Startin' em early

[7X57chilmau]

Alright, so this is just barely on topic, but I figured I'd share anyway.

I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter, and she's the light of my life, as any daughter should be. She's been watching her dad making and using knives for her whole life. She'll often stand beside me and watch fascinated as food is prepared, or a mallow stick sharpened.... But she's appropriately wary of knives, and won't touch one either. She just points and says "Daddy's knife!".

I wanted a bit more for her. Sunday evening TV sucked. So I spent an hour and a half in the basement with a stick of Serviceberry rescued from the wood pile (2 years dry now) and a scrap of leather. Bandsaw, drumsander and hand sanding...

Here's the result:




She was playin when I finished, and I placed the knife on her table in front of her, and told her "I made this special for you." She looked a bit fearful, and said "No, Daddy!", gingerly picked up the knife, with 2 fingers, by the butt, and tossed it away.... I explained that this knife was a toy, and completely safe for her to use... It was hers. She grinned and accepted it eagerly.

She has spent the last few days "carving" body parts off Mom and I, and eating them (a weird extension of the old Got Yer Nose trick), she cuts her playdough with it, and she's gone stuffed animal hunting a few times...

It's not all play, though. This knife gives us an easy and safe way to talk about knife safety. At this point, a few days in, she can identify the blade, handle, guard, butt (calls it bum-bum ), point and edge. She knows what part of a real knife does the cutting now.... She knows to hold it by the handle...

And hell. Dad got his little bit of fun.

Just wanted to share.

J

 

[Carl Levitian]

Thats great man!

I love it that another young lady is going to grow up with the idea that knives are a good thing, instead of trying to cut things with a key.

Good for you and your wife!

 

[HoosierQ]

Very cool. My father made me a wooden Viking Sword when I was about 9 or 10. I used to carry it into the woods to fend off...whatever Vikings fend off. I suppose had I really needed to fend something off, a 3 foot long wooden sword would have had some utility.

Nice project.

Thread hijack warning: I have always wanted to do something like that in a material that would be even more useful...bone or antler. An antler boot knife kind of a thing. I just have not gotten my hands on a piece of antler the right size and shape. Antler projectile points were all the rage about 10,000 years ago.

 

[bikerdoc]

Cool.

If you think 2 1/2 is neat, wait til she is 5.

5 y/o granddaughter can recite and demonstrate the 4 rules with her dart gun.

pretends to sharpen her plasic toy knife with cardboard when she comes into my shop area

Love em, teach em, and train em right.

 

[7X57chilmau]

Oh, I can't wait! Well, yes I can, but you know...

Hoosier.... Maybe I should try that... I've got a desert ironwood branch that'd make a great little one....

Thank the gods the wife is willing to indulge my little projects...

J

 

[grumps]

The part that impressed me most, was when she didn't want to touch a knife. She was taught not to play with a real knife. It is good she knows how to correctly handle one when it is explained that it is a toy. Says a lot about her parents.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

That's good stuff amigo. Keep it up.

 

[7X57chilmau]

Grumps, that impressed me too. We've never formally sat her down and said "Knives are dangerous, they'll cut you", but she has been repeatedly warned off in the kitchen, the garden, the craft table. She pays attention when you least expect it.

I make knives, always carry a couple... There's a 10" dagger, very sharp, on the livingroom table, a few swords, a kukri, a full-size norman spear, all sharp, and whatever the "knife of the month" is from my forge.... Knife safety, or at least its very basics, has been an absolute requirement in our home.

I don't believe you can effectively childproof a home. I do believe you can "homeproof" a child. They're attracted to the unfamiliar. The mundane holds little spell over a young child. My daughter sees knives, be they kitchen, utility or flat-out weapons, as mundane every-day objects. They deserve respect, and in her world that means leaving them alone.

The biggest mistake parents make is to forbid, mystify and hide dangerous objects from their children. Not that they should be one step from disaster, common sense must prevail.... The swords are sheathed and stored in my room, the dagger sheathed and snapped..... But they are available to her so she can ask to be shown, or ask what it is.

To not do so is to risk the discovery of the exotic object by the child when you're not watching.... Followed by inappropriate handling.... And at best a trip to the ER. As so clearly illustrated by the ubiquitous story of the firearm found under the bed, and the dead child.

J

 

[kamagong]

Good for you. You're right about starting them out right and teaching them not to fear inanimate objects.

Here's a picture of my nephew at 3 1/2 years old.

 

[JShirley]

Reminds me of my old stone tomahawk. Haven't thought about it in years...

 

[HoosierQ]

7x57

I also think a very nice, usable boot dagger could be made of really hard wood...and have thought about doing that too. Obviously not something that would withstand a lot of abuse but how many times does one actually use a boot knife for real? If it was sharp enough to work once you'd be good to go.

Wood and antler are just wonderful natural materials to work with...so is leather. I am much intrigued by Kydex for its utility but it lacks "soul".

Q

 

[TimboKhan]

Ha! Your nephew a cute little guy, Kamagong. He looks just like I do on those glorious days that UPS shows up with something from Knife Center! I am just larger and louder is all

 

[cleardiddion]

Too cool!
I remember my Dad made me a Dori (Greek spear) with some maple for the shaft and pvc for the spearpoint for me when I was in middle school.
I even took it to class to show it off for a project.
It's weird knowing that it wasn't that long ago (3 years) and they would flip out like two roosters tied together if a kid brought in something like that now.

 

[7X57chilmau]

Hoosier,

you got me thinkin'.... and I had a sliver of Desert Ironwood left, so I spent an hour in the basement last night.... Waddya think?



It's a mockup of a classic WWII OSS/CIA thumb dagger. Haven't made the sheath as yet. It pokes holes in cardboard boxes with ease.

I'd imagine it'd be pretty effective..... But I'll never carry it. Fun little project, though.

J

 

[sheepdog]

...I gotta warn ya...you're gonna have a lotta young men chasin' after her...to get her knife!!! Cool!!! Literally made a memory...her kids oughta have that someday!!!

 

[7X57chilmau]

My father made me a little wooden hunting knife when I was a kid.... I had it for a couple years, and finally used it as a tent peg somewhere.... And there it remains...

I'd give an awful lot to still have it. Hopefully my daughter will do better than I did (the eternal wish of parents everywhere).

Obviously, though, that thumb dagger isn't for kids.... Just to be clear.... Only the hunter at the beginning of the thread is...

I've participated in own-thread derailment. Forgive me.

J

 

[bikerdoc]

He is right J

got a daughter that is 30, a lot of old boyfriends were more interested in her/my toys that her!!

Now she and her husband have more toys than you and me put together.

 

[sheepdog]

...why should you be any different than the rest of us?...you're pretty good with your tools...betcha you could make those and sell 'em...lotsa Dads would rather have wood and leather than plastic and plastic....that's neat....

 

[7X57chilmau]

After I made that kid's knife, I did consider makin' a few for sale... They're really quick to make (the hunting knife and sheath together took about 2 hours) and pretty safe as toys....

But then I thought "Nah".

I try not to consider the future filled with her boyfriends.... the more I think about that, the less likely it is that I'll survive to see the day.

That said, I'll be happy to show her bf's all my toys. Starting with the sharp and pointy ones...

J

 

[bikerdoc]

That said, I'll be happy to show her bf's all my toys. Starting with the sharp and pointy ones...

Then the ones that go bang!

Oh and dont forget he needs a forging lesson before the prom!

 

[7X57chilmau]

I'm itchin' to get Sophie into the forge, but I recognize that she won't be ready until she's probably 7 or 8 or 9.... Just SO easy to get really badly hurt back there...

She's watched a couple times, for a few minutes at a time... It's funny how good kids actually are at recognizing danger.... She automatically recoils at the sight of yellow-hot bar.... Kinda expected a reach and "OOOoohh... Pretty!", but was pleasantly surprised.

Her mom is, of course, in close attendance in those situations...

J

 

[hso]

I help with the ABS Youth Hammer-Ins. Safety glasses and gloves are easy to remember, but what is most strongly emphasized is that they'll get burned quicker on gray than red metal because everyone can see red/orange/yellow is hot (and feel it at a greater distance), but you're usually burned by the time you know you've grabbed a 400F chunk of steel. Because of this we keep a 5 gallon bucket filled with ice and water just a couple of steps away from where the kids are working so they can plunge their burned piggies into it and pull the heat out if the injury quickly. We usually have 2 or 3 kids hit that bucket and it helps keep burns down in the first degree range. Good for experienced smiths also.

 

[7X57chilmau]

Yeah, HSO, that's been my experience too. Whenever I have someone new out to the smithy, I talk safety a lot while we get things in order and fired up. Every 2 or 3 points, I interject "and black steel can be hot too....". Usually I get a strange look after the second or third time I say it.

Also, usually, I get another strange look, this time of understanding and epiphany when they grab said piece of black steel, and feel the leather of their glove begin to tighten on their finger. I tell them that too: The first sign you've done something stupid is the glove suddenly tightens. Drop it BEFORE you feel the heat.

Point well taken on the ice water. I'll start doing that. The slack tub's always there, but it's not my first choice for a water source to flush a burn.... It's very stagnant (as a slack tub should be!).

Still, Sophie's 2.5 years old now, so there's a good few before she wields a hammer at hot steel. But I'm working on the underlying stuff now. I'll introduce her to basic woodworking first, I think.... A hammer and the backsaw my grandfather gave me when I was 4...

J

 

[HoosierQ]

7 x 57

That's just great. I assume that desert ironwood is really hard.

We had something here in Indiana that was incredibly hard that my father called ironwood. I don't think that it what it was. We had a whole grove of it in our woods and some sort of blight or plague or something killed it and caused all the bark to fall off. It all stood there, dry as a bone and solid as a rock. When you sawed it into firewood in one two or three inch diameter pieces...when you struck them together it made an absolutley musical sound. I am talking bone-fide musical notes here...not a thud with a tone...a musical ringing tone. It was so hard and tough you could not split it with a gas-powered hydraulic wood-splitter...I am not kidding...on big enough pieces, the engine would sometimes die.

My dad died and the property is gone and I could just kick myself for not saving some of that back to make all kinds of things.

Truely amazing material. At the time I was too concerned with cutting it up for firewood that I did not do anything with it otherwise...but I harvested only a small portion of it. 30 years hence, I don't know if any of it is left or not.

Nice work 7 x 57.

 

[hso]

HoosierQ,

Any barrier to checking with the current property owner about getting some of that musical wood for "old time's sake"?

7X57chilmau,

Another thing we tell them is to use the back of a bare hand to "feel" for the heat before grabbing anything that is thought to be cool. Even hammers and especially tongs. Surprising how much more sensitive the back of the hand is and how hot a hammer head can get beating steel into shape.

My daughter is 11 now and probably won't be interested in going to the next youth hammer-in, but she's been going for the past 3 years and made some ornamental iron and 3 knife blades. I just need to get off my dead butt and work at putting handles on them for her.