02-26-2018, 05:12 PM
Thank you, Mr. Bud, that is probably the most generous compliment I could ever hope for. When I think of being able to produce something that will be cherished for generations, the significance of time and money really fade.
So, "How long does it take...?"
That is a very popular question indeed, and one without a very good answer.
When someone asks for a full blown Mortimer, with mammoth tooth and mammoth ivory, I start forging blanks, like the one in the last picture. I forge until I'm satisfied that I have at least two blanks that meet my expectations in every way, and then I forge until I have 6-8 blanks of approximately equal mass. Once I have the two I'm looking for, I make other patterns of similar mass.
That makes one "batch" of blades, and making knives in batches is the only way a guy can be productive with heat treat, which is a very big part of the process. With blades like this, I will forge 2--4 per day, depending on whether they are to be hammer finished, but it always takes at least a couple days to forge a batch. That's basically the easy part.
I'm always working with at least a couple batches, and a batch can be anywhere between 16 small knives to 4 big knives so that's where time per knife starts to lose relevance, and it's difficult to explain.
Working with different handle materials makes a big difference. Ancient material takes a lot of time. I have to grind a little, and set it aside to see what affect it had. Warpage is a big concern with all natural material.
Hammer finished blades are way more difficult, because I can't just grind things perfectly in a matter of minutes or hours, they have to be forged perfectly to shape, which is simply a different ballgame.
I can tell you this much. More expensive knives are less efficient to make, just because everything is more difficult, and everything has to be perfect. For knives running into thousands of dollars, I can't express what it takes to fix something that took a few seconds to mess up. There's basically zero room for error in any way.
They say bladesmithing takes about a 10 year investment period until things start to pan out, but the more money you're able to invest in apprenticing under the top dogs, and buying the best equipment, and natural ability, and creating and taking full advantage of opportunities all make a difference.
So, the Mortimer took about a year...
So, "How long does it take...?"
That is a very popular question indeed, and one without a very good answer.
When someone asks for a full blown Mortimer, with mammoth tooth and mammoth ivory, I start forging blanks, like the one in the last picture. I forge until I'm satisfied that I have at least two blanks that meet my expectations in every way, and then I forge until I have 6-8 blanks of approximately equal mass. Once I have the two I'm looking for, I make other patterns of similar mass.
That makes one "batch" of blades, and making knives in batches is the only way a guy can be productive with heat treat, which is a very big part of the process. With blades like this, I will forge 2--4 per day, depending on whether they are to be hammer finished, but it always takes at least a couple days to forge a batch. That's basically the easy part.
I'm always working with at least a couple batches, and a batch can be anywhere between 16 small knives to 4 big knives so that's where time per knife starts to lose relevance, and it's difficult to explain.
Working with different handle materials makes a big difference. Ancient material takes a lot of time. I have to grind a little, and set it aside to see what affect it had. Warpage is a big concern with all natural material.
Hammer finished blades are way more difficult, because I can't just grind things perfectly in a matter of minutes or hours, they have to be forged perfectly to shape, which is simply a different ballgame.
I can tell you this much. More expensive knives are less efficient to make, just because everything is more difficult, and everything has to be perfect. For knives running into thousands of dollars, I can't express what it takes to fix something that took a few seconds to mess up. There's basically zero room for error in any way.
They say bladesmithing takes about a 10 year investment period until things start to pan out, but the more money you're able to invest in apprenticing under the top dogs, and buying the best equipment, and natural ability, and creating and taking full advantage of opportunities all make a difference.
So, the Mortimer took about a year...