I'm a member and contributer to The Australian Blade Forum. Recently there has been a thread posted by a member who questioned why custom makers provide comparatively little insight to the knives they produce. He pointed out that production knives are dissected many times over by collectors yet custom knives appear to sell on face value, with little information on prospective use, steel types, hardness, all that makes a knife useful. In particular he wanted to see the knives put to use, proving themselves.

I think that in the main this information is readily found. Most makers supply materials details and the design criteria are those agreed before hand by the client. His post generated some defensive comments by other knife makers however I take the opposite view. If this person felt he needed more, then many others do as well.

Therefore, over the coming year I'll attempt to put up the occasional You-tube video covering some 'working' aspects of my knives. The first is posted on my video page now, and is a minute or two comparing the sharpness of my personal skinning knife with a scalpel purchased from a medical supply company. No, that's not my music in the background, just what was on the radio (93.7FM 3D Adelaide) at the time.

The Christmas break is history and its back to the workshop for me. Unfortunately I had a rubbish holiday. Having worked like a slave for a week to put on the big show for the assembled relatives, I got a stinking head cold so sat in the corner watching them all gorge on meats, bunches of fruit, great wedges of desert and tankards of beer. It was pretty miserable.

Of course it was saved by my two young boys. There's a lot of pleasure watching kids on Christmas Day. Wrapping flying into the air, whoops and hollers of delight. Watching them, I can still recall that great feeling when the summer school holidays seemingly stretched out forever. Yep, I think we might just have to take a break and get on down to the beach for some bodyboarding.

So, back with the programme, below I've put some pics of a work in progress, ready today for sending off to the heat treaters. Made from 5mm thick RWL34, its a strong beast meant for hard camp work. Without the handle wood on you can see how the grip swells into my palm. There's a big thumb rest and deep indent underneath for my index finger. Note how the heel of my hand sits in a contoured rest.

I've included a pic of an inverse grip, showing how the ergonomics work that way as well.

As its such a big lump of steel, the handle is drilled out to reduce weight. Each of the holes has been chamfered to reduce the probability of cracking.

This is a popular style, I currently have four orders for similar with varying handles and sheath configurations.

I've got a very good mate who writes movie scripts. He has a day job but writing scripts is his passion. Last week I was keeping him company in his workshed at the bottom of the garden while he loaded some 22-250 rounds for his target rifle. We got to discussing his latest writing project, the plot, the characters, but didn't get into the words they will say because we got distracted by conflicting opinions. I bemoaned that most Hollywood movies run to such a predictable clock it seriously affects any enjoyment I can get from them. For example, the typical comedy. It will intro the characters (fine), we build the situation (fine so far), then at the peak of the comedy around three quarters in we get the drama bit. All comes crashing down while we deal with the serious emotions. We slowly climb back up from there and finish with a bit of concluding humor. It's so predictable it shits me off.

I expected sympathy from my script writing friend, he's a young at heart man of the world who normally looks for more in life. But no! He's on their side. It is his opinion a movie will never work without the 75% rule. And its also the opinion of all the aspirants in his script writing group. Seems like we're doomed to forever suffer.

I pointed out that some of the best movies don't follow the 75% rule. For example 'Brother Where Art Thou' or 'Dr Strangeglove' or 'Aliens' or 'Jungle Book' (the original Disney cartoon one) or 'A Fish Called Wanda' or 'Apocolypse Now' and so on. That's where you come in. To further this argument I need a list of movie names, the best of the best, that don't use the 75% rule. Sure you can have drama, ups and downs, humor and fights, whatever as part of the narrative, but not the enforced emote three quarters through just because its formula driven.

So email me your suggestions and we'll put our case for better movies.

8-12-11

Some of the regular customers may be wondering why I always ask them to confirm their address before sending an item. Two reasons, addresses change and people move for holidays, work, divorce, to escape the law or go to an island to write their memoirs. The reason doesn't matter, I just don't want to send all that hard work to the wrong place. Secondly, I do not store clients personal details of any kind including address or phone numbers. My only contact details are the email addresses they give me. This is to ensure privacy for the client. Nobody is going to rip a list of my clients by hacking my computer, or for that matter raiding some paper file in my office, simply because I don't have a list. I know this is not a perfect scheme, it is the best I can do.

Of course the downside happened last year when my computer crashed taking with it all the emails!

What's coming off the workbench? Following the enforced dedication to the knife show, this month is busy with delayed commissions including, four laminated cooks blades, three small pocket carry knives and two full polished cooks knives. My current waiting list is a couple of months. I try to put some knives on the for sale page, however the pressure of commissions does sometimes prevent me from doing this. If you're after something in particular you best bet is to contact me and get the ball rolling. It can take a while to settle a design.

Its always instructive getting back a knife that's been actively used in the field. This morning I was handed a medium sized skinner that's been seeing some heavy work, mainly on roos, but occasional rabbits as well. After three years, the client just wanted a grease and oil change, then to have it back quickly so he could get on with it.

The knife has a blade of polished RWL34 and a handle wood supplied by the client. While he appreciates the knife is a fine cutting tool mainly for skinning, it has had a hard life. The sheath was just about stuffed, cuts and slashes all over and nothing left of the internal cam. Obviously the knife had been regularly jammed in wet and soaking in gore. How could I tell, well, smell is one way, also, the blade was still covered in it.

So, I took the knife to the sink, squirted dish washing liquid on and gave it a wash under the hot tap. All the muck and grime just fell away and within seconds the blade was a sparkling mirror again. I know this material well, but still, I was impressed. The more I see of RWL34, the more I like it, its a fabulous steel. It took me all of two minutes to put on a new shaving sharp edge. The sheath on the other hand took half a day to smarten up....

Do I like seeing what happens to the knives that get used, you bet I do.

Adelaide Knife Show Report.... It makes for a busy weekend.

I have to confess it took a couple of years for Mal Day to talk me into putting up a table at the knife show. I'm basically a bushy, not a social animal. But now, having done it for three years, the experience is actually enjoyable. Folks attending the knife show are there because they like the gear, they want to talk about it, pick knives up, fondle and feel them in the flesh. It doesn't matter how good a photo is, having the knife in hand is a much more informative experience. So, I get to spend two days preaching to the converted, which is almost as good as taking the boat out fishing.

This year, visitor numbers were good, especially on the Saturday. Sales were steady (other makers as well) without being high, what you would expect given the economic climate. Also, the knife show coincides with the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, held in the city streets just a few kilometers away. This year the pageant attracted an audience of 340,000 (from a city population of around 1 mill, that's a pretty impressive turnout). Who is left to come see us?

I devoted the right hand side of my table to a display of some exotic woods, some of the best handle materials I have. To put it mildly, this generated a lot of talk. By 4pm Sat I'd lost my voice and couldn't talk until after the second beer that night. One of the other makers actually asked me if I was sorry for showing the timbers. Not really, there are a lot of woodies out there busting their boilers to talk shop.

Something not only I noted, was the number of folk passing through who said they were starting knife making. This was significantly up on previous years. Hopefully a few will put up tables at future shows.

My taxation accountant is a fellow woody, a keen spare time craftworker who makes all sorts of furniture and doodads such as flash jewelery boxes. In that light he looks at my website on occasion, especially when I let him know something interesting has been put up. Last week he pointed out to me that I don't make it clear enough that my knives are handmade. I muddy the waters by carrying some stock which I've simply put handles on. So, after the up coming knife show I'll make some small changes to the text of the website emphasizing my contribution to the making of the knives.

In brief; the vast majority of Riflebird knives are fully made by me. That is, I buy raw steel bar-stock and make a knife from it, including design, shaping, polishing, fitting handles and making sheaths. I don't do the heat treating.

However, I also occasionally put custom handles on one certain type of laminated blade cooks knife that I buy in. When I do this, its clearly stated in the knife description. Its the laminated blade cooks knives and no other type.

Don't forget that if you're in Adelaide this coming weekend, the knife show is on, click the link on my home page for details.

28-Oct-11

Sunny Adelaide, free city and jewel of the south. Spring has almost done its thing. The changeable weather it brings is starting to give way to warmer days. I've already dusted off the BBQ and used up one 9kg gas bottle. My record is five for the summer season but I'm aiming to beat it this year. My handy cooking tip,...its the smell of frying onions that torments your neighbours with desire. Even if you're not planning on eating them, fry a couple of onion rings anyway,... as a gift to all those poor suckers roundabouts.

This week I've had some prospective clients asking about delivery times. How long does it take to make a knife? Obviously this depends on the level of bling, but typically a medium sized utility will need around three to four full days of constant work. However, in reality, this is scattered over a longer period because of waiting times due to heat treatment, glue ups, drying times on handle treatments and leather dyes. Overall, you would be looking at the better part of two months. For example, it takes around two weeks for a return trip to the heat treaters. Or, when finishing some handle wood I might apply two or three very thin coats of filler per day for ten days (sanding down between each one) before I'm satisfied with the result.

Now, you can add time for the large surface areas of chefs knives, polishing these seemingly takes forever, or a couple of weeks to have etching done, or longer for engraving. The more detailed a project the longer it takes. That's what handmade means. Its all about taking the time to do it to the best of your ability. There are no shortcuts that give as good a result as taking the long road.

So, why haven't there been any new knife photos put up for a while? Unfortunately there was an illness in my close family that needed a month or two to sort out. Happily this has been resolved successfully and I'm now moving back into production.

Making what? I'm pretty well occupied with getting gear ready for the Adelaide Knife Show, which runs on the second weekend in November. Just a few weeks away, it makes me a busy boy. In addition to my usual array of organically shaped utilities, I'll be taking a few culinary knives along, in response to requests made last year. My ambition was to bring a stainless version of the chicken chopper, but time has beaten me there, so maybe later.

Incidentally, I've had some interest in a stainless chicken chopper, see pic F46 on photo page two for a carbon version. If you're also interested then let me know as soon as convenient. Because the steel is so solid, I'll have to get the outline cut by waterjet, so costs will be down if there are a few on the order.

At this time, The Adelaide Knife Show is the only one I'll be attending this season. Last year, Nov 2010, I sold out on the Saturday and wasn't able to put up a table for the Sunday.

I'm sorry there are so few knives being put up on the for sale page. The vast majority are being made for commissions (and the show). If you have been waiting for something special to pop up on the for sale page, probably you should contact me and talk about what you're after. It costs no more and you're more likely to get what you want.