The Good Ol' Blades Podcast
Join me as I talk to other knifemakers, craftsmen and artisans in my journey to unpack the mysteries of knifemaking, and the culture by which it's built. This podcast features interviews with many of the men and women who have built, or are building the industry of knives and knife making as we know it today. Visit us at thegoodolbladespodcast.com!
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The Good Ol' Blades Podcast
Episode 46 - Southern Hospitality Pt.1 - Paul Lusk
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There are few luxuries in life like sharing heartfelt time with friends and family. Even more seldom is when your children connect with you on something, and share your passion and intrigue. I've been blessed that to some extent, all of our children have been interested in knives and knife culture, and championed the work I'm doing myself. We all play a role in how this business operates, and I love that about us. I got to sit down with illustrious Paul Lusk in this two part series, and talk about his journey in knives and his work in knife education, with our youngest daughter - probably the biggest fan of the podcast. Paul was a great sport, and Sissy did great through her nervousness, which will forever be a cherished experience for me.
You can check out Paul's work on Facebook, Website, and enjoy his knifemaking instructional classes on his Website and Facebook.
Welcome to the Good Old Blades Podcast. I am your host, Aaron LeBeer, and join me as we talk to other knife makers and craftsmen about anything and everything knives.
SPEAKER_04As amazing knife makers go, Paul Lesk is as talented as they come. With a focus towards not only making work of art, but educating the industry on his technique, he is deeply invested in the community and shows that every day on his instructional videos. I first heard of Mr. Lust through my dad, who has shown me his knives. And through some conversations on my interest on his work, set up this interview where I get to ask a few questions and learn about his crap.
SPEAKER_01Now now, Sissy, who's running the show here?
SPEAKER_04I am.
SPEAKER_01Well, she's right about all of it. And we're delighted to do this interview together in Sissy's first ever podcast as a co-host.
SPEAKER_04That's right. So with that being said, Mr. Wolf, it's great to have you on the Good Old Way podcast.
SPEAKER_01That's my line.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you, Alan. I'm happy to be here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh, it's taking a little while to coordinate this because uh we wanted to have my special co-host on, uh Sissy, and she really wanted to be able to ask you some questions and she's sitting here giggle bottles.
SPEAKER_00Just get it out. Just get it out. Have you a good belly laugh and get it over with? It always helps.
SPEAKER_01There's not that much difference between recording and talking live. You know, you did she did fine with uh just uh yeah just talking.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she yeah, we're having a good good conversation before we hit the record button. We're gonna have one here coming up too. We just uh gotta get used to the whole situation. But yeah, I'm uh I'm tickled to be here. That's one of what you're I'm called a longtime listener, first time caller.
SPEAKER_01So uh yeah, so uh kind of in this uh well I think probably the first time uh we had talked, um we were talking about you know uh having sissy on, you know, she wanted to be able to do interviews and stuff, and uh uh so it's been like a little bit of time because she was sick a few times and got delayed, and then um uh she wanted to come up with some really good questions. So she's kind of been like asking like periodically about, you know, hey, is this a good question and not a good question? And so we finally got to the point where we have um she has five questions that I'm looking forward to them. Pretty good. And uh uh she uh wrote them all down so that she has a little reader she can use.
SPEAKER_00Well, I've I've been excited, and I I even thought before you even ask a question, I I have a dad joke for you. Okay. So you're familiar with Noah and the Ark, right? Okay. Do you know what state the United States on what state is mentioned in the Bible? Do you know? No, it's it's Arkansas Noah came out of the Arkansas that everything was dry. It's not bad, is it? It's not a bad one. Yeah, my kids will be like, oh my kids would be like that's stupid. Good, finally have a good audience. Fantastic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So uh something that's important, sis, is like you know, when we're recording, we're doing those things that people can't see. They can't see you. So when you're speaking, uh when you want to interact, you speak your words out because uh the microphone's what picked that up. So everybody who doesn't see this, right, where we're on the video chat, they'll be able to see, or they'll be able to hear you in the microphone. So make sure that you're using your words to express yourself, okay?
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01So um I I think it'd be good uh for Sissy and I to like get to learn a little bit about you um and you know kind of your knife making journey, and then we can kind of get into some of the questions that he uh you know she she wrote out. Okay. Um so yeah, if you'd if you'd like to um feel free. I'm I'm interested to know kind of like what got you into knives. I've been following some of your uh your car rebuild stuff and things like that. Yeah, just uh I mean you're you're eclectic, you're eclectic. So I mean it's it's cool to to see a knife maker where it's like their their life is something that they're expressing their artistry and not just uh knives, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, and and and people, you know, you say expressing artistry, and a lot a lot of times people say expressing themselves with their knives. And and I've I've always kind of wondered if I'm expecting expressing myself or or I I think it's kind of a reflection of my personality. I've never felt like I needed to express anything uh per se, but I I uh uh would always do that with with painting and and other uh forms of art. And with what what I figured out, and you asked me how I got into this, um, I figured out a long time ago that I like making things that people enjoy. And I I if if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it full force and I'm gonna be the best I possibly can at it. And uh, but something that I I want is a the satisfaction of of providing something that someone benefits from. And so I used to own a coffee shop many years ago. When I was 24 years old, I started up a coffee shop and had had a great time, did that for six years. I worked at a coffee shop for four years during college, and uh uh, but I sold that and I I got out of uh the coffee business, but I really enjoyed making those drinks and making conversation and providing a home for people to go there. I had a lot of uh college students who would go off to to college and they would come back uh town and they would, it was in Lubbock, Texas, and they would come by the coffee shop before they came and saw their parents, you know, like during the holidays or something. It was a you know provided a great second home for people. And and whenever I got out of knife making, a a friend of mine got me interested in it because I I'd never known what a knife maker was. You know, I um uh uh it just never crossed my my radar. And so he told me he'd been making knives uh for several years, but he'd gotten out of it due to some uh uh personal issues. And but he sent me some pictures of some things that he did, and I thought, wow, that's amazing. And he said, Well, with your art background, um I think you'd be really, really good at this. And so he got me interested in it, and I uh went to he he sent me to a site and it was uh of R.W. Wilson, and R. W. Wilson passed away a year and a half or so ago, but um, this was 17 years ago. He sent me to that site, and it he was the tomahawk maker for the movie Jeremiah Johnson. And there was a a section on his website about training, and so uh it said something along the lines of uh if you have a God-given talent, pass it on. And he has students that he takes in, and so I I contacted him. I went up to uh West Virginia um and and took a five-day crash course in in knife making and got kind of the basic idea uh of what it was, and I just I really felt at home. I just thought, man, I feel good in this shop. And I'd never set foot in a knife shop in my life. I didn't know what a you know belt sander was or a grinder or a disc sander or a mill. I I that just wasn't a part of my life, but I thought, oh man, I like this. Because when I was in college, I was I I my first major was was art, it was graphic design. And I got out of it, and I got into biology and and a minor in chemistry and got a degree in in that. And uh, but I always had that art uh background and that that that uh desire to create things. And and so that friend of mine he said, you know, you ought to look into knife making. And so I I went to RW shop and just just loved it. And I came back and it took about a year to put a shop together. I'd I'd sold my coffee shop and I was I was just um uh just finding equipment here and there. I didn't want to spend the king's ransom on something that I hadn't uh proven myself at. And so I thought, well, I'm I'm gonna find some used things and some kind of uh low-end equipment to to get into and then uh upgrade later on. And I got into it, and I I just loved it. And I I was making uh you know kind of quick and dirty knives the best I I could, but to you know, to make money and to to uh lack of better terms to to hone my skills. And just over the years, I've I've come across different people uh who've uh uh influenced me in different ways. Um uh those who have uh pushed me and stretched me. And uh uh it's it's just a um constant learning. Uh I think as Mickey Mann has said that it's amazing along something along the lines of it's amazing how you can play a a game all of your life and know so little about it or something like that. You know, and there's it's kind of like with with knife making, you can it's it's a constant journey, you know, it's a lifelong journey of things. And I've been doing it, you know, like I said, for like 17 years. And you uh every now and again you come across something, you go, why didn't I think of this a long time ago? I need to start doing it this way. You know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean change little things. Yeah, I I mean I agree. I I I think that's I I get bored easy. Like um, if if I work for a company, maybe it takes me three months to figure out what what it's all about, and then after that I dislike it. Um, you know, you find all the the drama or pain points or things like that, all the reasons why you should leave, but then and then the rest of the time is just trying to convince myself to stay somewhere. Um so I was kind of flighty with work for a long time.
SPEAKER_00Um I understand. Well, it Jerry Seinfeld had a great quote. He said, You find the the torture that you're comfortable with. Yeah, right. And you know, it's it's all gonna be torture, but find the thing that you're you can handle, you know. And you know, in in knives is is uh, you know, you have people who say, you know, I'm uh you know, I'm I'm the only competition. You know, I don't have any competition. Well, that's all fine and good if you don't have to make a living. And and I'm I'm I do it full time, and so I do have competition, you know, and I have to uh be the chief cook and and uh chef and bottle washer and come up with all different types of ways to to market and to do all these different things. And it's it, you know, it's it's um it's a job and it's it's work, but it's it's a torture that I I enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's really cool. Uh I think it probably leads into uh Sissy's first question for you. Okay, let's hear it.
SPEAKER_04What is your favorite knife design? Oh damn.
SPEAKER_00I tell you what, it that's going back on what your dad said about getting bored with things. Um I I change it up and I'll I'll make folders for a while, liner lock folders, and I'll go, oh, I need a break from this. I need to do a fixed blade, and then I'll do a basic fixed blades, and then I'll do like a hidden tang buoy or something like that. And it's it's hard to say. Um man, I I just don't know. It it it's it's kind of it it kind of depends on the day or on the week with me. You know, there are some that I I've I make so much of, and I just think I I need to get a break. I need to get a you know, but I I I think the easiest ones are just a basic um fixed blade, no bolsters, just a couple of you know, scales put on each side, you know, and they're all knives are hard to make. There's a you know, to make a proper knife, there's a lot of work involved. But you know, I I think uh you know, sometimes I'm in the mood for easy and sometimes I'm in the mood for hard. And uh and I think I need to challenge myself. I'm getting a little bit too bored. And so I I don't know. I I I like working, you know, it might not be a design question, but I like uh working with mammoth ivory a lot. That's one thing I like to do. Um I like to uh do some uh kitchen knives. Those are some of my favorite things to do, or kitchen knives. You know, those are those are pretty fun to do.
SPEAKER_01Is it the the the materials?
SPEAKER_04What is your favorite handle material to work with?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I think it's mammoth ivory. Um least favorite would probably be ironwood. Ironwood makes a beautiful knife, and I don't shy away from working with it because it makes, you know, like I said, a beautiful handle, but it stinks really bad. It it smells awful. But iron well, ivory smells bad too, but I like ivory. Um I I really like the look of maroon linen micarta. That's a really beautiful. You put like white spacers on there, that looks really good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um we saw that you were working with Nilguy horn. How does that to work with?
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Nilguy, for those of the listeners out there who don't aren't familiar with it, it's excuse me, it's a it's a cousin to the antelope, in a way. And it's a very large animal with a kind of a small head and small uh spikes on the top. So they're not an antler, but they're a horn. And uh they're they're hollow, you know, they have a bone base, and then that that uh horn sleeve on the outside, and they're they're hollow, and and they're they're a pretty difficult knife to make. Um uh people who uh from the the King Ranch in South Texas uh bring me those and they uh uh you know I'll I'll make several of them, you know, groups for them, uh uh for for clients and stuff. You know, people who who've shot them and wanted to have something different than a a shoulder mount or something like that on the wall. And so uh it's it's a it's a difficult knife to make. It really is. It's a slow process. There's a lot of glue involved because it's a uh a guard with a uh hidden tang, and you're putting a hollow horn uh around that, and so it needs to be filled uh with with with epoxy, so it takes a lot of glue. And there's there's just a lot of mechanics involved in those no guy knives. They're they're really really good. They look super rad. Well, thanks. They're they're different. They approached me and they said, uh, we want you to do something with these, and we don't know what to do. And I said, Well, I've got an idea. And so in the on the front of the handle behind the guard, I'll put like a little couple of spaces of copper and a piece of uh uh iron wood in there. Uh, and then at the in the on the butt cap I'll put a little uh stainless butt cap on there and the little copper between the the handle and the then the horn and the butt cap, and and then you shape the butt cap to the profile of the horn, which would be the base, you know, skull portion of the of the horn uh at the at the pommel area.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's super cool. I one of my favorite eating animals too. Like no guy is probably my favorite. Oh, people love it. Yeah, they really do. Well that what I've noticed about it is like unlike beef, um, no guy takes flavor so exceptionally well. Like it's just it's it's like it was meant to be eaten. I don't know why. Like beef, yeah, it is. It's final form is that. I mean, it's an Indian antelope, so maybe it's finding nirvana or something in inside of a dish.
SPEAKER_00There's some things, and I'm I'm not a chef by any means, but there's some things that that just go well with others. And it it just uh yeah, I've heard a lot of people say you know, different recipes about how they like to prepare nil guy. Well, they call him the gray ghost or the uh blue ghost or blue devil. It's a blue devil horse or something like that.
SPEAKER_01I forget, I don't know. Like all these different names for them. But um I it's it's it's you you know, kind of going back to like we were talking about with getting bored easy. I've like uh that's that's something like with knives, I think, that has always been the thing for me, is that it's a it's a well that I can constantly drink from. And as much as I know there are like I mean, think about it. Like if you didn't want to grind another blade, you could pick up engraving and still work on knives. You know, you could you could do all sorts of things, scrimshaw, um, you know, you could go do knife photography, you could, you know, all of these uh knife adjacent type of things, and never never really lose sight of knives if you wanted to stay in it because you like it, but you didn't want to grind. So let's just say you lost it.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah, and and there's some people who make one type of knife, and there are some people who make several different types, and you know, you have uh people who just make slip joints. Um, you know, it's kind of like a uh a restaurant where they just serve one thing. You know, they just serve chicken strips, you know, and then different variances of that or just wings or whatever. And then there are other you know, restaurants have a full menu, and it's it's kind of the same thing with knives. I I I like to offer a uh a fuller menu of things, uh, but uh uh I but I don't make them for me. I'm uh you know making them to please other people, to you know, to to uh have them be able to get something that's a great gift for someone or some commemorative something or other. You know, people uh I'm making them uh eight eight liner locks right now for a wedding. And so that people are gonna look back on that, and I I find it very flattering that they'll look at me and say, we want to spend this money on what you provide for us to commemorate uh this this date. And so to me it's a very, a very serious thing, uh thing that I I I approach with you know with with respect.
SPEAKER_01Um when you were getting into liner locks, are you like self-taught on that, or like how did you kind of expose yourself to the liner lock um method of things?
SPEAKER_00A man main uh named Dwayne Duchesne. Uh he uh lives in Andrews, Texas, and he had a um um DVD back in the day uh that was about uh file work, and I'd bought it in a company had produced it and you know come to his house and and and uh distributed that. And and I bought it and I thought, man, this guy seems really nice, and he's an excellent craftsman. I mean, just ridiculous. And so I was at a show one time, and he it was the gun show in West Texas, and he he came walking up and I asked him if he was him, and he said, Yeah, and I saw I've got your DVD, and and we just sat down and hit it off uh really, really well, like long-lost buddies. And so I lived lived at the time two hours from him, and so I I would go to his house a lot. I was I was single, and and uh um they had to have like my own bedroom at his place, and so uh uh they would uh take me in and I'd stay there for a few days and help them out around the house, and he taught me uh liner locks, and uh and I thought, you know, I've I've really hit hit a gold mine here because he's just a uh just a wealth of information. The guy's just incredible. And so he taught me liner locks and uh as best as he could. And uh I just you know took it from there, and it's it's one of those deals where you uh one one fellow told me many years ago, he said you'll hate the first 75 that you make. He said that's so hard to do. And uh and there is there's a lot to it. There is a lot, but if you break it down and and and learn it well and just you know repeat it, uh repeat the process over and over, it gets to where it's it's easier.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that makes sense. That's uh it's important to understand that too, Sissy, right? I think the more you do things, the easier becomes it's kind of like your drawings, you know.
SPEAKER_00You'll look back on you know, drawings that well you did a few years ago and you think, I've gotten so much better at that. You know, and then you I I look at knives uh that I did a year ago, and I always like to look year by year and and think, okay, what did I do on this knife a year ago that I could improve on?
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SPEAKER_00And and am I doing that now? And uh it's just a constant pushing yourself, trying to get better. Uh, my my son is a a pitcher in baseball, pitcher in shortstop. And I I told him, I said, uh, you know, you don't be hard on yourself, but you encourage yourself, but be a a fair critic of yourself. And look at yourself and say, this is what I need to improve on. You know, and sometimes just because you do something and you complete something doesn't mean it's great, you know. And so you think, I need to look back on things and and and say, honestly, can I do better than that? And encourage myself to say, this is what I did really well here, but I could do better if I did it this other way.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense to you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Yeah, just always think, I can just do better than this. You know, I did a great job, but you know what? I'm gonna try even harder next time. You know, people say, What's the best knife you've ever made? And I'll say, Well, I I think it's yet to be made. I think I haven't even made my best knife yet.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we understand that. I mean, we what's interesting, I think, is that as uh as much as I think I've had life figured out, um having having a young child might remind me that I'm st I still have a lot lots of things to learn. It's like we're we're even even though the there's a a fairly large age gap between us. I mean, I was almost 30 before uh uh we had her, uh me and her her like uh her mama were were divorced and um remarried, but um yeah, I was like it's like we're growing up together in some ways. Do you agree, Susie? So you think we're growing up together? You might want to shake, like I said, shaking your head, you might want to say yes, or I agree. Yes, I agree. That's true. Yeah, uh, she's had another question uh she wanted to ask you. She's trying to move on so that way her obligation is over with. Oh, yeah. Go outside and play.
SPEAKER_04Do you have any children?
SPEAKER_00I have uh two stepdaughters, and uh uh one of them is 16, her name is Allison, and I have Madeline, who is 14, and I have a son that is mine and my wife's, and his name is Corbin, and he is nine. And they keep me busy, I'll tell you that much. The uh the oldest has her own car, and so she's out doing her thing, and then uh the middleman doesn't isn't old enough to drive yet, but she keeps us busy, and my son is is uh right in the middle of a baseball tournament right now, and so we're doing that, and and uh I'm getting too old. I'm getting wearing me down, but it's good. I love being a dad, it is the best thing ever. Do you have any follow up? Any other questions?
SPEAKER_01Any follow-up questions to that? Um, no, she's like, that's good. Yeah, she was like, uh we were coming up with her questions, she looked at me, she was like, Well, where's your list? And I was like, dude, that is uh all in my mind. Yeah, it just kind of flows. Yeah, well, I wouldn't say like my thing is I I just uh my flow state is when I get pushed into a corner, right? And then I can really I can really just like I don't know, be tangential uh sometimes. And then you know like think think on the fly is is is probably like the the most exciting to me, even though organic, yeah. Organic's better than scripted. Yeah, well, I mean think about it too. Um we don't have normal human conversations that are scripted unless you know you're trying to socially engineer somebody. I mean it's all it's all it's all adaptive, you know. So and so I just I what I I decided when I was getting into like fit video stuff and podcasting and everything that I was just going to force myself to be good at conversations like I am when the record button's not on in that this medium. And so I mean slowly slowly getting there. I guess I can ask some good questions once in a while. Oh yeah. Uh you have a great pod podcast, it's really good. Well, thank you. Um so I'm interested to learn a little bit more about like this uh the education uh process that you have right now. Because I my understanding is that you have a knife school that you do online stuff for, right? That's still active and you're you're actively managing that curriculum.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I what I did is several years ago, I decided to create uh a website called knifemakingvideos.com. And uh it is a list of courses that people can take. It's a a monthly uh subscription that uh that is 1995 right now. Um uh and it's just a you know uh a monthly, like I said, just a uh you're build automatically monthly, and it's a place where you can take these courses and it keeps track of everything that you've done. And so you can take the um liner lock folder course, and then whenever you log back in, it says you've completed 38% of the course. Would you like to continue on or would you like to change up and do something else? And so the I've got, oh, I can't remember, uh, 15, 17 different courses on there, and each one is broken into several different videos, and it might have five videos that are roughly five minutes long, you know, three to eight minutes long. Um might have five videos, it might have 55 videos on it, just depending on what it is. And so I've got how to design knives, how to make liner locks or full tangs or hidden tang buoys, and how to work with mammoth ivory and how to do bolsters and how to do file work, and it's just on and on. It's is a YouTube channel on steroids, is what it is. And and what I did is I went to the most popular YouTube channels, and I watched them, and I thought, what are they doing? What are they skipping out on? You know, what are they major processes are they not showing to people, whether intentionally or inadvertently? And in some of these things that they're doing, honestly, I think in the hardest way possible, uh, some of the steps were. And so, you know, people say, well, there's no right or wrong way, but there are some ways that are easier than others. And so I kind of reverse-engineered a lot of those um YouTube channels, and I thought, I'm gonna do this my way and I'm gonna fill in all those gaps where they left people hanging. And they didn't, they, they, they didn't achieve what they should have achieved, I think, uh, in teaching people. And because if I want to teach people, I want to teach people. I'm not here to get digitally confirmed by a bunch of likes. Uh, you know, get this these vanity metrics of look how many subscribers I have, or look how many likes I have, or or whatever. And so I thought, these camera angles are terrible from across the room. You know, the sound is awful. They're saying that they're doing this, but we can't tell what they're doing. And so I I got a camera, I got a lapel mic, and I got it, uh, the the camera angles right down on my hands. So you can see exactly what I'm doing, and it's broken down into five-minute digestible little uh tidbits where you say, okay, this is hollow grinding part one of four, or this is you know, drilling part one of three, or whatever. And and so I take it through step by step by step. So there's no question about what drill you're using, what speed you're using, what belt you're using, you know, what compound you're using, anything like that. I I and it took me a long time to make the site. It took me like a year and a half or so to make it. But um, it's a very effective means of education. And and a lot of people uh will take the courses and love them. And some people are like, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna spend any money at all, and that's fine, you know. And then and then six months later they decide to take the courses and they go, I should have done this six months ago. What was I thinking? You know, and I think uh, you know, just for basically the cost of lunch these days, you can have so much information that is not covered on any uh YouTube channels that I've seen. You know, and there are some great YouTube channels out there, and I'm not knocking any of them, but these are so unbelievably comprehensive that people go, I can't go through a single video without learning something. You know, and I and I tell them, I said, if you can take a course and learn something, it's worth it. And I'm like, I learned something on you know 10 times that, you know, in you know, 10 uh 10 great nuggets of information in every course that I've I've watched. And and a lot of people who have been on Forged and Fire have been uh students on that website. And uh I don't teach forging, it's a stock removal method, but whenever it comes to fit and finish and just uh learning how to do uh go through the process of knife making, it's it's there. And then I take you through a whole bunch of different types of knives, and it and it's geared for beginners and for people who are seasoned veterans. It just gets kind of progressively harder as you as you go through uh through the list. That's pretty rad.
SPEAKER_01Um I'll have to uh on the on like the long list of things that I have to do. Um I I haven't I haven't signed up yet because I I knew that I was like I wanted to talk to you, but then I wanted to sign up and kind of see um you know the materials and things like that. Because there's lots of stuff that you know, because I'm self-taught too, there's like gaps in knowledge. And um I always what I find is uh interesting is like the tips and tricks, you know, the th the ways to make things sh like uh short circuited or or faster in some ways, and but still maintain you know the accuracy that you need. Because we can all we can all blow and go, but um it makes sense to me to like slow it down and you know a process can only go as fast as like the outcome you want to achieve for it, right? So um what what I try to do is find ways that I can I can hack that and do things quicker um in areas and still maintain that aesthetic or that uh you know the I guess the goal of precision that I'm looking for. Um Right.
SPEAKER_00And there are certain ways of doing of of streamlining the process. Because there I was watching a video the other day, it was a little YouTube short, and it showed a pit crew from like 19 something, 1970s or something like that during a race, and it was you know 54 seconds for them to do everything they need to do, and then it went decade by decade and it got down to where it was like you know, 2023, it was 1.7 seconds for them to change the tires and fill the tank. And it's like you know, they achieved the same thing in a 50th of the time or whatever it was, it was something just ridiculous. And um, and I've I've I tried to streamline my process and and try to teach people how to do that and say, okay, you can do it this way, but it's gonna take you a whole lot more time. And you can do things more quickly without compromising the quality on that. There's some things that kind of like your rate determining step is the step that is the slowest in the process. So if we're making a car in the uh through an automated process, and the slowest the thing that takes it the longest is putting on the doors, then that's the fastest they can ever be made is the rate is the rate determining step. And so uh trying to combine some things to where you're decreasing that rate determining step.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that makes total sense. And I, you know, I I think that as a as knife makers that want to operate as a full-time business, right? Or even a part-time successful business, it really does come down to the total total time uh that it takes to make something, right? Because I mean, you sell a knife for $300, you better hope that you have not not that much in the materials and it doesn't take a very long time.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. And and I I've found out that for me over the years, I've gotten faster at at making knives. And then I think, okay, now how can I make this better? And then you find out what you need to change, and that slows you down. And then you can get to where you can do that process a little bit faster. So it ebbs and flows up and down and and uh on on that time that you can finish a knife. And now that I'm getting a little bit older, um I'm um making fewer. And I've just you get kind of give out, you know, you know, my back hurts, my feet hurt, and you know, there's all kinds of issues that you have, uh, because it's not a um uh a passive job, you know, it'll it'll wear you down. And so I'm um thinking, okay, I'll make fewer knives a little bit more expensive on those. And I still make some that aren't as expensive that I I call my gateway knives that the people can get in on and they can they can afford and they go, Oh, I like this. I'm gonna I'm gonna you know move up into a you know something a little bit uh a little bit more higher end, um but something that won't take me very long that I can uh bust out for a few hundred dollars and it'll be a great knife for someone, or something's gonna take me a better part of a week, you know. So I kind of kind of change it up. You know, whenever you you some people, whenever they they first start making knives, are on an identity hunt and they're trying to figure out what they want to make. You know, do I want to make uh tactical or I don't want to make uh you know some classical or this and that. And and and for me it was that that identity hunt, you know, took a little while, you know, to kind of formulate and to figure out who I am as a knife maker and what I want to offer.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I and I even even today I still am on an identity hunt to some extent. You know, like when I got into knives, it was making hunting knives because I was doing a lot of it, and I've just found that every knife that I was using was deficient, you know. Um maybe I've I've said it before, but maybe I should have just decided to find a really great custom knife maker and buy knives from them instead of actually getting into knife making. But but my my thing is that I think that that was just that was the catalyst um for me. Um I had worked in jewelry um as an apprentice and done you know quite a bit of work, and I'd always been working with some type of removal and you know, um whether uh you know, like repairing equipment and things like that, or doing automotive work or um uh you know, anything that you would do on a farm situ like uh a farm or you know, homestead type of situation. Like that's kind of what I was about. I I always felt very, very at home doing physical labor. Um worked for a pool construction company uh when I was a teenager. I mean that kind of stuff, like grading concrete for some reason to me was just super cool. And from a very early age, um, I just I just liked it. I mean, I wasn't I thought for a long time I was just a big dummy that couldn't do anything else, but then I I I actually think that I just innately liked it. Um so like working with my hands and being physical and you know manipulating the world around me to create something was the thing.
SPEAKER_00Um I've laid many flagstone patios myself. Yeah. You know, just stuff like that, you know, just good old-fashioned sweat. Yeah, you know, and you just you finish it and you go, Man, it looks good, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I have a uh an Argentine red Tagu, which is a big, big lizard. And uh and he is about two now, if I remember correctly. And Sissy and I have been building a chicken coop outdoor, outdoor enclosure thing and retrofitting it for you know him because he's a big lizard. Uh and so she's been helping me with that. So we kind of like um sometimes she can be a little naughty and uh get in trouble. She's side-eyed, she's side-eyeing me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm I'm I get in trouble too. Don't worry about it, kid. I get in trouble almost every day.
SPEAKER_01But you know, the thing is is that um when we're out doing stuff like that, I mean, we just clicked into like a a flow and we were helping each other out, and she was doing lots of stuff that she could at her height level and everything, and uh um didn't get in any trouble, did we? No, that's good. You shake your head, you're gonna say yes or no.
SPEAKER_04No, he didn't.
SPEAKER_00No, he didn't. That's good. That's good. Do you have any other questions? I like the ones you've had so far. Anything else?
SPEAKER_04Um, what do you like to do outside of knives?
SPEAKER_00Well, I have found a uh a love of of baseball. Um, I was a soccer player growing up, and um I played soccer for 15 years, and my son has uh gotten into baseball, and I thought, well, I don't know a lot about it, but I enjoy it. And and so he is um a very uh gifted athlete. He can pick up a skill very, very quickly, and so he is uh a good baseball player, um, he's a uh good shortstop, he's a good pitcher, and uh so we've gotten to where we we spend a lot of time um playing outside. And I was now you said you were 30 whenever you had her, I was just an hour or so shy of being 40 whenever I had Corbin, and so I'm 49 now, going on 80, it feels like. But um, whenever I was 46, and he was six, he said, Dad, you're 46, right? I said, Yeah, he goes, I wish you were 36. I said, Me too, kid. That's this this this age, man, it catches up with you. But but I spend um my average day breakdown is this. I get up early. I go to bed real early, but I get up real early, and I cook breakfast and make coffee, and you get everybody, you know, we have different kids getting on different buses and stuff at different times. And his bus comes about 7:15, and we I will get out and we will have batting practice in the front yard with his baseball bat and little wiffle balls, little plastic balls. And uh, and so I'll pitch to him and he bats before the bus gets there. And as soon as he gets off the bus after school, we will have batting practice again. And then I'll go back to work for a little bit and he'll come knock on my door and he says, Dad, can I can we come outside and play again? And so I'll come outside and we'll play catch or do more batting practice, and then we'll have a baseball game maybe that we have to go to that night. And so there is a lot of stuff that we do together. We like to uh do anything and everything that we can together. But today uh consisted of batting practice this morning, and then I went and picked up a bunch of sod to lay in the front yard, which is pre-cut squares of grass that you just lay and plant in your yard. And I was doing that this morning before we started this. So I I do as much as I can around the house, and uh, if I can squeeze in a TV show, I'll do that. But it's a lot of a lot of baseball and lately a lot of yard work. But I do I make knives, uh, I enjoy it, you know, and I I do that in my free time too. So whenever I get a minute at night or something, I'll go out on the weekends and I'll work on stuff and try not to get too far behind.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you also uh you're also uh rebuilding a uh uh car of yours, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I I I forgot to throw that in there too. I I have a 1992 uh Toyota pickup, and it was back before they were called uh a Tacoma. And so I got it, and it was my favorite vehicle of all time. And I had it during college and several years after. And it was a four-wheel drive, a standard shift, it the type you get out and you lock the hubs on the front wheels to connect the engage the the four-wheel uh aspect on it. And um uh it got hit out in front of my house many years ago. A guy plowed into it as he was driving by, and so it totaled it. It still ran, but I ended up selling it to a a friend's dad up in the panhandle of Texas, who's a farmer, and he ran it for several years, and then it broke down and they just parked it into a field. And it wasn't a major breakdown, but it was just something they didn't want to deal with, and so they they put it in the field and left the the windows cracked a little bit on it, and so yeah. So the panhandle is known for. Dust. And so it got very, very dirty over about, yeah, sat out there for about a decade. And so it got very dirty. A lot of mice lived in it, and it's just nasty. They chewed it up and did all kinds of vile and disgusting things to it. And so it was a house for rats for a decade, and or for mice, for field mice. And so he contacted me, he said, you know what, Paul, if you want this, you this truck, you can have it back. I said, Oh man, yes. And so I made him a knife in exchange for my truck. And so I got my truck back, and we have started this major project of rebuilding it. And it is nasty gross sick. But um, my son and I are doing it, and I'm I'm doing the grossest stuff so he doesn't get hontavirus or something like that. You know, something but um uh it's it's amazing where mice can get into and what they will do to certain things in in those places. And so um I'm I've gutted the inside of it, except the dash. I've taken out some of it, but I've taken the carpet out, I've taken the headliner out, I've taken the the the seats out, and it just still reeks. And so there's there are more things I have to take out of it. And and uh so I'm I'm just piecing this truck back together. Uh hopefully, Lord willing, if I if I live long enough and he's you know 16 and I'll uh you know have that done for him, and that's gonna be his pickup because it was dad's pickup. And so he said, I want it as close to original as you can possibly get it, because it was the way you had it, and I want it that way. And so he's gonna have a 1992 Toyota 4x4. My daughter has a 2002 Tacoma, I have a 2010 Tundra, and my uh wife or I, or both of us or whatever who's driving it, have a 2021 Sequoia. So we're all Toyotas. Oh, yeah. And so if you if you if you don't drive a Toyota, you can come over, but you can't park in the driveway. Okay. So yeah, we we we're we're a Chevy, we're a Chevy house. Yeah, we shake I've had good luck with them and and we uh we enjoy them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we take Chevies down to the levee because we're country folk.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Siss is like so she's quiet because she's like it's this just like two dads talking now. It's like she's like, oh, these are jokes are terrible.
SPEAKER_00But the the Noah's Ark was a good one, and I have to give you that. Yeah. What other questions do you have, Sissy? I'm enjoying this. Getting to know you is great.
SPEAKER_04I have one more question, and it's what do you think is the hardest part about making knives?
SPEAKER_00The physical part of it is it's the steel part. It's shaping the steel, and after you holog you heat treat it, you hologrine it and getting the finish on there, getting the the satin finish or the mirror polish or anything. That's the hardest part. For me, the easiest part is doing handles. But steel work is the hardest part, and I I make knives in groups of 10 or 12 or whatever. And and once I get past the steel work, I can't, I think, okay, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now. I can I can start uh breathing a little bit easier and go, okay, now it's gonna get a little bit, a little bit easier. But uh that's that's the the physical part of it is is the steel part. The the mental part and the hardest part is is not getting uh too discouraged uh whenever things go go wrong. Um, you know, sometimes you can make a mistake and you go, oh gosh, what do I do? And you think, well, I guess I'll make the same mistake on the other side of the knife then. Cover it up. There is a famous uh architect named Frank Lloyd Wright, and he said, architects cover their mistakes with ivy. They let ivy grow on that that part of the building. But uh, but you know, you have to you have to learn how to how to cover up mistakes or or or just uh start over on something. There's a lot of patience that's involved in that. And it's it's kind of like whenever you're doing one of your drawings. Sometimes you want to get close to the end and you kind of want to rush it and finish it, and so you can have a finished drawing, but you think, no, I need to do it right the whole way. I need to keep keep going strong and and and not get in too much of a hurry. And if I'm good, grief, if I mess it up at the very end, then that's really bad. You know, I'd I would whenever I first started making knives, I was scared to sharpen them because I'd spent all this time and money on all these materials and all this this this work, and I thought I could go to sharpen this because it's the very last thing you do. Now, what if I mess it up? And the first few I did, I thought, oh gosh, I'm gonna mess up. And I've spent all this time on it, and then you take it real slow and easy, and then you do okay. But if you if you do mess up, you just don't get too hard on yourself, you know. But that's the physical part is is steel, and the mental part is just staying patient and not rushing the job. Good.
SPEAKER_01Does that make sense? Okay, good. So, do you have any questions for her? Interested to know anything about her. We're gonna put her in the hot seat.
SPEAKER_00Okay, let me think. So, I'm gonna put her put the spotlight on her. So, we talked about earlier about what you like to draw. Well, you do like to draw. Is there anything else that you like to do that you like to read?
SPEAKER_04Yes. And I also like I already said I like spending time with my dad. I like spending time with my family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00What what do you and your dad do together? Is there anything specific that you do?
SPEAKER_04Watch movies, snuggle.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04He usually takes naps, so I take naps with him.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that that's a good time right there. What movie do you like? You have a certain movie that you like?
SPEAKER_04My favorite is Guardians of the Galaxy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_04And Indiana Jones.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, yeah. I haven't seen the latest one of those yet, but those are some pretty good ones. Yeah. My son and I, we just watched um How to Train Your Dragon the other day. That's a pretty good one. He likes the I like the first one, but he likes the second one best. I'm kind of torn, but yeah, those are some good movies. Guardians Galaxy, that's a good one.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00There's nothing like a good nap, though. Let's see what else questions, what other questions do we have? Um any type of favorite foods you have? Uh pizza, maybe?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Ice cream, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Definitely pizza and ice cream.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. You can't go wrong with those.
SPEAKER_04Chocolate is my most favorite ice cream.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, I you and I need to have a chocolate eating contest sometime. I tell you what, I love that stuff. It has some good stuff.
SPEAKER_04Like anything that has chocolate, I'll just eat it up.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, only if it doesn't have pomegranate or grapefruit.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that I agree. Yeah, I I wouldn't like a chocolate grapefruit myself either. But uh, yeah, I I think that I think we agree on those. Ice cream, pizza, and chocolate. Those are some uh some fine foods to to be fans of. Anything else? Maybe some spaghetti, that's good stuff. But uh well. So are are you into making knives yourself? Do you like to do that? Or do you like to watch it?
SPEAKER_04I I mostly go out in the garage with my dad and pretend with little sticks that I'm making something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. My my son likes to do that. I like to put my my disc grinder like with a really fine uh sandpaper on there and like uh like 400 grit and give him a piece of something and just turn it on really slow and let him kind of shape something. And uh that's that's fun to do though. It's fun to see that you know, that grind and that uh take place and to take shape into something is fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she kind of is uh practicing with uh files and sandpaper and things like that. I'd like these they're technically wax um wax applicators, so you know that like they're kind of like uh tongue depressors. And um and uh what I what I do is I I'll set those up in like a night the knife ice for and she can like practice removing material and getting used to the tools and things. So and she really yeah, she really likes to hammer and cut things.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01What else?
SPEAKER_04Um what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01Well, is there anything else that you uh uh tell them about your handle collection?
SPEAKER_04I have uh handle material collection.
SPEAKER_00Oh really?
SPEAKER_04Sometimes I go go the garage and I ask my dad, hey, can I have this handle material? Sometimes I'll say yes, and so I'll say No, I would not like you to take that. I was gonna make it for another knife.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm gonna use that. You can't have that. Oh, that's funny. What kind of handle? Well, what's your what's your favorite handle material?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. My favorite handle material is giraffe bone.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, giraffe bone. That's some good stuff. That is, I haven't worked with that in a long time. I've forgotten about that. I need to do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's so much so much so much variety to giraffe bone, and it polishes up so nice. I like we uh we kind of like the striations in it, it like makes it look um sometimes older than it's uh it is, and sometimes um the colors pop in different ways. Right, right. To me, it's very unique.
SPEAKER_04Also at knife shows, we spend some time together walking around and collecting stickers. Because I love I like love stickers. They're my favorite thing to do, and walking around gives me exercise. Also, oh yeah, it I have fun and I get to spend time with my dad.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, and you meet people and see a bunch of neat stuff and get stickers, that's a good time right there. I have a a cabinet in my shop that's a bunch of stickers on it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I put I have a bunch of stickers on my door.
SPEAKER_00My my uh 14-year-old daughter did that. I I came upstairs one time, and there were a bunch of stickers just out of nowhere all over that door. I was like, what in the world? And then just recently they were gone, uh, except the adhesive that's still stuck on the door. So uh anyway, that'll give me something to do. Clean that off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll see. She's uh she's been uh keeping up with her sticker collection a lot. Um so she her door is pretty well covered at this point, and she's still she has reserve stickers too, and she just uh kind of sticks sticks on things that she likes to uh find. Like uh water bottles. She has a little canteen type of thing that she puts them on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, anything that'll take a sticker that has a sticker on it. Pretty much. Yeah. Whenever you're ready, I'll uh hook you up with uh a membership on uh knifemakingvideos.com and uh y'all can watch those videos together and uh um hopefully learn some stuff and enjoy that, and uh that'll um keep you busy for a little bit if you ever have a minute.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, that'd be super rad. Uh we uh we've been kind of because we've been a little naughty at times, getting our iPad taken away. Um we talked about when she uh gets it back that we're gonna instead of like her watching a bunch of garbage on YouTube and playing you know silly, silly games, you know, because I it it's it's weird, like the the culture of like a lot of kids' videos and games and stuff are really built to make them very addictive. Oh, absolutely. And so we've kind of noticed that too. And she's like a kind of a little bit of a different person. It's like Gollum whenever she uh we gotta put your your technology down. And so we're like precious, yeah. That's what that's her for sure. Um but uh but uh uh so we were talked about like when we kind of get back into it if she's allowed to, it's like just education stuff. So it'd be cool to be able to pop some of your videos on there and just kind of go through um go through all of that, and that way she can understand more techniques and things. Because she's she like asks a lot of questions about different um um that different facets of knives, like you know, but what's what are bolsters, what's this kind of handle material, things like that. So hopefully when she gets to a place, if she wants to, she can uh learn how to make one.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah, I I uh knew a guy, unfortunately, he was in the hospital uh after an accident, but he signed up for the the courses to give him something to watch while he was you know in the hospital instead of just mindless entertainment, and he wanted to learn something. Um that I thought that was really neat that he thought of that to keep his his mind busy while he was recovering. Yeah, that's that's super rad.
SPEAKER_01We are we are a house full of learners, aren't we, Sissy?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's that's good. I I'd I'd tell my kids, I said it's yeah, especially my son, I tell him, I said, who you become is much more important than what you get in life. You know, becoming a a um a good person is so much more important than than getting things. And uh uh a lot of those uh games and and shows and everything are like you said geared to be addictive and and they're not teaching, you know, they're they're not teaching the right things a lot of times. And uh uh that's that can be pretty dangerous, you know, like you said, to get it to get addicted to it, and that you we're pretty pretty moldable as people, and so we can uh go down the wrong path pretty easily.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, yeah, because they kind of they say like who who you're at at ten is pretty much who you're going to be. Like you've you kind of you kind of eked out like the core tenants of like your personality. Um and uh I I would prefer her impression of life and the way that she thinks about things, uh setting her up for that. Right. Yeah, right. Setting her up for the rest of her life is not full of just like the toxicity of uh um multimedia and the the monetization of of the human soul, apparently.
SPEAKER_00It it's uh we have a very suffocating culture, and uh it's it's uh yeah, the monetization of the human soul, and there you go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, you know, it's been a it's been a pleasure to get and sit and talk to you um uh finally and to be able to do this with Sissy. Uh she was Absolutely. She's you know, she she uh well uh would ask me every once in a while, even though she's like coughing a lung up and everything. She's like, What are we gonna do this yeah, this uh this episode? And so I was like, okay, well let's let's figure it out. No time like the present, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's been about five or six months in the making.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It really has. It really has. Yeah. Um I'm glad. I've I I've been looking forward to it, and I'm glad we got to visit some and and to uh uh get to know each other a little bit and and I've been looking forward to meeting sissy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, so do you have anything that you want to say to him?
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_02No? No, no.
SPEAKER_01Do you have any other questions? What do we do when we uh when we end our uh our interviews to be the same thing?
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. I am really, really glad I got to do this. I'm flattered that you wanted to interview me. Uh it's just been such a a great experience for me. I really, really appreciate it. Hope to get to meet you someday. I I don't do a lot of knife shows, to be honest. Um, I I I I will go to some every now and then and attend them, but I don't uh uh go as a vendor very often at all. So I'm uh but hopefully someday I can be at a show or something and and run into you and meet you, and that'd be a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's lots of stuff to do down in in the spring area. We can go to camp in Fairfield and drive down and do all sorts of stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's yeah, come by and and you can see my dog. He uh you saw him on the video a little while ago. He's a he's an English lab. He's an English black lab. There are they're American labs and they're English labs. The English labs are a little bit shorter and stockier, a little bit thicker, and they have a a thicker coat. And I told people, I said you can always tell an English lab because it barks with a British accent. You're gonna ask them what what that sounds like. It's more of an off, off, off. You know, it's not an arf. It's not an arf, but it's off, off. So you'll just have to hear it for yourself.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're gonna have to see a man about a dog, aren't we, Sissy? I hear you.
SPEAKER_00That's that my grandfather used to always say that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I mean, thank you for spending the time with us and uh and talking a little bit about your life. Uh I I definitely uh I want everybody to be able to uh use your learning material as a resource. Um and so I definitely want to make sure that that's put up in the in the show notes and everything.
SPEAKER_00And um, yeah, I'm I'm always open. People will call me or they'll they'll write, you know, and and uh if anybody out there wants any information, I'm uh I'm an open book. I'd I'd I'd you know people say uh they want to be brutally honest, and I I don't want to be brutally honest, I want to be, you know, nicely honest, and you know, because people can hurt people's feelings, you know, they really can to make them feel better about themselves that hurt hurt someone else's feelings. And and uh it's it's it's important to be nice to people, you know, and to encourage them because at one point I I didn't know what I wanted to do. Uh I uh I didn't know if I should get into knife making and if I was you know good enough or anything like that, and you you get discouraged. And and if people uh need anything, you know, I I I oh uh I wake up every well, not every morning, but a lot of the mornings uh wake up and there are messages on Facebook and stuff from people who where do I get this and how to do that and stuff like that. And so, you know, help people out. So any any way I can help, you know, any uh people you know feel free to to contact me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, uh thanks thanks again, and uh sure we'll be in touch for sure because uh we look at we do like some Mr. Lusk.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, I appreciate it, y'all. And uh you uh she's waving to me. I'll wave back, even though they can't see it, but I'll I can see you. Thanks for the thanks for the call, Sissy. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Bye.
SPEAKER_00Bye-bye. We'll see you later.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to another episode of the Good Old Blades podcast. Remember that you are loved and God bless.
