Christmas projects

good looking knife there... but can i ask why would someone pay for a nice handmade knife to abuse? i'd save that for the kitchen and get a $2 special at the hardware store to destroy :-)

I have a problem getting good pics of any knife I've tried to photograph as well,,, that seems to be almost as much of an art form as making the knife to begin with,,, there has to be some kind of trick to getting good pictures of polished metal surfaces, just like the trick involved in holding a steady grind line,, still searching. now that I have a digital camera I can afford to practice,, maybe some day I'll find it.

Bear

A diffuser helps. That can be a simple as a cloth over the flash or like those umbrella things professionals use. In general don't point the flash at polished metal surfaces.

If you've got a camera with a built-in flash, you can get a dulling spray at a professional photographer's supply store that will kill the shine temporarily. Just mask off the stuff you don't want to dull before you use it.

Generally though you're going to need some kind of remote flash to get good results.

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

I disagree. :/ No flash at all, IMO.

My girlfriend's (junky?) digital camera has a little menu system, and hidden inside there somewhere;) is an option for shutting the flash off. It's cool, you get what you see on the little screen. (reading glasses!;)

The pros on the knife-list talked about (5 years ago?) shooting outside on an overcast day.

I prefer the scanner, but I'm not trying to sell my knives tho. :/ (they are given away)

one picture, opposite sides of the same blade tip. :) (I gave that knife to my brother)

I gave my old 35mm SLR and its flash attachments to a second-hand store. Good riddence. :)

Alvin in AZ

I attended the American Bladesmith Society school in Hope, AR and one of the Mastersmith instructors told the following story about a conversation he overheard at a knife show:

A bladesmith was sitting at his booth and a young customer came over to look at his knives. The customer was eying one knife in particular and eventually inquired as to the price. The bladesmith replied that the knife in question cost $1100.

The young client's mouth nearly dropped open, and after a minute he remarked "Wow! I could buy a car for $1,100." The old bladesmith's reply... "Well, that's true. But this knife is for someone that already has a car."

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that there is a knife out there for every budget. I can tell you that the knives produced by a reputable and classicly trained bladesmith are technically superior to anything you can purchase in a store on so many levels it would be hard to document them all. But the question is, would it really matter what the differences are?

Many people wouldn't pay $250 for a knife no matter what, because they've never had a problem with their $10-20 store bought pocket knives.

If however you are interested in the capabilities of a properly hand made blade, you can read through the testing requirements to become a Journeman smith at:

Believe me, you cannot purchase a commercial blade that will pass.

An>good looking knife there... but can i ask why would someone pay for a nice

Hell, nobody paying for this one. It's a gift in the family. I figure I need a lot more experience before I go trying to sell them :-) I had to tell my nephew that I really did want him to use it. Need the feedback from real world use.

GA

Agreed. Flash just screws up the picture. Maximum ambient (but indirect) lighting. I'm thinking about trying panels around the subject that are painted white to reflect all the light back to the center. The scanner thing does seem to get nice clear shots but lacks environmental character. Makes it hard to get angle shots too :/ If I was serious about it I'd get the best shot I could of the subject (knife) and then superimpose it into an artificial environment with photoshop. Wouldn't be hard to do. Pretty sure that's what Don Fogg has done with most of his gallery shots.

GA

then in that case it was definitely a very nice gift...

Flash, properly used, gives you superior control over lighting. That's why professionals use it.

However it does take some knowledge to use properly. Outisde on a dull day is a good substitue for something like a knife.

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells 'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets fly with a club. -- John W. Cambell Jr.

There is an article on a knife site somewhere that is about photographing knives, possibly building a light box for it. I havent read it, but I seen the title a few times, I'll look for it when I get a chance.

Forger

For sure. :)

And GA gets something back even better. :)

An honest test. :)

The guy has a special need, something about cutting insulation while crawling around in an attic or something to that effect, like he's an alarm installer or fire equiptment installer, that sort of thing?

GA's doing the same thing a lot of us have done, make special purpose knives just for the fun of it, for both, a friend and for a test.

The stipulation is as-always...

"no bullshittin' me, you've got to tell me straight or you'll send me off in the wrong direction on my quest, ok? ...got that?" :/

They are always trying to pay you money for the knife... "you ain't gettin off that easy ;) ...remember the aggreement no bullshittin me" :/

A -sold- knife won't work for you that way.

My quest is a simple one, I don't care about all those cute little babies in the bath-water all I care about is the edge taking and holding ability. :)

Alvin in AZ (I want some F2 tool steel)

Here's a couple of links to sites about photographing objects up close. It's on my "to do" list to try some of these techniques.

Its funny, when someone knows what they're doing they can simplify it to a cardboard box :)

Actually, he's a Union industrial heating and air installer. Should be able to get max usage out of the blade hopefully. He's been laid off for several weeks now and proving to be not so good and handling unemployment. Hope he gets back to work soon...

GA

On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:56:22 +0000 (UTC), snipped-for-privacy@XX.com wrote:

yep, I did a special purpose knife for a friend of mine a few years back myself. He ran an auto salvage yard, before putting an auto body in his crusher he always pulled the engine, and had a special rack that he put them on with various catch barrels for the fluids,, one day when I was out there I noticed him sawing away on the radiator hoses, then the heater hoses with a very cheap serated kitchen knife,. it took him quite a while to get them all cut,, so being that he was into recycling, I recycled an old lathe spindle bearing outer race into a modified tanto, had it heat treated to 63 rockwell c and gave it to him,,, at first he thought it would never stand up as he had never had a fine edged knife hold an edge when cutting rubber hoses all day,, then he tried it,, and tried it some more,, then about 6 months later he laid it aside while he went to help a customer, when he got back the knife was gone,, when he told me about it walking off I don't think I've ever heard him so worked up,, that knife had just the right things in it's make up for that one job,, had he tried to open a can of paint with it, it most likely would have snapped in two,, or more,, but for slicing through auto hoses, (no, not the metal reinforced ones) it worked perfect., I had grabbed about 6 of those bearing races out of the scrap bin when the company did a major retune for accuracy in the lathe dept. so I made him another, the first thing he did after I gave it to him was to go to a leather worker and have a good rugged sheath made for it,, NO ONE else got to use it at all,, that one was 62 rockwell c,, and that one did reqire sharpening a little more often than the first one did. both where originally Fafnir tapered roller bearing outer races, about 6 inch OD about 1 1/4 inch wide about an 1/8 in on the narrow side and about 3/8 inch on the thick side.. so I did learn that those races made knives that stood up very well in very abrasive conditions,, and I learned that a single point in hardness can make a noticable difference,, and last but not least,, a person can become very attatched to a tool that really works.

Bear

The problem with these set-ups is after a while it becomes boring (at least to me). Each knife is esentially being displayed exactly the same as the other. For catalog work it's perfect but for the average person shooting outside and mastering your lighting is the way to go for better than average results. Each handmade knife is different and deserves to be treated differently.

dennis in nca

Ya know I agree with that, I used to take my pics of knives stuck in logs, on rocks. Makes it appear "usable" I spose. I just didnt have a good camera back then (or the skill to use it). Thats something that might be worth working on.

Forger

A great American photographer, Ansel Adams, used to take amazing photos with just average equipment because he liked to use ALL types of photographic equipment from pinhole cameras to Poloroid and everything in between. The rest of us probably won't equal his mastery but the key is practice, practice, practice. This will develop your eye for composition, balance and color. Before you know it you'll amaze yourself (and others too).

dennis in nca

Ansel Adams also said that " less than half of a good photograph comes from the scene and the camera, the real magic happens in the darkroom",, most of his really great photos came from what he himself called "average quality negatives", but were tweaked enough in the darkroom to turn them into masterpieces. I sure agree with the practice, practice, practice part though,, it also helps to keep a log of what you did to get each picture so that when you do stumble upon something that really works out nice you will be abl;e to duplicate it. ( it took me years to admit that my memory wasn't good enough to remember what I did with each negative after even only a short time. Now that I have digital I'm sure I will take even more shotsso a log of some kind should help me keep things straight.)

Whatever Holiday you celibrate, I hope it was festive,

Bear