Some Things I've Learned Making Knives
 

Ok, I may not learn fast but some things I've learned well.

No. 1, Smoke from finger tips while grinding blades is an indication something is getting warm.

No. 2, When pulling blades from the liquid nitrogen (-300 something degrees F)
the wet stuff on the blades surface is not water and the finger prints left there are going to hurt later.

No. 3, Trying to straighten a blade at the wrong time during the heat treat cycle may cause a bright "tink" sound. This is never good.

No. 4, Sharp edges cut many more things well than dull edges.

No. 5, Stay good friends with the local medical community.

No. 6, Grinding belts, on the belt grinder, designed to aggressively cut very hard and highly alloyed tool steels are not damaged by knuckles or finger tips.

No. 7, When out in the field with others and someone asks, "Anyone got a knife ?", pretend not to hear, walk away or point to a non existent elk on the distant ridge.
Your knucklehead buddy already has a knife on him but wants someone elses to cut something that would ruin any blade no matter what it is made from.

No. 8, The old saying, " A dull knife will cut you worse than a sharp one "
In my experience this is not true. Refer to No.s 4 and 5 here.

No. 9, Anything can be broken, period. The biggest toughest blade I ever broke? The road building blade on our D-8 Cat. Don't ask.

No. 10, Bring in enough paychecks on occasion that your wife thinks she married better than her daddy told her she did.

Sounds like some solid advice.

Thanks for sharing, my friend.

TR

Bill very good points that apply to a lot of us that do not make blades.

#2 and 3 are the only ones that do not apply to me.

I have a lot of scars on my hands as I bet you do.

Bryan

:D

Have you passed these lessons on to the apprentices, or are these lessons left for experiential learning?;)

Depends on the student.

Nice list, Bill!

Didn't see anything about plastic packaging, though...

Bill,

Birthdays are great occasions for reviewing lessons learned. Many happy returns!

Bill - Jatx's comment is the first thing thing that came to my mind after I quit laughing. Thanks for a worthwhile bright spot on an otherwise dreary Friday.

Bill, you made some stellar points there


regarding the scars on hands, Mick once told me that you know you have knifemaker's hands when you're never allowed to touch a nipple again

Well, guess I'm not going to try making knives... :D

Micks right.

Dayum, T - ya beat me to it.

Bill - you forgot ... a custom knife shop can be a great place for an unconventinal wedding.

Also, ALWAYS clamp your blade down when drilling handle holes.

It is if you have great friends there and part of the ceremony is conducted by an elder member of the Crow Indian nation who was a warrior in service to this nation.

For the ceremony the knife shop got renamed by the Crow Elder, "Our Lady of the Edged Weapon".

Affirmative!

Good stuff Dr Phill
 

Bill you forgot a few things

Anyone that ships you stuff full of packing peanuts which we know tend to get all over the place well it requires a increase in there wait time or late payment.

Knife makers should always remember to wash there hands before they go to the bathroom trying to get epoxy or various other things we use, off of your unit with acetone kind of sucks and could hurt.

In reference to the blazing fast grinder you speak of Bill it really does pay to pay attention to what you are doing, looking away even for a spit second usually result's in new grind lines on the blade, or hand:eek:

When using arosol powered cans always ensure you have good muzzle awareness:D or have safety glasses on:D

Bill I am waiting for some comments on your shop assistant "tiny" or as you refer to as "Double Grunt"

Also is it true you had to move some machines around to increase "breathing room"

Good stuff
Spencer

Spencer,
Thanks for adding some great truths here.
Don't go picking on Tiny, he could place a hand on top of each our heads squeeze and pick both of us off the ground. I've seen him change a tire on his pickup, without using a jack.

The following should go in "Redneck Engineering" or under the category of stating the obvious but it's a good one,

When using force on a wrench of any type, cheater pipe, screwdriver or prying device, look where your hand knuckles or whole body is going to go if the tool or bolt breaks free before it's supposed to.

What caused me to think of this yesterday was using a long allen wrench to loosen a fixture on the milling machine. The bolt wasn't moving.
Tiny was the last one to have tightened it.
The wrench was starting to bend and I knew it might break so both hands were pulled away to see where things might go.
There was a very sharp cutter mounted in the milling machine quill and all this was right in the path of my knuckles if something broke.

Cutter removed, wrench almost broke but the bolt rotated free.
Have talk with Tiny.

Tiny the walking , talking craftsman tool set:lifter I told you to get him a set of nerf gloves.

That sucks Bill that you have to walk around with wrenches to loosen stuff that was "Hand Tightened" by old double grunt.

He is a great guy and provides us with a bit of humor at his expense, but you know I do respect him and think he is a great guy.

He did tell me for 5.00 dollars more a month he would only shower once a week, and eat four cans of baked beans a day giving him the ability to part your hair from the other side of the shop:D:D

Spencer

No.8 is absolutely true... I've checked that too many times. Unfortunately.

More stuff:
From last week and please track with me because there is a point here.

When heat treating tool steels with the digitallly controlled heat treat oven in the shop, it takes time to come down from high temps for hardening (like 2000 F) down to the low ranges (like around 400 F) for tempering.
Complex shaped parts, as in a tool steel component for belt grinder, must never cool to room temp before the temper cycle because they could be prone to stress cracking. Machined part in question was quenched in oil from the high hardening temp.
So taking lessons from the QP's around here, I have a contigency plan which is to pre-heat the kitchen oven to the correct temp to make the safety temper..

Did you know that it is impossible to clean all the (now smoking) oil from quenching said part when using wifes oven and pizza stone at 450 Degrees F...

...while she is home?

I'll bet the food made in said oven will taste just great too . . .

And not with spring clamps... dont ask.

1. I've learned that the new forge in the back yard is very nice.

2. Knives from Willys leaf springs are fun to make.