The customer is always right......or isn't he?

You might remember from the previous blog where I was making a leather handles knife with Tagua nut pommel and guard.

Well the other day he called me up to tell me that he was liking the knife as it was coming along (I send pictures of the progress to customers who give me an order).

He was worried about the pommel though. You see, it was attatched nicely. But instead of polishing the whole thing white....I decided to go with a more "natural look" where I left some of the skin on the outside. It looked like this:

You see the brown end on it? Well, I'd polished that out very nicely and it looked great.

However it wasn't to his taste. So I assured him that I could still change that no problem. I did and it now looks like this:

which should be more to his liking.

For me however I seriously had to debate  about whether I was willing to do that. I realised that sometimes....even if you believe the customer is wrong....he's still sort of right.

As long as you'd still be willing to have your name on a piece because it is a good piece. It doesn't really matter that it's not completely to your taste.

Sometimes...we just have to put up with small things that we don't like 100%.....and that's ok.

In this case. I made something that I'm proud of, that the customer is happy with and that makes me happy as a maker even if it's not 100% what I'd have made for myself.

A first blog for a revamped website.

Before I gave my website a big overhaul I had a blog on which I showed (with intervals) the knives I was working on.

Now I'll be doing that as well as posting some thoughts about knifemaking and knives in general. Things about construction methods and their (dis)advantages, steel selection, grind types etc. Also if I get questions from readers I'll devote a blog post to that.

To get things started, here's one of the things I'm currently working on:

This knife was commissioned by a customer who wanted something like the Helle Lapland.

But he wanted a different knife of handle on it. What he would like is a Tagua nut bolster and leather spacers instead of a wooden handle. He also wanted a Tagua nut pommel.

So here it is so far. It's hardened and cryo treated AEB-L with a Tagua nut bolster and leather spacers. I cut a thread on the end to tighten the leather spacers. And currently a Tagua nut pommel is resting with the glue drying over that.

After this I'll be cleaning up the grind on it and once the leather arrived I'll be attempting a BIG scandinavian style sheath for it.

Here is the blade with all the handle materials

Here with a slot cut into the Tagua nut

Slots cut into the leather spacers with a nut and washed on the end.

All the spacers and bolster glued and tightened. And I already ground the handle into shape a little

Here's where it's currently located. In a vise with the pommel glued on and drying.