I had a conversation with one of my good friends about things of this nature recently (actually yesterday).
Like smallshop demonstrated............evaluate something and decide if you feel you are skilled enough to attempt it and give it a shot or decide it's above your skill set and leave it alone for awhile. There is nothing wrong with asking questions of a maker on how he accomplished something. Often times, it's how you go about asking (and think about that, it could include a LOT of variables) that determines the end result.
There's also nothing wrong with a maker keeping some things to himself if he so chooses. We have all seen a HUGE influx of new makers recently, many of them doing quite well due to the free sharing if info and all the online tutorials and such. The pool of talented makers is increasing while the pool of collectors seems to be not increasing, at least not nearly as fast as the makers. That makes it much more of a challenge to create something different and unique to stand out from the pack. But that's what you have to do to make continual sales and stay in business.
Example: I recently made a knife that was very unique and different, nothing revolutionary really, but not your everyday knife. I've had TONS of compliments, folks saying it was the most unique knife they'd seen in a while and plenty of questions about it. I worked hard to make something different, eye appealing and unique. It was rewarding pulling it off.
I had a nice enough fellow email me saying how much he liked it and if I would walk him through it step by step over phone and email so he could build that exact knife. Among several other reasons, I declined largely because I made that knife uniquely mine and it was a success and I'm just plain not interested in teaching someone else how to copy it exactly. Especially over phone and email.
Now, that said, I think anyone who has reached out to me for tips on how I do things has found that I try to be very free and friendly with my sharing of knowledge. I have no issues with "Hey how do you do that thing?" or "what tool did you use to do that?" or "How did you hold that together" that sort of thing. But to walk someone through step by step to build my knives exactly.................not interested. Period.
I have no hard feelings, it's just not something I'm going to do. Every craftsman has little details about how he does things that he might keep to himself. That's what makes many just a little bit better than most and that's what keeps a guy at the top of the heap. There's nothing wrong with that. In reality, even those 'secrets' get shared. Often it's more about the friendships and the personality traits that a one craftsman recognizes in another that dictates who those 'secrets' get passed on to.
Going back to
how a maker is asked to share something, for a minute: One problem that is getting bigger all the time is some of these newer makers (often young people) because of this new age of instant info on the web, seem to have this sense of entitlement and they want instant gratification. They think the older group of makers that worked hard, asked a few questions then put the time in and developed their craft,
owe them an explanation on every little thing, and they want it right now. That will drive most makers into 'keeping secrets' very quickly.
Just my perspective.