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.