I don't think it's a question of quantity.

I would concur with Joshua, I have seen makers who were ready after a surprisingly few knives made and I have seen some who really needed that practice that a few more knives would bring. What I believe is more important is how self critical the maker is on every try. I have always said that I am not impressed by the handful of great looking blades a new maker shows me as much as I am impressed by the number of "buckets of blades" they have behind the shop. The number of blades they have scrapped is not only indicative of how many they have made, it reveals the more important factor of how critical they are of their own work, opting to scrap any piece not up to an increasingly discriminating standard. The guy who sees a mistake and then stops to take another run at it without that mistake, has learned the price of that mistake and how to avoid it entirely. Makers who focus on covering up or hiding mistakes get good at just that.

As I travel the country, and work with the next generation of bladesmiths, I am seeing the latter group growing in a population trained on the internet on how to make a photogenic knife ready to sell on Instagram. These guys show me their finished work and it looks pretty good, but then I see their forgings or ground blanks and realize that their true talent is in making really poor knives look good. I can't imagine how much time is wasted polishing pieces that could have been scrapped and remade properly in less time. We are losing valuable forging skills, and much of the art, to the internet knives. This is why the ABS is more important than ever.

First off thank you Joshua and Kevin for replying so promptly, you are both incredible craftsmen and i am so happy that you would take the time to answer my question, I truly appreciate it.

I also agree with everything you have said, I find that my skills improve greatly with every knife that I take the time to complete. But of corse my knives are nowhere close to perfect. The reason I asked the first question was out of a desire to improve as quickly as possible and I was wondering if turning out ten or fifteen blades would advance my skill level. What I have gathered from your comments is that the answer is yes, the more knives i make the better i will become. But the time that I take to make each one of those knives the best that I can make them will make all the difference in how my skills improve.

If you gentlemen don't mind, I will ask you one more question. What styles, blade shape/grind/handle shape, would you recommend for improving/challenging an inexperience Bladesmiths skills, if any?

Thank you so much for your time!

As many different ones as possible. Clipped points, trailing points and drop points. The flat grind is the one to master, hollow and convex will more or less fall into place after you can flat grind. The first few knives you do you walk up to the anvil and just sort of let it happen, it is probably why everybody's very first forging is banana shaped skinner. That is fun to do, but to really develop control over your medium you need to start preplanning your knives. Sit down an draw them out in exacting detail on paper, create a sheet metal template and then forge your blade as close to your design as possible. This will develop you eye for the design aspects but will also force you to develop hammer skills.

All beginner makers finish after assembly, most Master craftsman finish before final assembly. Everyone of us remembers that big epoxy mess of spacers and a block of wood that we would then grind to shape and finish, using the blade as a handle to do it. It seems to make sense, what better way to get a completely flush fit? The problem is that it also looks like a beginner did it. Training your hand and eye to finish each piece separately will give you the fit and finish skills you want. One of the best things you can do for bettering your building is to make a take down knife. Nothing will develop more skills in clean, precise fit and finish than the discipline it takes to make a tight fitting knife that can be taken apart and then reassembled. A bladesmith that finishes his tang out as clean as his blade is on his way to being a world class maker.

Alma. first off, thank you for the compliment, I don't consider myself to be an incredible craftsman, but I do appreciate the label.

I would also concur with Kevin on the design first, make a template, and then forge the steel to shape using the template as a guide at the anvil. I don't know what forging skills you have already, but spending some time learning the basics of moving steel with a hammer will go a long way toward helping you forge a blade. When I started forging steel, my mentor told me to "make 100 hooks, and when you get done, make another 100 hooks". Repetition is the way to learn motor skills. Almost everything you need to know about forging a blade, you can learn by making this hook out of 1/2" square mild steel.

That being said, if I were to recommend you learn to make a specific knife to start out, I would say make a drop point hunter 3"-5" long blade, flat ground, with a single branch guard, a hidden tang, in a bird head handle. This is an iconic knife. Then start to add to that design. Add a spacer or two between the guard and handle, insert a pin through the handle and tang, reshape the blade to a straight point, reshape the handle, etc. See how many different handles you can put on the same basic size blade. Then branch out from there.

My biggest step forward was when I submitted a competition knife for my local guild. It was a Kevin Harvey design, with a step by step guide on how to build it.

I completed 7 knives, of which I submitted only one. Making the same knife a few times, was a learning curve. There are 4 binned attepts, and one that I tested to destruction.

You should watch Kyle Royer critique his Dad's knife for some idea as to standards Video.