A bad day at work

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Delbert Ealy

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After making over a dozen sucessful stainless damascus billets I have had some failures. I did 2 billets today and although at first I thought they were sucessful, a little working soon showed me that the welds were incomplete. I think I know what I did wrong, but it will take more billets to tell for sure. I set up a couple more billets to work on tomorrow. I hope I will be more sucessful tomorrow. After my failure, I decided to work on something else, so I started on more gyutos. I have found that it helps to work on something completely different when I have a failure. I don't have them very often anymore and it is very discouraging, but I have learned that if I take a break from that aspect of work and do something else it helps. Sometimes I will just quit for the day, but I have a show coming up and it adds some urgency to my schedule.
I know everyone has bad days at work and I just wanted to let you guys know it happens to knifemakers and damascus makers as well. Sometimes, with all the positive comments we hear it can make us feel a little too proud. Days like today brings me down a notch or two. Don't let that stop you if you feel the urge to add a positive comment on a newly completed project. Those comments give almost as much satisfaction as selling it.
Thanks for letting me vent.
 
If it was easy anyone could do it! Hang in there.
 
It happens. I had a simmilar day last week. A 300mm suji billet, sanmai with near 200 layers on each side of an O1 core went in the trash, core was too wavy. Also tried something new, had a little too much pure nickel in the sanmai, the blade looked fantastic, the edge took a hardening, but the spine had no spring, soft like aluminium. I here your discourgement, and wanted to add, your not alone. :)
 
Guys,
Thanks for the encouraging words.
Pierre, sorry to hear about the suji, I have yet to make one especially that big.
I'm off to the shop now.
 
As a custom order jewelry maker I often ran into seemingly insurmountable problems with a project. Sometimes I had to sleep on them before the solution became apparent. I always found that if I stopped looking hard at them, and let my "back brain" work undisturbed, the problems disappeared.
 
Sorry to hear about your bad day, Del. But your day did not involve having to talk to your boss or sitting through a board meeting, so you are still lucky ;)

Stefan
 
Stefan,
No it didn't, the last 5 years I worked as a janitor in fast food, and no matter how hard I worked I couldn't please those people. I got a reaming every single morning before I left. It is a good thing I had all my anger management issues worked out long before I started there, or I would have went postal on them long before I left. Not that I didn't consider it from time to time.

Dave,
I did 2 more stainless billets today and I had better sucess. They are cooling now, but both billets are about 1/4" thickand ready for the rolling mill. I plan to do more tomorrow, but I have to get more steel tubing for cans and a new pair of gloves as well. My current pair of gloves look like I got into a fight with a big cat. I also did some grinding on a couple more gyutos.
On a more humorous note, While walking in from my shop I surprised a skunk, but not so badly that he felt threatened. This is the third day with temps at or above 50 degrees, I guess he just woke up and is looking for something to eat. I told him to scoot and he waddled off. I hues he wasn't in the mood for a confrontation. Thats good because neither was I.
 
Its hard to win an argument with a skunk!
 
I understand how those bad days go. Heck, I know you remember me fighting with nickel a while back! :)

Glad to hear it got a bit better.

I'm off to start my 55 mile commute home soon...your 55ft. commute sure beats that..... ;)
 
The best art teacher I ever had told me never to over work a pice of art. If you don't like what's coming out put it down do something else and come back to it later with a new set of eyes.
 
The best art teacher I ever had told me never to over work a pice of art. If you don't like what's coming out put it down do something else and come back to it later with a new set of eyes.

Colin,
Thats exactly what I have been doing, I am currently working on another batch of 3 knives. I have the blades hand finished and they need handles now.
 
Colin,
Thats exactly what I have been doing, I am currently working on another batch of 3 knives. I have the blades hand finished and they need handles now.

Yup. Same thing happens in the lab... One particular time, I came into work, picked up a flask containing a compound I'd spend a month making and dropped it, losing most of it in a drain. I took the rest of the day off and didn't really want to come back the day after that either.
 

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