Wow! It’s Been A While

Guess I shoulda been keeping up with this a little better than I have. Well I started writing this on Halloween and there is lotsa stuff to talk about. Last post was in July. Since that time there were a few “Farmers & Merchant Festivals” held on the Square in Waynesboro, TN. They were held on the third Thursday of the months May, June, July and August from 4-8 p.m. . There was a really good turnout for the festivals local craft vendors and music. The heat was almost unbearable at times but smiles were always on our faces and we were happy to talk to all the folks that attended. Sales were actually better than anticipated. I was even asked to give a Survival class to a local youth group. Can’t wait for to have the class. That’s one thing I kinda miss is teachin’ those youngn’s about the outdoors. A Big Thanks to the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce and Rena Purdy for getting the Farmers & Merchants Festival together. It ran very smoothly and was well received.

The Harvest Festival on the Square in Waynesboro on September 24th was next. It was set up similar to the F&M Festival except there were more vendors, they put a stage up for live music and closed the square to vehicle traffic. This was an all day event with more traffic than I thought would come through. I certainly have got to make up a bunch more Fire Stix. They sold like hotcakes.

We Ames to Please

Ames Plantation Harvest Festival that is. The Ames show on October 8th is probably my favorite because it actually is a working plantation that is big on teaching historical lifestyles to modern people. The best thing is the cannon that goes off every hour. Cracks me up to watch folks jump outta their stockings when it goes off. This year some friends also participated in the show and even set up next to me.

Joan Appelt of Beech Creek Gourds had the booth closest to me. Doug & Claudia Kalmer of SunArt Studios were set up next to her and have an awesome display of stained glass of all kinds and kaleidoscopes.

It was a pleasure to set up and talk to so many nice folks. Lots of people from last year stopped by to see what new stuff I had for sale. Luckily I had made up 50 Fire Stix before the show because many sold after they watched Leslie demonstrate them. I believe I only had 9 knives on the table when I started, with 4 remaining as we packed up. You know what that means…

Mega Shop Time

The next show is THREE weeks away and it is a big one for me. I have so much work ahead of me to get ready for the Franklin show
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There were about 20 knife blanks on the bench in the shop. First thing was to get the blades ground. This took a while to get them ready for heat treating. The bigger blades were going to be tripple quenched and the smaller blades were double quenched. Oh yeah, since I’m trying to constantly improve on my work I decided to buy some McMaster-Carr 11 second quenching oil. The hydraulic oil I was using just wasn’t as good as the new stuff.

As I am set up and ready to heat the large blades for the first quench, wouldn’t you know it? I have problems with my acetylene tank. So I call the local gas supplier to order a tank on Monday and know that they don’t deliver till Thursday. Well a couple of frustrating days go by as I wait for gas. As I’m getting ready to disconnect the gauge I notice it still has pressure. Grab the igniter and give it a try, whadya know? She fires up and is working great. I don’t know what happened but I was thankful to get back on track. After all the heat treating the blades all had to be reground and get them ready for handles.

Every available moment was spent getting as many of these knives ready. When then handles were about 90% done it was time to wet form all the sheaths to each individual knife. The tool I created for wet forming does it so much faster than putting tiny clamps around the edge. Maybe I could patent it. Between all the knife making I was still working on getting some jewelry finished. I also tried to organize things in the shop a bit. There were also display problems that had to taken care of. I had promised to put my knives in a display case for the next show and something had to be done with the cool knife necklaces for guys. By the time it was all said and done I was about wore out.