Something that a number of guys told me early one about showing your work to more experienced people is to ask the correct question. It can be as simple as the difference between "I'm a newbie.....how am I doing" (encouragement) and "what do you think of this knife?" (detailed critique, oft times painful for a neophyte) Of course, these guys told me that if you are testing, you need to basically say "brutalize my work and hurt my feelings, but tell me what I need to improve" <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmiths.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' /> I experienced these to different reactions VERY early on at a hammer in and I didn't even know that I had asked two different questions. The good news is that Bill Moran understood what I was actually asking for which was encouragement and fatherly advice. <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmiths.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//biggrin.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

All of the above comments are absolutely to be taken to heart, especially the one about being prepared with additional knives for judging.

On my first attempt at earning an MS rating I was bitterly disappointed. I was expecting a piece to be hand delivered by a client and the knife did not materialize at the appointed time. I was forced to substitute a piece I knew was less than perfect and it bit me in the ass.

Greg has composed that avisory message with years of ABS judging experience to inform him. It is sound to the letter on all points.

Hi folks,

At the suggestion of Dan the webmaster I will give some of my thoughts on the test as I recently passed in Atlanta. As has been stated before give yourself enough time, possibly 1 year or more,I did not and was under tremendous pressure to finish in time,not conducive to your best work for sure. Make sure you use absolutly stable handle material,I did not,after driving from extremely dry California,Arizona,New Mexico then hitting the relatively humid states the rest of the way to Atlanta, I had a buffalo horn frame handle that had grown in size and warped,believe me you do not want to spend 5 hours Thursday night depinning a frame handle ,re flattening the scales then putting the knife back together.At this point the only reason I was not able to leap off my balcony at the Marriott was because I tripped on the way.

Talk to your mastersmith(s) or your cicle of knifemaker friends and find the cleanest source of steel to work with, bad batches of steel sometimes slip through the suppliers and you dont want to finally hit your finish grit level and have a micro pit or two show up and it be too late to do anything about it. Make sure you are using the absolutly best lighting you can while working on your knives, I heard a collective gasp go through room 103 as they turned on the spot lights that highlighted the tables we had our knives on, I saw flaws I would not have believed I would have left on my knives, and in talking to the other test participants I know they felt the same way, later I talked to several of my mastersmith friends and they all said strong daylight is best so get out under that sun and really check those knives out. If you dont have or dont use an optivisor or similar product get one and make it your friend. Well as this is the longest thing I have ever pecked out I will close for now.

Kinzea L Thompson

Kinzea:

Good advice! The Journeyman Smith Candidates for 2011 will be able to learn from your experiences and advice.

Thanks for taking the time to post Kinzea. Congratulations! Sounds like you had quite an adventure and worked some real magic, balcony and all. Is there anywhere on the net that your five knives can be viewed. I'd sure appreciate a gander at them. All the best, Phil

|quoted:

Thanks for taking the time to post Kinzea. Congratulations! Sounds like you had quite an adventure and worked some real magic, balcony and all. Is there anywhere on the net that your five knives can be viewed. I'd sure appreciate a gander at them. All the best, Phil

Hi Phil, Thanks for the kind words,yes it was an adventure,albeit of my own making and that which does not kill you makes you stronger. I will try with my limited computer skills to upload the 5 knife picture I had taken by point seven, I really have no idea why he did not upload them to the website like Coop did with the people whos knives he photographed,a nice value added touch in my opinion. Phil, I know the financials can be a burden,but have you considered a short leave of absence? call it personal or proffessional development training .Most organizations of any size usually have provisions or language concerning L.O.A. I let the performance test expire twice for some of the same reasons and that bar just keeps getting higher and that is just natural. With everybody in the A.B.S. being so very generous with what they know, a relative newcomber can come in to the world on knives and instantly have a knowledge base equal to what it may have taken an old timer a decade or more to aquire. gotta go for now, e mail me if you have further question

|quoted:
Hi Phil, Thanks for the kind words,yes it was an adventure,albeit of my own making and that which does not kill you makes you stronger. I will try with my limited computer skills to upload the 5 knife picture I had taken by point seven, I really have no idea why he did not upload them to the website like Coop did with the people whos knives he photographed,a nice value added touch in my opinion.

Phil, I know the financials can be a burden,but have you considered a short leave of absence? call it personal or proffessional development training .Most organizations of any size usually have provisions or language concerning L.O.A. I let the performance test expire twice for some of the same reasons and that bar just keeps getting higher and that is just natural. With everybody in the A.B.S. being so very generous with what they know, a relative newcomber can come in to the world on knives and instantly have a knowledge base equal to what it may have taken an old timer a decade or more to aquire. gotta go for now, e mail me if you have further question

Hey Kinzea,

Are your Journeyman Smith presentation test knives viewable anywhere yet? As for the leave of absence, we do have those at our school for professional development, or even personal matters. Unfortunately we also have black out dates, specifically the beginning and end of the school year and either side of seasonal and holiday breaks. I'm reasonably confident that it will work out sometime though. Yes indeed, I greatly appreciate (as do many folks) the openly shared astounding knowledge base of seasoned knife makers!

All the best, Phil

Hi Phil, yes my journeyman knives are on the thread with everybody elses. Dan was kind enough to post them there for me after I had finally figured out how to upload them to him after numerous abortive attempts. Kinzea

Is there a special form that I can download somewhere for the JS performance test or is the Master Smith supposed to just write out that you passed/failed and sign it?

Thanks

Here's a link Haley. If needs be, you can find it on the main ABS page under "Testing" and then "JS Testing"

Rick

http://www.americanbladesmith.com/uploads/file/Testing/JS%20Performance%20Test_certification_form.pdf

By the way, belated congrat's on your marriage!

Thanks Rick!