XMas 2011 KITH

My submission for the XMas 2011 KITH is ready to ship to whoevers name is drawn on BladeForums.com. There are some AWESOME knives submitted so far. I would be proud to receive any one of these knives.

Everyone involved has to have their knives posted as "Ready To Ship" by December 1st. This will give the delivery service plenty of time to deliver prior to XMas day. Possible exceptions are international entrants.


This is my entry for the 2011 Christmas KITH:

It is a Clip Point Hunter with a little Belly to it
1095 High Carbon Steel 3/32" thick
I'll call the handle material Osage Micarta. It really looks like Osage Orange.
Brass Pins and Thong Tube
Blade Length of 3 3/4"
Overall Length of 8 1/8"
Black Hand Stitched Leather Sheath

Photo isn't the greatest.
Hope y'all like it.

I will update this after names have been drawn. So the next question is...Do I leave the knife I receive in the box until XMas or do I tear that thing open as soon as I find it in the mailbox? What usually happens is my intentions are to wait, wait, wait. But when the box is in hand the urge to open it overcomes all the will I muster to save it. Guess I'm still a little boy when it comes to presents like new knives.

Whew!!!!!

Another one bites the dust. I am so glad that the Franklin, TN “2011 Pumpkinfest” is behind me. There was so much work done for this show. It is time to relax a little before the next show.

The day started out a little on the rough side. One of my headlights was out. That happened to be the good one that died. The other was so dim you really could hardly see the line on the side of the road. We made it through the windy road that turns into the highway. Uh-oh there is Super Fog hitting us and I can’t see 50 feet ahead of me, it’s dark and there is no letup of this dang fog. Now Leslie is starting to get car sick and it’s still dark out. We finally made it to the show and got things set up with plenty of time before the show starts.

We could not believe how many people attended Pumpkinfest. So many nice folks stopped by to check out the goods. It took a long time before we made the first sale but after that things seemed to go very smoothly. There were a lot of folks dressed up for Halloween. We’ll be back next year to get those customers that wanted to buy, but were unsure of a new vendor.

Finally Finished

So I’ve had 2 gorgeous knives for my friend completed for some time now. He wanted two similar knives to be used for camping. We worked out a design and the blades were cut and ground. Handle material and sheath styles were decided upon. Next I talked him into matching Fire Stix to add to the sheath.

These knives gave me my first attempt at wood stabilizing. The handle materials picked were quilted maple for his wife and spalted sycamore for his brother-in-law. It was easier than I thought it would be to stabilize. It just takes a little time and patience. The vacuum was on for 1 ½ hours to get the juice drawn in well. The only thing I didn’t care for was the smell of the stabilizing chemical-Nelsonite. I left the blanks sit out for months before I cut them and got them ready to attach to the knives.

Preparing for my fall shows kept me from working on the sheaths for longer than I had hoped. When I was working on the sheaths for all the other knives these were fitted and formed and…..I didn’t get the loop for the Fire Stix right. The sheaths had to be redone. That is always a bummer but hey, it was the first time for the fire stix loop and I eventually got it worked out.

He received both knives on November 4th and he was very excited to say the least.

X-Mas In The Park

X-Mas In The Park at Pickwick Convention Center Dec. 9-10, 2011 is the next show for us. This will be the shows 7th year running and our first. Hopefully it will prove to be a great show to attend. We are currently looking for another stocking stuffer that we can sell the heck out of. Look forward knife to seeing knife Y’all there to knife shop for that knife special gift.

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.