March/April Happenings

OK. My Bad. It's been a while since I posted anything but life has been very busy.

I guess the first thing to talk about was The Blooming Arts Festival in Linden, TN March 23-24. This was the first show we've done that got rained on. The format was changed to include setting up on Friday night for a few hours to include music on the square. The weather wasn't the greatest which limited some attendance. There were quite a few folks walking around though which is a good thing. Sales were not great but I like this show and lots of previous customers stopped by to check us out. I finished up some knives before the show and the pic shows three with curly hickory handles.

The next weekend, a friend and I drove to Georgia for a hammer-in. The event wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. Usually there are demonstrations from knife makers and blacksmiths but this wasn't like that. It was just a bunch of guys that brought their own tools to the get together. It wasn't a complete waste of time as I got to meet sheath maker Sandy Morrisey. My buddy Brad struck a deal with Andy Roy of Fiddleback Forge for a knife he's wanted. We left for home early and I got to spend some time with my grandson Julian.

A week later my son Sam and his sweet girlfriend Mara stopped by for a two day visit. They went to the Mammoth cave area of Kentucky for some cave fun prior to heading to our place. We ate ribs and baked beans the first day here. Mmmmmmmmm Ribs. They got to visit Natural Bridge which is up the road a few miles and took them fishing for some nice rainbow trout at a friends place. Can't forget about doing a little shooting too. Lots of holes were put into those poor defenseless targets. That Buckmark of mine sure is fun to shoot. Leslie and I were sad to bid them farewell as we had an awesome visit. Hope you both had enough to eat here.

Last weekend there was a Gobbler Gala Youth Hunt east of us in Giles County. It included vendors at the Ag Park along with TWRA trailers set up with educational stuff inside. The only problem was there weren't any customers for the vendors. Seems that they moved it to the Ag Park this year after holding it on the square in Pulaski all the previous years. The only people walking around were other vendors. Barely sold enough to cover the cost of the show. Not sure about this one next year.

In the last few days I signed up for another KITH on BladeForums.com. The difference with this KITH is that is for Mini Knives. I've never made a mini before so I jumped in with both feet. I started with a piece of damascus slated for jewelry and drew out a bowie knife. After cutting, grinding and sanding a relatively proportionate knife blade appeared. Grabbed some nickel silver to use as bolsters with some nickel welding rod to pin them to the blade. Originally I had intended to use a pice of elephant ivory for the scales but went with some nice wooly mammoth tusk, as it has some cool coloring to it. There'll be more to this story as it progresses.

I think I'm in three KITH's at the moment. The first is a regular knife KITH set for July. The next is a Neo-Tribal KITH. That one is to try and make one out of recycled steel and without all those fancy power tools. You forge the blade, use files and hand sanding to complete it. I've got a design in my head, I just need to get the coal forge out and pound some steel. The last is the Mini KITH. To me this is the best way to get new knives. See Y'all Soon