Validation

At the Home and Garden show in April, held at the National Guard armor in Waynesboro, I met Becky Jane Newbold of Validity magazine. She asked if Arcadia Knives would be interested in doing an interview for the magazine. As we talked I tried to put the interview off for a while due to construction at work and many other reasons. Again in June I was totally involved with the knife set for my son’s wedding gift. So in October I finally talked with Cody from Validity and did a phone interview. The questions were easy to answer and I felt very comfortable talking to her about making my knives.
 

I thought the article was going to be in the November issue but it apparently was too late to get it in. With great anticipation I waited for the December issue, the Christmas issue, to arrive at Wayne County Chamber of Commerce. As luck would have it, when I stopped in to see if the magazine had arrived, Becky Jane was there and had a bunch of copies with her.

The article was really nice. They were nice enough to put a few pictures in and made me look WAY better than I am. I am so happy it came out this well. Thank You Becky Jane and Validity magazine for validating my work and the work of all the other great artisans in the area.  Keep up the good work.

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2014 started out with my cat having an abscess on her face and needing surgery. I reckon that’s how the year is going to end for me also. Animals! Kato had to be taken to the animal hospital this week with a bite to her face and an abscess over her eye. Here she is knocked out and waiting for the vet to take care of her.  She’s so lucky she catches mice around here to earn some of that hospital bill. Although most people don’t use dead mice as currency. On the bright side, she doesn’t have to wear that awefull cone on her head, bad side is cats don’t like to have medicine injected into holes in their head.  What am i going to do with her?

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I recently got a call from a local lady that wanted some of my bottle stoppers to give as Christmas gifts. These are what I came up with during a long evening working at the wood lathe. They were delivered today and hope they make everyone happy when they are received.

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P.S. As I was writing this post I got a call from a returning customer looking for a pair of Bird and Trout knives for him and his son. He has already bought four of my knives over the last few years and I look forward to making as many knives for him as he wants.  You can never have too many knives.

See y'all this weekend at The Farm Holiday Bazaar in Summertown, TN.  Saturday from 9-4 and Sunday from 12-4.

Leftovers

There was a couple of things that I forgot to put in my last post.

One funny thing that I forgot to mention happened when I harvested the two deer on opening day.  After shooting them I came back to the house to retrieve my two-wheeled deer cart.  It happened to be fairly warm out so I left my bibs at the house, grabbed the cart and headed back out to bring the deer in. 

As luck would have it, I reached for my EDC knife to start field dressing and Whoa!  I left it at the house, in my bibs.  What am I going to do?  Do I run to the house to get it? 

No!  I count 5 more knife blades on my person to work with.  My Kershaw Leek pocket knife is elected to do the job of field dressing two deer.  This knife is super sharp and it has more of a point than I like for gutting, but when a knife maker forgets his own knife you do what has to be done. 

In hind sight, if it happened again I believe that I'll use the smallest blade of my Swiss Army Knife. That would be just to show everyone that it can be done with any knife you happen to have.
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A friend of mine shot a real nice deer on opening day.  When he sent me a picture of it, I asked him if he would take another picture with the knife he used.

This is the 9 point buck he shot.  Looky there!!!  That is the knife I made him a few months ago.  It is a large hunter with Tiger Maple scales and a bit of file work.  He said the knife worked great and held an edge...the way a knife is supposed to.

Congratulations Phil!  Great job.
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This knife was made for Mike in Centerville, TN.  It was sent to him recently and was received with a lot of enthusiasm.  The knife was made from Aldo's 1095 steel, 0.125" thick and sported elk antler handles with toxic green liners.  I used the same design as the JC knife done last year.  While preparing to ship this out, I showed this one to a friend and he ordered on just like it but he wants to supply the deer antler for the handle.  I figured that it was a good design so I'll make one for myself also.  Mine will have Sambar Stag handles and be a little thinner bladewise.

Before it got to Mike he ordered a Skinner/Caping combo that fits into a double sheath.  Then he asked if I had ever made a hatchet/knife combo?  I guess I'll have to design something as long as he is looking.
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Last but not least....

We bought a travel trailer a few months back.  It is a 30' model in decent shape.  We got it for a steal.  Our plans are to use this for guests that come to Arcadia Homestead. 

Yesterday with the help of our great friend Steve, we got it moved to its permanent resting spot on the front 40.  I have been mowing and bush hogging the property preparing for our party next year.  This area will have a great view of the woods and easy access.  We hope to have folks come down and utilize the trailer.

Till next time!

Thanksgiving

There are a LOT of things in life that we have no control over.

This year of 2014 seemed to have more of those things happen than any year before.

Issues occurred in the workshop a week and a half into the new year.

My cat had to have surgery, she had kittens and she was spayed shortly after.

Our 25 chickens decided to go on strike, only laying a couple eggs a day.

The construction project at work took months longer to complete.

Electrical problems at work took a while to fix and I spent a few nights there.

Had to brace cracked floor boards under the house.

And that’s not the half of it!

What does this all have to do with Thanksgiving you ask?

Life happens to everyone.  Without hardships and challenges how thankful would we really be?

Well I am thankful every day for a Loving Wife.

A wonderful family with great children and grandchildren.

So many true friends.

A good job that provides us with the things we need.

Our homestead that gives us too much to list.

My workshop that keeps me out of trouble.

The ability to create and repair things.

Oh yeah…Beer and Scotch!

This list is endless.  The more I think about it the longer it gets.

To me, Thanksgiving is not just my favorite holiday, it is a way of life!

Not a single day goes by that I don’t give thanks and truly appreciate things around me.  I hope your Thanksgiving lasts all year too.

Happy Thanksgiving Y’all!

Show News Is Good News

Nov. 8^th & 9thwas the Elk Valley Crafters Association show in Fayetteville, TN.  It was a Christmas show with folks being brought in by trolley.  This was one stop on the trolley’s tour.

My lovely wife could not go to the show because she was hurting so bad.  A young lad named Michael helped me throughout the show.  There were so many nice folks that stopped by to check out the goods

 

Robert and Peggy came by a couple of times and bought a few things including that cool Manzanita wood neck knife that she’s wearing.

This gentleman brought a knife by and asked if I could shorten the handle because it was a bit too long.  I gladly took it from him and made the repairs over the next two weeks.  He drove all the way from Fayetteville to get the knife from me.

All in all this turned out to be a good show and can’t wait for the spring EVCA show!

The last show of the year will be at The Farm in Summertown, TN.  The dates are December 6 & 7, 2014.  Leslie set up at the show last year while I was in Wisconsin meeting my grandson Henry.  I look forward meeting all the new folks that attend.

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I spent a bit of time in the woods during the muzzle loader season without any luck.  Being outside, in the woods, heightens awareness, calms the spirit and eases all the stresses of life for me.  One observation made is, this happens to be a great year for squirrels.  There will be some squirrel hunting going on soon.

On opening day of the gun season I was lucky enough to harvest 2 beautiful deer.  They were both taken on the same trail to my pond and only 8 minutes apart.  Unlike the deer hunting shows on TV, there was no hooping & hollering.  I quietly thanked the deer for giving themselves to me.  I will process the meat and use as much of the animal as I can.

Long Wait Up Dait

Leslie and I set up for a show at Pinson Mounds State Park just south of Jackson Tennessee on Friday Sept.19^th.  It happened to by “School Day” for Archeofest and let me tell you there were hundreds of really well behaved children that attended the parks festivities.  Someone had asked us to do this show, saying that our goods would fit in with the theme.

This was one of the Native American Dancers that performed at Archeofest!  He looked so cool in his hand made outfit.

We had a great time and the weather was warm and sunny.  There were some interesting vendors selling some cool stuff.  I even did some horse-trading with a few vendors.  Bill the Boyer swapped a hand made river cane arrow for one of my bread knives, Tony the Knapper took an antler turkey striker and a FireStik for two obsidian knife blades he knapped and I traded some alligator embossed leather for some buckskin.  That’s the way things were done in the old days when you didn’t have cash.  It’s still a viable means of getting things you need.

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The week after Pinson I had to head back to Jackson to drop off a sample to a lab.  When I got about a mile from work I was stopped on Hwy 64 by construction.  Looking to my left I notice an orange Kubota skid steer rolling sod down this crazy hill.  You can hardly see it in the center of the pic.  I couldn’t tell if it was tied off to the trees or free wheeling but I’ll tell you that I sure am glad that is not my job.

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Middle of August a guy named Tony from Idaho Falls, Idaho emails me about a couple knives he saw on the internet.  I take a pic for him of my EDC and a template of a knife I just sold to a guy in Arizona.  He looks them over and orders the two knives.  He liked getting pics of the knives in production and I happened to ship them out ahead of schedule which doesn’t always happen.  Can’t wait to hear how they do in action.  He’s a trapper and will use the knives the way I like’m to be used.

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Here’s a new bunch of knives I’ve been working on. 

We have a modified Ol’ Hickory knife with hand stitched rawhide handle.

Damascus Hunter with Elk Antler handle.

Damascus Hunter with Slippery Elm burl handle.

Small Utility knife with Whitetail Antler handle.

Forged File knife with Desert Ironwood handle.

Forged File knife with Tiger Maple handle.

Last but not least is a Railroad Spike knife that I made two days ago using my power hammer.  Handle was twisted and blade forged out first with the power hammer and finshed off using my arm & hammer.

All of these knives come with brown leather sheaths.

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Our good friends at Dunmire Hollow celebrated 40 years as an active community.  People from all over the country came to help with the celebrations.  Saturday Oct. 4^th, Leslie, Julian and I stopped by for a huge potluck dinner and a little fire after dark.  At this point it was so hot there weren't any folks in the picture.  I have no idea how long the festivities lasted because I left at 11:00 pm.  Congratulations to all that were a part of the community throughout the years.

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While I was working in the shop on Sunday, Leslie set up some cans for Julian to shoot with this weak little BB pistol.  He was having a good ol’ time.  So I grabbed my BB pistol and ran over to join in the fun.  Julian learned how to keep it pointed in a safe direction, to keep his finger off the trigger and watch out for things behind your target.

Next weekend is our Favorite show of the year.  The Ames Plantation festival will happen October 11, 2014 between Bolivar and Grand Junction, Tennessee.  Hope to see y’all there.

We have two more great shows after Ames. 

Elk Valley Crafters Assoc. show in Fayetteville, TN runs the weekend of Nov. 7^th.

The Farm School show in Summertown, TN runs the Weekend of Dec. 6^th I do believe.

From Then Till Now

I think I say this every time but it sure has been a long time since the last time I posted here.  We did a couple shows that were very unsuccessful.  People liked everything but the wallets weren’t coming out.  Guess times are pretty tough. 

We did finally put a display in “Wild Duck Soup” shop in Centerville, TN.  Antonia, who runs the shop is a friend of our friends and she has been wanting some of my goods in there for a while now.  Gotta have some guy stuff in there.  Let’s hope it works out for both of us.

Kittens For Sale!!!

My cat Kato had a litter of kittens on April 24^th.  She dropped them behind my hops vines.  All the kittens were females and three of the five had bobtails.  The father was a black bobtail tom that hasn’t been seen since.  We didn’t have any problem finding homes for them as they were pretty darn cute.   After weaning, momma cat was taken in to be spayed so there’ll be no more little ones running around!

Rawhide!

One of my goals for the year was to start making frontier rawhide sheaths.  As seen in a previous post I did make my first deer rawhide.  I purchased a DVD from John Cohea on Rawhide Sheath Construction and watched it a few times.  Next thing to do was make a list from it for proper construction sequence.  There were over 120 steps involved to create one of these sheaths.  It took me close to 10 hours time to put it all together, but I think it really is worth it.  Once you start the process with the rawhide parts, you have to keep working until it’s all stitched up and ready to dry.  After the rawhide is dry it is some tough stuff, almost bulletproof. 

The knife is a full tang bowie, antiqued blade with filework.  Handle is curly maple with acid stain. 

A Matched Set

After that was done I finished the initial grinding on a set of kitchen knives.  These were the first stainless steel blades that I’ve worked on.  They had to be sent out to be heat treated and came back at a 59 Rockwell hardness.  After heat treat all the blades needed to be thinned down on the grinder.  This 154CM seemed to eat up my sanding belts.  They say to use’m like somebody else is paying for’m.  I really had to go through the grits on these blades.  I don’t usually grind as much as on these blades, but it sure was some tough stuff.  If they weren’t for my sons wedding gift I might have given up on them.  The amount of hand sanding was incredible, more than any knives I have ever worked on.  Piles and piles of used sandpaper filled up my wastebasket.  There was literally Blood, Sweat and Tears put into this labor of love.

The set included a 3 ½” paring knife, an 8” slicer, an 8” chef knife, a meat fork, a knife steel and a magnetic strip that all matched.  The handles were made from Manzanita burl, which looks like a redwood type with deep reds and brown coloring.  Handles were attached with Acraglas and stainless corby bolts to give both chemical and mechanical bonds.  Luckily the knife set was finished just in time.  Going to get some better pictures soon.

We drove up to Wisconsin for Sam & Mara’s wedding by way of Janesville, WI to drop off the last of the kittens to my mother in law.  We were getting pretty attached to Lily but was glad to have her gone.

The Hitchin’

Sam and Mara’s wedding was so beautiful.  The wedding ceremony and reception was held at Triglav Park in Norway, WI.   

They make such a wonderful couple!   

The weather was warm…with a jacket on anyway, but such a gorgeous day for them.  A light sprinkle came down after the ceremony which cast a rainbow of the lake.  I do believe they got a few pics with the rainbow.  The pavilion was decorated by Sam’s mom, Andrea, and everything looked great.  She also made soaps for all the guests to take.  Thanks to her for her work.  The dinner was catered by Firemen BBQ.  They brought an old fire truck which is their trademark.  It got stuck in about a foot of mud, but got her pulled out during the dinner.  Their dinner included RIBS, Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin, did I say Ribs? and some fresh hot sausages.  Oh yeah they had some sides too, but I was diggin’ those ribs.  First time ever having ribs at a wedding…SCORE!

The band they had really rocked the party.  They played so many good tunes and played them well.  It was so nice to be a part of something so special.  Sam is a really great man and Mara is such a beautiful caring woman.  I can imagine that they will enjoy a wonderful life together. 

Peace Man

After the ceremony and before the dinner Leslie and I talked with Rev. Paul and his lovely wife Barb.  Paul and I were talking music and he informed me that he purchased the negatives/rights to the pictures of The Beatles performance in Milwaukee, September 4, 1964 at the Milwaukee Arena.  He is a collector of Beatles memorabilia and this helps pay for more stuff.  He told me, after seeing my brochure, that he’d like a peace sign necklace made up for an upcoming Beatles collector show.  He gave me some ideas and from there I created a one-of-a-kind piece that I think he will really like.

The Peace sign is carved from mammoth tusk, or ancient ivory.  At the base I scrimshawed BEATLES into it.  The ivory was inlet into a piece of ebony that came from the Gibson factory intended as a fret board.  I kinda thought the relation between those pieces would bring more meaning to the work.   

Paul’s favorite Beatles song is “Can’t Buy Me Love” so I made a stamped copper keyring for him.  His wife Barb gets a pair of earrings that were made from the wood of the knife at the top of my blog page.

We had a nice brunch Sunday morning at the Boerner Botanical Gardens with Sam & Mara, her dad Mick & Michalena, Bob & Jess with Bobby and Henry.

Hittin' The Road

We headed home at 3:30am Monday June 30^th.  By the time we hit Gurney heavy rains started and did not relent until we got into Indiana.  I was wore out by 7:00am and still had almost 8 hours to go.  We did take our time and just enjoyed the rest of the ride.  After getting home I let Kato out of the chicken tractor where she had been recuperating since being spayed the week before.  That was one happy cat. 

Pickin' Anda Grinnin'

I spent the week working on Paul’s Peace sign necklace and had to work on July 4^th so we didn’t go anywhere to see Fireworks.

On Saturday July 5^th we had a show in Savannah, TN at the 36^th Annual Bluegrass Festival.  This was our first time there and didn’t sell much, but we were impressed by the caliber of musicians that played at the show.  Next year we’ll try to get some friends to go along for the music.

That’s about it for now.  There are two commission knives on the bench that need to be worked on next and a bunch more to put together.   When they are done I will post pics of them.

Put The Hammer Down!

After seven months of rebuilding, refurbishing and great anticipation, my Little Giant Power Hammer has found its permanent location in my shop.  I’ve been moving it around and keeping it lubed up for the last three and a half months. 

First thing I had to do was drill holes in the wooden base and transfer those holes to the concrete floor. 

It was another week before I got the materials to epoxy the bolts into the floor to bolt the base down to.

After the epoxy and bolts were set, I hoisted the hammer up to take the wooden base off.  The base was slipped over the floor anchor bolts.  The washers and nuts weren’t put on until later that night after the epoxy had a few hours to set up a bit.  Full cure usually takes 24 hours or more.

The hammer has found its final resting place. 

Time to “Put the Hammer Down”.  Fired up the coal forge and try it out.  This thing can sure move hot metal.  To me it runs a little too fast.  Might have to tame the beast a wee bit.  I only tried out some thin stock so maybe something a little bigger will work better.

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Hanging Out

Well, I have planned an overhang off the back of the workshop for some time now.  This would be used as a “Smithy” or a place I can use my coal forge.  Materials were gathered wherever I could find them.  Most were recycled or reused. 

With the help of Chase we set four posts and concreted them in on May 4^th.

The next day, Monday, I hung the horizontal members across the posts and along the top of the outside shop wall.

Tuesday I went to buy nails, rafter supports and 2x4’s.  Then I put up the metal rafter supports and cut the rafters to length.

Wednesday I got the rafters set in place and all screwed in.

Finally after climbing up and down those stupid ladders all week, I got all the tin nailed down.  There were a couple fiberglass panels that I put up right over the doorway.  I was completely spent when it was all finished, but glad to have it up.  It ain't no thing of beauty but it will be a cool spot in the summer for me to sit back when things are too dang hot inside the shop.  Total cash investment was about $70. Not Bad!!!

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Cuttin’ Up

Here is a chef knife that I recently finished for a local customer.  This knife really turned out to be a challenge for me.  Things don't always go as planned but challenges make for more learning.  Its shape was taken from a knife the customer liked but wanted in carbon steel.

The blade is 1095 High Carbon steel.

Handle material is stabilized Black Ash burl.

Overall length is 13” with an 8” blade that is almost 2" wide.

I’m sure he’ll be Cuttin’ Up lots of good things with this knife.   

Thanks

Move’Em On, Head’Em Up…RAWHIDE!!!

My latest venture into the knife making world will be to create rawhide knife sheaths.  It started when I saw my first Karen Shook sheath for a Daniel Winkler knife.  It was so freakin’ cool.  There was no way of knowing how the thing was put together or how much work went into it.  Hence the long time in between my first view and now. 

A very nice knife maker in Mississippi named John Cohea thought that type of sheath would fit his knives so he figured out his way of making them.  I recall a few years back when I called John and asked if he could show me how to make them.  He said yes but I never got over there.  He works on a boat so he is gone almost 8 months out of the year.  Well, following him online resulted in finding out that he made a video on “Basic Rawhide Sheath Construction”.  I was lucky enough to order the video before it even came out. 

He gives a thorough demonstration of the entire process which takes him quite a few hours to make.  After watching the videos a couple times so far I decided it’s time to tackle this project.

As with most of my endeavors I try to do as much of it as possible.  So I start out by pulling two deer hides out of the deep freeze.  There’s another on or two in there and a bunch of beaver hides waiting to be turned into something useful.  It takes at least three days for the hides to thaw in the shop fridge.  According to a guy online, he soaks the hide for 24 hours before fleshing the hide.  This gets most of the fat and flesh off so it doesn’t rot.  

Fleshing is a little easier after the soak but it is kinda messy. 

 After getting off what I can the hides go into a barrel with water and wood ashes or you can use hydrated lime.  There they will stay for 7 days, stirring daily to distribute the solution evenly.  The result of this action is to cause all of the hair to slip off. 
 

I thought that this would happen in the barrel and I’d pull out two cleaned hides at the end of the week.  Nope.  I pulled one out and put it on my fleshing beam which is a piece of old pvc pipe that had split in a water break.  All it took to get the hair off was scraping it with an old butcher knife.  I put a garbage bag at the bottom of the beam and all the hair went cleanly into the bag.

Next the hides had to be put into clean water for another 24 hours.  This helps get the lye out of the skin and neutralizes it.  I stirred this every time I passed the barrel.

The next day I built a frame to stretch the hide on.  I pulled one of the hides out and started punching holes along the edge and used jute twine to tie it to the frame.  The process began with two pieces at one end of the hide.  Then I tied up the other end and worked my way around the whole hide.  Everything was stretched as far as it would go.  This helps to thin it out.  You can see in the picture a new tool I made to scrape the hide once it was stretched.  The scraping gets any bits of flesh that I didn’t get off before.  This process took quite a while on the first one.  This hide turned out really nice and it was thin all over.

Hide number two was quite a bit bigger and so darn thick in some places.  It had been in the freezer for at least two years and had some bad spots on it that had to be addressed at the initial fleshing.  The frame for this one measured 5 x 7 feet inside.  It took a bit more elbow grease to get this one stretched out.  The hide had to weigh three times as much as the first.  

  

When I started scraping this hide I was thoroughly disappointed in how little was coming off.  This hide had a lot more stuff attached to it that had to come off.  I had seen a video of a guy using a wire wheel to clean a hide so I got an angle grinder out and gave it a try.  OMG!!!  What a quick way to clean it.  There was the drawback of stuff flinging all over the place.  Next time I’ll do this outside.  It was raining so I’ll use that as an excuse.  It had to have saved me at least two hours of work.

Now the hides have to dry for a while.  The small one is probably ready to work with but there is a lot of stuff going on right now so it will be a couple weeks before I tackle the rawhide sheath itself.

Leslie will be at the Hole-In-Wall Show in Hohenwald, TN this Friday and Saturday, May 2&3.  I will set up a small table at Ace Music Fest on Saturday May 3^rd.