SCA Project Completion needed

[needa]

I went through my shop recently and talleyed up the number of knives and other blades in various states of "incomplete." Depending on what I count and how, I'm at just about 50. I should do something about that, shouldn't I

Comments

[eleanor_deyeson]

How about sharing the problems? By which I mean, get some of those proto-blacksmiths over and talk about the problems. See if anyone else has a different viewpoint. Use the "cruddy" ones to teach someone else how to finish the knife. Graciously allow them to take it home, since "they" finished it.

I understand having high standards - do you have a makers mark? Use your mark on the blades that meet your standards, and let students finish up the ones that fail. You may find that others would be happy for the chance to work on an take home a knife. I know that when I've started a project in a class, and it's turning out pretty good, I get more and more timid about taking the next step (if it's new to me) since I don't want to "ruin" it. It's much more freeing to take one that is already "not perfect" and develop my skills. It takes away the fear of failure.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It's easy to delay, until you've done more research, or have perfected your skills, etc, and complete very little. (Trust me, I'm an expert at this. Do as I say, not as I do.)

[needa]

The usual suggestion I get is to use them as examples to students of what not to do. I've got those covered, I've made plenty of mistakes! The notion of handing them out to people never occurred to me, though. Part of my problem is that the finishing work seems so trivial to me that it's not much of a project. For example, I've got (ugly) seaxes that just need handles. Grab a chunk of wood, pre-drill a hole, burn in the tang, re- heat treat the blade if you bobbled it, mount with wedges or pitch or frankincense, and shape the handle. Sharpen. Et voilà, an ugly but functional little knife. Since they're deficient in ways that are period, it's probably OK. It just strikes me as such a trivial piece of the project. But then, I suspect my perspective is somewhat slanted.

The best part of taking your suggestion? I don't have to waste any more time on them. :)

[eleanor_deyeson]

But for someone who started by taking a class, the finishing steps can be hugely daunting. "Just finish it up with files and sandpaper" I was told, but I didn't know exactly what that meant, when to switch from one file to the next, how to care for the tools, etc. I was very tense as I worked on that project, and eventually got the fuller explanation I needed.

As well, I suspect there are many people who would be interested in a class just on finishing a knife - they might understand the blacksmithing parts of the project, but if you've been making tent stakes and chain links, adding wood or horn is a new universe.