I was hooked.
I love learning about this stuff and it seems to be never ending.
So I forge a few and mess with them to try and improve. My son has a few and we have even made one together, but I am still not a knife guy it is just something intersting to make that looks simple on the surface. And I do enjoy useing my own kitchen knives as well as wood working tools I have built as a spin off from this.
Cheers Ron.

[B.Finnigan]

My dad used to work at Benz Spring Co. in Seattle. On Saturdays I would go to work with him for the half day. The entire time I would be in the forge shop watching them drop forge and coil up springs. There was also a lot of hammer and anvil fine tuning to watch.

I got to throw levers and hit buttons on the machinery. Big fun for a kid.

The diesel furnace would get so hot that it would auto ignite over 30 minutes after shutting it down for lunch.

Needless to say watching the forging and heat treating process captivated me then and still does almost forty years later.