Hey Y’all! Time again to report a few things.
Last time I posted was just before going to Blade Show 2011. Winning the free trip was AWESOME! The hotel was great and the staff was so helpful. I took my buddy Dan Shaw along with me and he got to drive there and back. We got to the show about 11:00am and hung around for a while before calling Marty McClure of KnifeBroker.com to let him know we were there. He wanted to take a picture to put on the KnifeBroker.com website and also for the Blade.com newsletter. I of course am wearing the camo shirt in the pic. As luck would have it we were escorted into the show at 11:45am, 15 minutes before opening although you couldn’t tell by all the commotion going on in there. I don’t think I can even tell you what I looked at for the next 5 ½ hours. It was total sensory overload to say the least. So many KNIVES!!! Pretty sure the first few hours were spent quickly going through so I could come back to my favorites. Got to meet a few KnifeDogs, which was nice.
There were two particular guys that I got to meet whose work I believe is Outstanding. They were John Cohea and Karl Anderson. John makes period pieces with rawhide wrapped sheaths. He also produced a really nice video on the construction of that style sheath, and he said a Friction Folder video would soon be out. Can’t wait to get my copy. Karl Anderson makes beautiful bowies and makes most as take-aparts. His work is amazing and he is a very nice man. I talked to a lot of good makers and didn’t get to talk to as many good makers as I wanted.
Saturday was an extremely busy day at the show. Met up with some friends from the Southern Bladesmith’s group. Glenn Moulton and Paul McGowen came up for the day and we had lunch together with a few more guys. Paul dumped about 30 pounds of steel on me when they left at 2:30 so I carried this towel wrapped weight around for another 2 ½ hours. I never got to the pit Friday or Saturday but I Will get there next time I go to the show. It’s pretty much impossible to describe the show because something is happening at every table.
After returning from the Blade Show I had to start getting my Knife In The Hat(KITH) ready and prepare for my trip to St. Louis. First for the KITH I decided to go with a blade I’ve had on the bench for a while. It was a camp style blade 3/16”thick, close to 11” long and almost 1 ½” wide. There is a snake filed into the spine. It is taking hours of hand sanding to get it where I want it to be. I took it to 1000grit on the blade before putting the handle on. The handle was about 70% ready before my trip.
Meet Me In ST. Louis
My son Sam and I decided to get together. We hadn’t seen each other since last November when Li’l Bobby was born. So we wanted to meet at a halfway point for a weekend visit. After calling my sister Linda, she was happy to let us to stay with her for the weekend of June 25th. A great time was had by all. Sam & I had Pappy’s BBQ to start the trip and walked around the Arch while Marines Week was going on throughout the city. There was lots of cool weapons and vehicles for everyone to check out. Then we went to a Cardinals game. Sunday we went to the City Museum which was awesome. It would turn any adult into a kid for sure. Lots of fun stuff in there. The rest of the day was spent eating bacon wrapped venison backstraps, veggies on the grill then having a few cocktails and relaxing. Long trip home. I was close to home when my wife texted me that two of her cousins were stopping by for two days. She was very excited. Me too.
When I pulled into my drive I checked the mailbox. There was a knife in waiting for me to inspect. This was Ernie Swanson’s pass around knife and it was my turn to beat it into submission. For the next week I put it through a number of tests to scrutinize the integrity of the knife. It held up to the punishment and was passed on to the next man on the list.
KITH & Cousins
Joyce and Tina, along with Tina’s boys Max and Sam showed up Tuesday morning. They were in Virginia, headed our way then back up to Wisconsin for a fun trip. They had a great time eating pulled pork, fresh eggs and chasing chickens around. Sam was very funny and Max was interested in my workshop. He even hand sanded the oxidation off of the copper pins I was using for the KITH knife. We were sad to see them leave and they said they’d be back to enjoy a little southern hospitality. Max check out the picture of the knife you helped with and please email me your address. I have something for you and Sam. The knife handle was glued up before they left but it wasn’t finished for a couple more days. The sheath took me a week and a half. I really had to go slow cuz it was the first lined sheath I’d attempted.
4th of July
By decree of the City Manager I was to set up my booth at the holiday celebration put on at the city park. It was a slow day for sales but we met some real nice folks there. I had to work on the 4th then I processed 9 remaining meat chickens. A wicked storm whipped through the county knocking over or twisting the tops off of thousands of trees. We were very lucky at Arcadia Homestead. One branch fell and just bumped the roof of my shop over the back door with almost no damage. Many others weren’t so lucky.
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