Good luck on your new path Michael! If you ever just feel like banging out something more simple (perhaps a viking spear or axe :-) please let me know.

Carl

Hey Michael,

I wish you nothing but the best brother. I think quite highly of your body of work and your skills. If you ever need to pick the brain of another smithy please feel free to call or write me!

Here's to new paths!

-Matt

That is a relief! Other smiths have gone the same way, and it's been a good thing overall. By not accepting commissions you can really focus on what you want. And people will still be buying!

I totally support this kind of making business. You have great ideas and execute them beautifully. Why not follow your inspiration, someone will buy it since your talent and ideas are appealing to so many of us.

Hello Michael,

I have been thinking a lot about what you wrote above and I thought to share some insights…
I believe that we are dealing with very similar problems, you and I. I too have long been pondering whether I should quit taking commissions and start doing things in a different way.

The pressure to be able to maintain one’s own quality standards or even surpass them can over time become such an oppressive force that it starts to hinder the actual work. And when the stress overcomes the feeling of enjoyment that one gets from creating new things, the situation is quite serious.

Making commissions is in a way a two edged sword (!), on the other side there is the financial safety factor of “guaranteed income” in the form of commissioned work in the backlog. On the other side there is the possibility of stagnation – ending up making same sort of orders over and over again and fewer chances of creative work. – and still maintaining the standards everyone expects from you…

I have been tiptoeing around the same issues for quite some time – and I am still taking (and making) custom orders. Maybe the saving grace in my case is the fact that people order very different kind of things from me, everything from puukko-style knives to swords. So after a very demanding sword project I can unwind a bit by making some basic-model knives next. –Of course keeping in the agreed timetables with the orders can be a bit tricky at times.

I freely admit that the stress factor can be quite hideous at times – even in a project that is very interesting in itself. With pattern welded blades especially the emotional stress is in the high levels until to the very end when it finally is revealed whether there are welding faults in the blade or not. All swords and their heat treatments cause me heebie jeebies – will the blade be straight (enough) after the quenching, can I grind the fullers to shape properly, can I get the flex, the point of balance and weight of the blade all into the intended ballpark?

On the other hand, in order to progress in the making I believe a maker needs a challenge - and at least in my case, the challenges often come in the form of an inquiry about accepting a commission work. For example, I do not think that I would have otherwise tried my hand on those pattern welded inscriptions had it not been a custom order, even though I have been interested in them for a long time. (The fact that the customer did a runner and I was stuck up with the sword is another matter…!)

For me, the most nerve-wrecking commissions are those where I am required to copy my own work I have done earlier, sword orders with millimeter accurate plans come close second. Trying to make one meter long object accurate to half millimeter according to some drawing is simply something that pushes the pressures through the roof and kills all enjoyment of the work. A special mention as “top-stressers” must also be given to such custom orders in which some completely new technique or such needs to be used (successfully) for the first time.

So, in short what I am trying to say is that you are not the only one wrestling with these problems. In due time, it would be very interesting to learn how your change of direction worked out and what effect it had in your life as a craftsman.

Best wishes,
JT

Just a suggestion: The Topic title might be edited to reflex that although commissions are no longer being accepted, Michael is still going to be doing new and original work, and still in business.

EDITED: Just noticed that Michael added a note to this effect to his first post, but modifying the Topic title might still be worth doing ? But not as important as I first though before re-reading Michael's first post.