Good Philosophy, Dan. I think persist is one of the most important things. One of the troubles with adults when they take up something like Knifemaking, is they are more aware that their first attempts are a "trifle" clumsy, or downright terrible, than young folks(teenagers or younger). The idea to get firmly fixed in your head, is that this is not going to be easy, and that it will always be a learning process. The first couple of attempts are full of lessons learned.....not failure. I'm self-taught, i.e. no one helped me to make my knives, and it took me about 10 months before I was halfway pleased with my results. The blades were at least coming out "sorta" like I had planned, and I finally started to relax and enjoy myself. Then again, all I had were the simplest of hand tools, and that taught patience. I'm sort of glad I went that route, but looking back, if an experienced maker would have offered to teach me, I would have cut my learning curve by months probably. HOWEVER....every minute I spent in my workshop doing my best to turn my mind's vision into something resembling that with my hands was 100 Times better than wasting my life in front of the Tube, or what/whereever. First time I actually used one of my knives to do some serious cutting, and having it cut really well, ranks up there with the finer moments in my life. Same thing with the first knife I ever sold(for $20.00....cost me more to make it). But you are right about patience, and persistance and focus..and relaxing. Unless you can achieve those levels of emotional/mental development......you will quit.
