A Grand Ol’ Time!

On June 1^st we were blessed with a beautiful Grandson named Mathis!  Mother, father and new big brother made it through with flying colors.  Mathis is a wonderful little lad with a good disposition.  We are so glad to welcome him to the family.

I purchased a couple baby bunnies from a friend.  They are so adorable. They are prolific poopers and have grown quite a bit since.  I'm sure y'all will love them. 5/29/15

Here are the final results of a project started at least three years ago.  I wanted railings for the front porch and had an idea to use hog panels in between.  It really turned out better than I had imagined, and has kept those dang chickens off the porch. 6/13/15

Iworked on a pair of knives that require a double sheath.  Many designs were drawn up and tossed out before I got it somewhat figured out. The process of putting it together was kinda rough.  A lot more work was involved than my regular sheaths.  This is one sheath template that I am never throwing out. 6/14/15

Oh Yeah!  Finally got me a Hot Tub/Spa.  A guy in Etheridge, TN was selling it cheap on the Lawrence County Yard Sale site.  I had to get it.  It needs a minor plumbing repair and a place to set.  Think it’s going to be set up under the overhang of the shop.  There is power just inside and that will save me a lot of work.  I can not wait to get this little beauty going.  Next project is a robotic arm to serve me beers while in the hot tub, which will surely take a few years to get to. Or maybe I can just set a keg up next to it.  That sounds like a plan.  6/24/15

Double Knife Sheath

Finished the Skinner/Caper combo knives for Mike and took a few pics before I sent it out to him.  The knives are made from Aldo’s 1095 steel, the skinner is 1/8” thick and the caper is 3/32” thick blades.  The handles were cut from the same block of stabilized Black Ash burl with copper pins and thong tubes.  The sheath turned out to be way more of a challenge than I anticipated but it looks good and fits well.  I am trying to label this picture “Double Knife Sheath” to get it to come up when Googled.  6/25/15

Leslie and I stopped at the Crump Flea Market in Crump, TN on the 4^th of July.  I happened upon 2 pieces of cast iron that followed me home.  One is a medium sized muffin pan and the other is a small griddle.  They have since been seasoned over an open fire and are waiting to be used.  My idea for the muffin pan is line it with bacon and fill with burger and onions.  Making my mouth water already.

Well it’s about time I finish this last post.

That’s about it.  We’ve been working on our party most weekends and hope to have everything ready by then.  It should be a hootenanny to say the least.  Hope to write more about finishing off my new work area in the shop.  There should also be some new knives being completed in between work for the party.  Let's all have a Great Summer!!!

Thanks

Shop-Till You Drop!

I have planned to enclose my main work area of the shop for the last few years.  Yeah years.  After buying supplies here and there I was finally ready to get this thing rolling. My plan was to put up walls and a ceiling so that I could cool or heat the area easily and have a much more comfortable work environment while making knives.  

This journey started with cleaning a spot for the mill/drill.  From there it sorta snowballed. 5/19/15

Took a while to move things out and open things up, but walls are being built. 5/23/15

Here you can see things coming around.  Walls are mostly done and ceiling has been started.  This stuff is heavy! 6/9/15

Trying to gussy the place up a bit so I painted the big shop doors. You can see the difference a little bit of paint makes.  They really look good. 6/16/15

Walls and ceiling are complete.  Lights are up.   Got a used door at a local place and put it in.  Sure makes a difference. 6/21/15

Painted the inside white where I could and painted the floor gray.  It is such a different work area now.  Slowly moving my stuff back in there, but I have to figure out dust removal.  This will come in the near future.  Can’t do everything at once, especially since it took years to start.

 

I gotta say that doing this wore me out!!!  It’s taking some time to actually want to go in and get work started.  Trying to organize as much as I can right away, before I get all the knives going.  Soon enough I won’t even remember what it was like before. 

Next post is some of the stuff that happened recently.

Thanks for watching.

Long Time A’Comin

It has been a REALLY long time since the last time I posted to this here blog.  So I have a few things that happened since the beginning of April. 

 

I’ll try to make most of it as brief as I can.  It will take a few posts though.  Thanks for looking.

Here is a sheath I made for a CRKT folder. 3/30/15

Went to Batson’s Bladesmithing Symposium at Tannehill State Park in Alabama with Chase this year.  Took a few classes, talked with old friends, bought a bit of steel and had a great time.  Didn't put any pics in because I didn't take many.  I do have to say that attendance seemed to be way down.  4/11/15

Built some fencing out of scrap lumber for the front of the property.  After bush hogging the front we could see traffic on Natural Bridge Road so it has to be covered. Still haven't stained them or put them up. 4/16/15

The newest member of the shop is a small Mill/Drill.  The price was right and tooling wasn’t too hard to find.  So far, I’ve been using it to flatten handle material and it does a great job of that. 5/1/15

Mullet patrol at the Hohenwald show.  I just can’t pass up snapping a quick one of a super-mullet. 5/2/15

Here is a Large Hunter with Curly Maple handles and an old timey sheath.  This may just be a knife that I make all the time. 5/10/15

Like so many projects in my shop…this Changing Table was started long ago.  It will be passed around the family as more grandbabies are born.  It was made from Oak and Mahagony.  It should last through years of dirty diapers. 5/12/15

We updated our display at Wild Duck Soup Emporium before the Arts & Ag Tour.  5/19/15

That’s it for this edition…Next up is the updates to my workshop.

Think Spring!

In February I worked on a blade for a guy in California.  We got the design ironed out, the blade started, finished it and shipped it out.  It was a collaboration with two other guys.  The blade steel was Aldo's 1095 with a very short and accentuated clip.  The spine was rounded so the clip had the shape of a tear drop.  This is not a small knife but he is using it as a neck knife.

The handle was finished by Chef Tyler Stone.  The sheath was made by Chris Lambert of SC Holsters.  It turned out very nice and I am glad to be a major part of the collaboration.

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 On my way to Milwaukee, I swear I saw gremlins running on the wing of this SouthWest plane.

  

From Milwaukee I headed further north to Wausau, WI to see my folks.  Luckily I brought some warmer weather with me.  Mother wanted a shot of Da Boyz so we reluctantly got together, muttering razafraz and generally trying to be done with it. (from left- Me, Mike, Dad, Tom and Bob) This was the first time I’d been to Wausau in 8 or 9 years.  Mom and Dad usually came to Milwaukee to see me anytime I came up from Tennessee.

One thing that ticks me off is I am the youngest boy and I’m the only one with gray hair.  

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Here is my lovely wife working the table in Fayetteville, TN at the EVCA spring show. It’s already March 14^th and time for folks to get out and enjoy the weather.

The next week we were in Linden, TN for the seventh annual Blooming Arts Festival.  Friday afternoon was a bit chilly and windy but Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day.  Looks like the only picture I saved was of the Sweet Mullet this guy was sporting.

There were a lot of folks enjoying themselves on Saturday and the weather brought out even more.

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Next up is the April Showers Home and Garden Show in Waynesboro, TN sponsored by the Wayne county Chamber of Commerce.  Leslie will set up there on April 11, 2015.

I will be heading down to Tannehill State Park in Alabama to attend the Batson's Bladesmithing Symposium which is sponsored by the Alabama Forge Council.  It runs from Thursday evening, April 9th through Sunday noon, April 12th.  There'll be more on this in my next post.

A Fresh Start

After all the bugs have left my system and I don’t feel sick any more, it was high time to get my butt out to the shop.  The first thing I did was lay out almost 20 blades on flat stock and cut a bunch of these out after a day long Entrepenurial class sponsored by the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, of which I am a new member. 

When I was getting ready for bed Friday night, I happened to notice that it seemed kinda bright out at 11:30p.m.  Looking out the window there was some white stuff all over.  

This is what I woke up to early Saturday morning.  It looked so pure and clean.  The snow was on every thing…I mean every fence line, branch and surface it could reach.  Lucky for us it only lasted till 10:30a.m.  We've had a pretty warm winter and this was not expected.

This is what I ended up with after cutting, profiling and forging the blades to shape.  Saturday was a very productive day but there is still a lot to do with these.

On Sunday, I ground all of the blades that had been forged.  Once the initial grinding was completed, I decided it was as good a time as any to heat treat and temper this set of blades.

I hope to grind and heat treat the other blades as soon as I can.

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Here’s a few that I just finished.  The top two are hunters.  One has a carved brown  micarta handles while the other has curly maple handles.  The bottom pic shows a Guthook with carved brown micarta handles ready to ship out.

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This year we are trimming down our show schedule.  So far we are pretty sure of the shows that we want to do and will be at for 2015.  These are:

Elk Valley Crafters Assoc.                    March 14

Blooming Arts Festival                         March 20-21

Ames Plantation                                      October 10

Elk Valley Crafters Assoc.                    November 7 or 14?

The Farm School                                      December 5?

Not sure of some of the dates listed.  There may be a show or two stuck in there somewhere but they have to be tried and true.  Those HOT weather shows have not worked for us in the past. 

Thanks to all of you for actually reading this blog of mine.  You are the reason I do this.

The End of 2014 or “WHEW! It’s Finally Over”

2014 finally ended!  It didn’t come fast enough for me.  It was a rough year for me and the critters.  My sweet but stupid cat got into something the weekend before Christmas and needed surgery to stitch up from the corner of her left eye up onto her head.  That makes 3 animal hospital visits for the year.

Leslie found a large cyst on Charlie’s neck and had to take him in the last week of the year.  Not sure what it is yet but it looks hopeful.  He is a good hound dog.

All this isn’t so bad when you look at the BIG picture.  Life has its ups and downs.  If you don’t have any downs you ain’t living right.

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Santa had to work especially hard to get all these knives finished and in the mail to be delivered before Christmas.  From the left we have 2 custom Bird & Trout knives. In the middle is a slim hunter in Desert Ironwood for my son-in-law.  Next is a forged Raindrop Damascus Hunter with Burl handle and last is one of my Altoid Tin knives with a necker sheath dressed up with Curly Maple handles.

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The Bird & Trouts were made for a super guy from Memphis and his son.  He wanted their initials carved into the sheaths, which was a good idea since they were identical knives.  This fellow already had four of my knives, so with these two, makes him own as many of my knives as I do.  He is already anticipating what I’ll have for him at the next Ames Plantation Heritage Festival in October.

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This slimline trapper was made from a Rough Rider Trapper kit that I got for myself a few years ago.  I always felt a little intimidated by folding knives but this was easier to put together than I thought.  Instead of slipping into my front pocket, it was given to my buddy as a Christmas gift.  He does so much to help me that I figured he should have it in his pocket.  It has some pretty Black Ash burl handles with brass liners and bolsters.  I think I’ll have to come up with my own design and make a folder to sell some time in the future.

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My intention each and every year is to upgrade equipment and take things to the next level.  So for 2014, I’ve wanted to have a propane tank installed to run my forge.  It took all year long to make it happen because “Life Happens”.  It is almost ready to crank up the heat.  Not sure what's in store for 2015 yet.

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Our electric co-op, TVEC came around to trim and cut trees along their easements.  It’s on a 10 year cycle so there was plenty for them to cut.  The big cedar and half of my favorite Loblolly Pine fell to their saws along with quite a few smaller trees on our driveway.  It saved me a bunch of work, so I’m letting them dump a few loads of chips across from the shop.  Win – Win.

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When a friend gave me a jar of candied ginger, the first thing I thought of was making a Ginger Mead.  I chopped some of the ginger up, mixed it with some lemon juice, honey and a tea bag.  This mixture was steeped with hot water and left to meld into the base of the mead.  It turned into a 2 ½ gallon batch that looks very refreshing.  Hope some of y’all get to taste this later in the year.

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Someone got a brand spanking new work truck the last week of the year.  It’s a Ford F150 4x4 Extended Cab.  Sorry to see the 2002 Ranger go.  It has taken me to and from work so many times.  I certainly appreciate this perk, and take care of my work trucks.  This pic is before she gets gussied up with running boards, city emblems and other stuff.

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Last thing I want to talk about is a call I received after the Validity magazine article came out.  It was from a gentleman about 15 miles east of Waynesboro.  Tommy was his name and he thinks that we might be kin.  We met for lunch the week before Christmas and had a very interesting conversation.  It seems possible that our great great grandfathers may have been brothers that came to the U.S. in the early 1800’s.  I don’t have much information on the Burns family prior to my great grandfather.  You just never know why things happen.  This will be interesting to find out more info on my family history.

Let’s hope that 2015 is a Fruitful and Prosperous year, with many great days ahead of us all.