hey lt say it ain't so!

[Phil Gibbs]

ah, the good ole days... 17 hour workday, a knife a min. -$3-15? a week. with the laws today no man could produce like that again. not even john henry! great stuff phil, please go on.

That was hafting numbers from a year ago!

Based on an 8 hour day, it's about 2 to 2 1/2 knives a minute. The base rate for the job was about $11 - 12/hour.

During the strike I had to do the job for a while. I had to produce about 1200 MC-1 parachute knives. I got close to 2 a minute hafting them, but after about 2 hours my hands felt like they had been in a meat grinder!
Luckily for me I had several other operations to do to the knives, so I never did more than about 4 hours of hafting a day.

Like I said, I had the utmost respect for those guys.
Now they are all unemployed. What a waste of talent.

[jonet143]

god phil, that's phenominal. did you take some meat off with those baders?

[Phil Gibbs]

Mercifully never lost any meat, but did erase a few fingerprints!

[orvet]

Mercifully never lost any meat, but did erase a few fingerprints!

I am missing a few myself & I don't do it for 4 hours per day!

Dale

[El Lobo]

Great stuff Phil...thank you for sharing that kind of knowledge with all of us. It sure adds to the forums.

Bill

[dewman]

....what utterly fascinating stuff! Being a relative newcomer to knife collecting, I find this stuff very interesting, to say the least. What a thrill it would be to take a tour through a knife making establishment and be able to see the process, from beginning to end of the creation of say a Schatt or a Queen....or a Great Eastern. I've watched one of the "How it's made" programs on T.V. about knives, but it doesn't give you the full treatment, just kind of skips through things too fast to really appreciate what goes on "up close and personal".

Thanks for sharing your personal information on this process and all that's involved. I find it most informative and educational.

[Bucksforus]

I just want to say many thanks to Dale and Phill, for all you guys do for the new knife collector. Your knowledge is unsurpassed.
Harold

[MITCH RAPP]

I forgot about this Great old thread I got to say though, everytime I see a post on here by Johnnie, it makes me a little Sad and it reminds me how much he is sorely missed around here!

[FRJ]

I appreciate your post Phil. Thank you for your remarks. Great information.

edit: well, I never looked at the date. I appreciate it just the same.

[orvet]

Hi Bucksforus!
Welcome to AAPK, the friendliest knife forum on the web!

This is a great old thread.
I hope Phil comes back and talks more about his knife making experiences.

[philco]

I forgot about this Great old thread I got to say though, everytime I see a post on here by Johnnie, it makes me a little Sad and it reminds me how much he is sorely missed around here!

I hear ya Mitch. I miss him too.

[glennbad]

Saw El Lobo (Bill) post on this one also. Lot of good guys that are not here anymore.

Glenn

[orvet]

Saw El Lobo (Bill) post on this one also. Lot of good guys that are not here anymore.

Glenn

I still miss them both.