Lin's penned a great article for Blade magazine!

[Ray Hammond]

Lin I got a sneak peak at your article and it's a fine piece of writing.

[Lin Rhea]

Thank you Ray. If anyone wants to read it, you can go to my home page and scroll down and you'll see it near the bottom. It's a pdf file.

[tomsm44]

         

Very well written Lin.  Also, that is one of the best explanations I have heard of "line and flow".  That is something that I am trying to wrap my head around right now being a relatively new knifemaker.  As I'm sure most have before me, I have built quite a few knives that were "too straight".  I've also built several that were "too crooked" by overdoing it when trying to get the flow that I wanted.  It's easy to look at a finished knife and say "it would look better if it had this, or didn't have that", but it's much harder to achieve when going from the ground up.  One other point that I liked was that any part of a well executed knife should add to it rather than fight against it.  I built two almost identical blades with the same handle profile one time but used different handle materials and it was amazing how much better one wood grain pattern looked than the other, even though the other was a high grade wood that I had used on other knives with great results.  The grain pattern, direction, etc. just didn't work with this particular design.  I have also looked at a couple of really nice damascus knives where the damascus pattern did not really work with the rest of the design.  These would have looked much better as a mono steel blade or at least with a different damascus pattern.  I haven't done any damascus, but I'm sure that just like with curves, this is much easier to see on a finished knife than to achieve when building the knife.  I think this article will help me gain a little better perspective with a few projects that I'm about to start.  As always Lin, thanks for always being willing to share your knowledge and experience with the rest of us, whether on this forum or another.

Matt Toms

[Roughcountry]

Great article Lin. Everything you brought out pertains to my trade as well.
I've thought that flow has been one of the things that attracts lots of folks to a fine bow. Still has to shoot well though  :D

[gudspelr]

Really enjoyed reading your article, Lin. I've found it very interesting how I can look at what I'm making and know it just isn't right. But nailing down what parts and pieces need changed to have that right flow can certainly be challenging. Makes drawing things out seem that much more important.   Thanks once again for sharing your experiences and advice.

Jeremy