After The Show

The 3rd annual Blooming Arts Fest on March 19th 2011 was not a great success for me. It started out a bit colder than everyone anticipated. The crowd seemed to be smaller than last year and the wallets were tucked in a little further. Overall it was still a good day for being outside as the weather warmed up and crowds became more plentiful. Everybody seems to like my knives a lot, with very positive comments. Many stand there and admire but won't pick them up. It's also hard to sell a well priced hand crafted item when a vendor is selling chinese made knives for $3 just down the way.

This economy needs a kick in the pants. How can a hardworking individual making a decent product compete with low quality low priced junk? I guess a huge factor is this area of Tennessee. Perry county is about the poorest county in the state. Wayne county to the south is a poor county too. Events like the Blooming Arts Fest brings people in from all over. There really needs to be more draws to the area. Enough of my tirade.

A lot of wonderful people stopped by to chat, look and a few even bought things. Friendly faces from last year came to look at the new items I had. I didn't have jewelry at the show in 2010 so selling some pieces made it worth it. New knives (in picture) with my home-made micarta was very fascinating to many.

All in all, it may not have been as good as expected, but getting my stuff out there and meeting new people is a great way to spend a beautiful day in Tennessee.

Shown in the pics are the knives I got ready for this show. There are 6 hunters with different colored handles, 2 utility knives, a tactical knife and a knife with a forged tail on it. They are surrounding my new brochure which was an Xmas present from my wonderful wife. The other pic is of a bunch of knife blanks I have on the bench. I'm doing some larger camp type knives. They have been fun to do so far and I hope they are a hit.

Spring Is Here!

Can't believe it's the middle of March already. Next weekend is the first show of the season for me. The Blooming Arts Festival in Linden, TN will hopefully start out a prosperous year for this knife maker. I have been busy in the shop getting some knives ready which stared with making my own micarta handle material. The micarta turned out well, with the hippy micarta especially cool. I know I'll have to make more of this as it seems to tickle a lot of people's fancy. There will be 12-15 knives on the table along with my jewelry. This show, last year, was my first real show and was considered a success. So many nice people came by our tent to check out my wares. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and bestow upon us a wonderful sunny day.

More to come following the show.

Last year for my son's birthday I made a belt buckle for him. It was designed with one of his passions in mind. That passion is bicycle riding. As for me I put on way too miles as a kid and those seats aren't very comfy to this old tush. I'll leave the riding to those that enjoy it. After aquiring some old bike gears I set out to create a buckle he might like. It took a bit of gear swapping until I found the combination I was looking for. A few of the gear teeth had to be cut off the top and bottom of the piece so his belly wouldn't be punctured. Next I had to weld on a bar to attach the belt to and a hook for the hole. It was actually after Sam's birthday before it was sent to the chrome plater. There it sat for almost 4 months. Well I just got it back and it looks AWESOME! I really hope he likes it. He should get the package on March 12th. The picture doesn't quite do it justice.

Well that's it for now. We'll be back soon to show some of the finished knives and sheaths before they go to the show.

Earlier today Japan had an 8.9 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out a lot of stuff. Maybe that old end-of-the-world-thing actually is happening.