The situation at my work slowly deteriorates further*, nobody is sure whether they will have work tomorrow or not, management assurances to the contrary notwithstanding (we have been lied to before). I have already decided that should I get the sack, I will not be looking for a new job forthwith but I will dedicate a year to learning and perfecting my crafts – knife-making and wood-carving.
I already have decent knowledge of metallurgy, some rudimentary knowledge of history and even some skill, but there is a lot of potential for improvement on both the practical and theoretical side. And to expand my knowledge of theory, I have just invested non-trivial money into these beautiful books.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
They arrived today and I am eager to dive into them. I expect to already know some of it, but by far not all, or even most, so I hope to get a real knowledge boost. Which will be of course mostly forgotten afterwards, but that is the way of the world. I still should get out of it ahead knowledge-wise. I glanced through each, some are more pictures than text, some the opposite, but they all seem to be cramped with information on each site and right now I have no regrets of buying any of them.
If anything I still think they are not enough, I wanted to buy much more, but many books that I have got my eyes on were not available. Well, after I am done with these, I will look again. These should occupy me for a few weeks, or even months.
If you have some recommendations on the theme of blade making and blade history, feel free to post them in comments.
- Honestly, in the pursuit of their greed, american corporate managers are capable of dying of thirst by refusing to drink when given a bottle of water instead of the lake they demanded.
I don’t know whether to hope you keep your job or that you lose it so you can spend a year doing what you love. Hoping someone loses their job seems wrong, but I’ve other friends who’ve taken the opportunity of job loss to do something that they find more satisfying, so I think I hope you lose your job!
This is a good exploration of the back side of Japanese knife design: https://www.amazon.com/Knifenerd-Guide-Japanese-Knives/dp/1999390601
It looks like you’re leaning toward celtic/gothic/European, though, so that may not beln your path.
I hope things work out for you either way! Please keep us posted.
Addendum: don’t buy a copy. I’ll send you one.
*wipes off some stands of saliva*
What a prrrrecious collection!
Other than that, I kind of agree with Jazzlet? Not quite shure how to write down my feelings there.
I hope your situation gets better, one way or another, Charly!
My feelings about your job are also mixed. I’ll just say that I hope you get what you really want.
Oh yes, and that’s a nice collection of books! You must have had fun shopping. :)
I hope it works all out for the best, Charly.
Yeah, talk about corporate greed. About 3 years ago, the part of the big company Mr works for (you’ll know the four letter chemical giant) was put into a separate company. The workers were given rather large benefits and the promise that this was just to take the particular part out of the stock market rat race, this was a long term plan, nobody had any plans to sell that part. Mr turned down the money and demanded to remain with the parent company.
Was he lucky. This week they announced that they’re going to sell the whole thing. The folks there have a job guarantee until 2025, but after that they can be kicked out, the whole thing closed down, while the know how and customer stock will be taken and the production relocated to somewhere where nobody gives a fuck about what ends up in the rivers.