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Making a Sub-Hilt Fighter with SR Johnson came in two disk set. Both disks were excellent. The first disk covered profiling and grinding the blade. Great suggestions throughout including the tapered tang and use of various grits of belts. Photography was excellent with only an occasional "hand" shot rather than subject shot. While Johnson makes it look easy, he talks about the difficulty in getting it right the first time. He makes errors and then shows how to correct them. I would recommend this video to any knife maker at any level short of Master. I've been making knives for four years and I learned a lot from watching how it is done rather than reading about how to do it.
I enjoyed this video and found some good tips. I liked the fact that the last 15 minutes was spent on how to fix mistakes in grinding... the kind we all make. I was disappointed that the final sanding of the blade was not included on this video and was on another video which SmartFlix does not have available.
The tempered Tang Hunter is a basic video on building a kit knife from an already existing ground blade. If you are a total beginner, it had it's good points. For anyone else I found that there was little to learn new from this DVD. Most of the work is explained, completed off camera, and presented in the finished state. The DVD is short due to the lack of actual video of work being done. Sometimes you are told that something will follow and it doesn't. For example, how to mount the hidden tang extension and shape it to the handle. You never actually see the tang extension created or shaped and that is a major part of the hidden tang process. If you bought a kit knife and have no idea how to start... rent this DVD.
The hidden Tang Hunter is a basic video on building a kit knife from an already existing ground blade. If you are a total beginner, it had it's good points. For anyone else I found that there was little to learn new from this DVD. Most of the work is explained, completed off camera, and presented in the finished state. The DVD is short due to the lack of actual video of work being done. Sometimes you are told that something will follow and it doesn't. For example, how to mount the hidden tang extension and shape it to the handle. You never actually see the tang extension created or shaped and that is a major part of the hidden tang process. You do see how to drill out the handle material and get the shaped tang to fit inside it. The drilling tricks are valuable and not obvious to a new knife maker. If you have never made a hidden tang knife you will get some value out of this DVD.
The tempered Tang Hunter is a basic video on building a kit knife from an already existing ground blade. If you are a total beginner, it has it's good points. For anyone else I found that there was little to learn new from this DVD. There are some valuable suggestions about fitting a guard and getting the tang fitted up for the handle. Shaping and forming the handle is well described and is shown in stages of completion. Most of the work is explained, completed off camera, and presented in the finished state. The DVD is short due to the lack of actual video of work being done. I would recommend it to a novice who has purchased a knife kit and doesn't know where to start.
As a new metal worker I found this transition of a drill press to a milling machine quite interesting. I learned a great deal about milling which I didn't know.
This was just one of several DVDs I've rented and It was disappointing. This maker has done some outstanding work but it wasn't presented here. The basic hollow grind of a straight knife ended when the knife was ready for heat treat. We all know there is a lot which goes on after the heat treat and none of that was covered. Overall it was disappointing. The 15 minute lesson at the end focused on comparing flat grinding to hollow grinding and was a complete waste of time.
