Quality does not depend on whether you use a fixture or free hand grind. Quality is a form of discipline. It really depends on what is the worst thing you will let out of your shop. If you use a fixture or grind without one it really boils down to you. Will you let a knife go with scratches in the blade or a little gap in the guard fit? Will you let one out with a little different grind line on one side than the other?
If you will let a flaw out, how big of a flaw? One scratch? Two? More than two? It is simply not the equipment it is the user. Terzuola makes fine knives but you may be surprised to know that there are makers all over the world that do also. You can check the knives listed in the gallery on this site or many of the other sites. If you check some of the sites that offer custom knives for sale you will find many makers getting high prices. A common among them will be that they have rigid quality control and have spent a long time getting the skills up to do what they are doing. A suggestion if you need experience is to just get some equipment and grind a lot of blades. Learn what the equipment will do and polish body mechanics to get the most form what you have. Taking classes from experienced teachers will speed up the learning curve a lot. Go to knife shows and look at the works of others and ask what they do and how they get the fishin on their work. For the price of getting into a show and whatever it takes to get to the show. and that may include an overnight stay, you will advance your knowledge. And have fun....
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