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.

Dick Stockfords Review Of My Knife

This is what Dick Stockford posted on KnifeDogs.com about the knife I sent to him. Read On:

If you haven't tried a KITH...

you don't know what you're missing! Last year, with barely a year of knife making under my belt, I sent off a fighter I was reasonably proud of and held my breath. It seemed well received and I got a great little cutter in return. This year I sent a small hunter in a style I'm comfortable with and got a camp knife in return. I had studied the picture Patrick posted and thought, "hum, truncated blade, small handle, not so glitzy... probably be a good user..." The knife arrived today and... I can't seem to put it down! This knife begs to be taken into the deep woods (or combat) and it speaks to me of life and death, old fashion values and absolute reliability. It has the feel and balance that I have tried, and failed, to find for my own large knives, and I'm sure it will become my life-long companion.

Thank you, Patrick. And thanks to Sean and all the KITH participants. And to those of you who haven't tried, come on in, there are some great knives here!

I got older... still waiting for wiser to kick in

YeeHaw! Got my knife from Larry Franklin yesterday. He asked me to review the knife to help him make higher quality knives. So Larry there is nothing I'm going to say that is in any way meant to be destructive criticism. I have merely made observations and pointing out things that can be looked at more closely on future knives. So here goes.

-The knife is packaged in a priority envelope. It would have fit in a small flat-rate priority box to offer more protection for the same price.
-I noticed that the sheath was dyed after stitching. If you dye before putting it together it will look more professional.
-Tip of the knife is thick and that's OK except the edge is thinner down the rest of the blade. We try to keep things consistent to achieve good edge geometry.
-Appears to be a little separation at the front of the handle between steel & liner.
Believe me I have had these same things on my own knives.

Whew! Now on to the GOOD stuff.
-I LOVE the knife! I put it on my belt after initial observations and it ain't coming off.
-Sheath looks good. Nice stitching, holds tight and simple the way I like.
-The amboyna burl handle looks gorgeous. Excellent wood choice.
-Knife feels good in the hand.
-Finish on the blade is real nice. Just the way I like it.

Overall my Li'l Bush is a Great knife. It is well made by a maker who cares about his product. The whole package is something that I will use over and over. I really can't wait till the chiggers and ticks are gone to run around the woods with it. The picture shows my new KITH and a new knife clipped in my pocket. It's a Kershaw Leek that I got from Knife Rights for joining their organization. Somehow my Kershaw Blur has been misplaced. Hope to find it soon.

Larry, Thank You my friend! I am thoroughly satisfied with my KITH from you. Don't think I could have received any better knife.

Busy Busy Busy...

Hey Y’all! Time again to report a few things.

Last time I posted was just before going to Blade Show 2011. Winning the free trip was AWESOME! The hotel was great and the staff was so helpful. I took my buddy Dan Shaw along with me and he got to drive there and back. We got to the show about 11:00am and hung around for a while before calling Marty McClure of KnifeBroker.com to let him know we were there. He wanted to take a picture to put on the KnifeBroker.com website and also for the Blade.com newsletter. I of course am wearing the camo shirt in the pic. As luck would have it we were escorted into the show at 11:45am, 15 minutes before opening although you couldn’t tell by all the commotion going on in there. I don’t think I can even tell you what I looked at for the next 5 ½ hours. It was total sensory overload to say the least. So many KNIVES!!! Pretty sure the first few hours were spent quickly going through so I could come back to my favorites. Got to meet a few KnifeDogs, which was nice.

There were two particular guys that I got to meet whose work I believe is Outstanding. They were John Cohea and Karl Anderson. John makes period pieces with rawhide wrapped sheaths. He also produced a really nice video on the construction of that style sheath, and he said a Friction Folder video would soon be out. Can’t wait to get my copy. Karl Anderson makes beautiful bowies and makes most as take-aparts. His work is amazing and he is a very nice man. I talked to a lot of good makers and didn’t get to talk to as many good makers as I wanted.

Saturday was an extremely busy day at the show. Met up with some friends from the Southern Bladesmith’s group. Glenn Moulton and Paul McGowen came up for the day and we had lunch together with a few more guys. Paul dumped about 30 pounds of steel on me when they left at 2:30 so I carried this towel wrapped weight around for another 2 ½ hours. I never got to the pit Friday or Saturday but I Will get there next time I go to the show. It’s pretty much impossible to describe the show because something is happening at every table.

After returning from the Blade Show I had to start getting my Knife In The Hat(KITH) ready and prepare for my trip to St. Louis. First for the KITH I decided to go with a blade I’ve had on the bench for a while. It was a camp style blade 3/16”thick, close to 11” long and almost 1 ½” wide. There is a snake filed into the spine. It is taking hours of hand sanding to get it where I want it to be. I took it to 1000grit on the blade before putting the handle on. The handle was about 70% ready before my trip.

Meet Me In ST. Louis

My son Sam and I decided to get together. We hadn’t seen each other since last November when Li’l Bobby was born. So we wanted to meet at a halfway point for a weekend visit. After calling my sister Linda, she was happy to let us to stay with her for the weekend of June 25th. A great time was had by all. Sam & I had Pappy’s BBQ to start the trip and walked around the Arch while Marines Week was going on throughout the city. There was lots of cool weapons and vehicles for everyone to check out. Then we went to a Cardinals game. Sunday we went to the City Museum which was awesome. It would turn any adult into a kid for sure. Lots of fun stuff in there. The rest of the day was spent eating bacon wrapped venison backstraps, veggies on the grill then having a few cocktails and relaxing. Long trip home. I was close to home when my wife texted me that two of her cousins were stopping by for two days. She was very excited. Me too.

When I pulled into my drive I checked the mailbox. There was a knife in waiting for me to inspect. This was Ernie Swanson’s pass around knife and it was my turn to beat it into submission. For the next week I put it through a number of tests to scrutinize the integrity of the knife. It held up to the punishment and was passed on to the next man on the list.

KITH & Cousins

Joyce and Tina, along with Tina’s boys Max and Sam showed up Tuesday morning. They were in Virginia, headed our way then back up to Wisconsin for a fun trip. They had a great time eating pulled pork, fresh eggs and chasing chickens around. Sam was very funny and Max was interested in my workshop. He even hand sanded the oxidation off of the copper pins I was using for the KITH knife. We were sad to see them leave and they said they’d be back to enjoy a little southern hospitality. Max check out the picture of the knife you helped with and please email me your address. I have something for you and Sam. The knife handle was glued up before they left but it wasn’t finished for a couple more days. The sheath took me a week and a half. I really had to go slow cuz it was the first lined sheath I’d attempted.

4th of July

By decree of the City Manager I was to set up my booth at the holiday celebration put on at the city park. It was a slow day for sales but we met some real nice folks there. I had to work on the 4th then I processed 9 remaining meat chickens. A wicked storm whipped through the county knocking over or twisting the tops off of thousands of trees. We were very lucky at Arcadia Homestead. One branch fell and just bumped the roof of my shop over the back door with almost no damage. Many others weren’t so lucky.

KITH

KITH

I finally completed the knife and sheath on July 9th. That turned out to be more work than my regular sheaths. Everything looks good and it’s ready to go. Finally! Names were picked July 15th and my knife goes to Dick Stockford of Bangor, Maine. I am sure it’s going to a good home. Hope he gets some use out of it and will give me some feedback on the knife. It has been shipped out to New England. Maybe he’ll kill a moose with it…yeah. Now that would be cool.

The knife I am about to receive was made by Franklin of Stoughton, Wisconsin. It is a little bush knife, made of D2 and has an amboyna burl handle with white liners.(No sheath in pic) We All like a little bush. Can’t wait for it to get here. I will post something after playing with the knife. Maybe I’ll even run with it. Franklin wants an honest opinion about the knife so I’ll put’er through the ringer. More soon folks………..

Redneck Security System

Thought I’d throw in this picture of a store down the road. They’ve been parking the truck up to the front door to keep people out at night. Now that’s redneck!

Other Creations of Mine

This blog will only represent some of what I make. So if you haven't seen my booth setup at a recent show you haven't got the whole picture. Which by-the-way wasn't taken at the last show. The more things I make, the more things I'll theoretically sell. Right?

One of my Hottest sellers, literally, are my Fire Stix. These are 1/4" ferrocerium rods with antler handles..for now. I'll be turning some out of wood soon. These things spark like crazy man. They can be used in wet conditions and throw a 2000+ degree F spark. I use mine to start my campfire all the time. After building my tepee of thin sticks, I usually put pine needles in the center surrounding a little t.p. A few scrapes with the back of a knife blade or other piece of scrap metal and "POOF" Blow on the smouldering sparks and your fire is started. They make perfect gifts for that person who has everything, scout, pyromaniac or that backwoods camper you know. Take one if you go to Alaska! That Bic lighter won't work if it's too cold. Keep one in your B.O.B.(bug out bag) The display was made from a nice piece of walnut. I burned the "Fire Stix" into it with pieces of scrap knife blade cutoffs.


The thing I've made for the longest amount of time are my Silverplate Wind Chimes. They have such an awesome tone to them. I always tell customers that they are the only chime I'll have because most others have an obnoxious sound about them. Even in a storm my personal set of chimes tinkles rhythmically with the pulse of the wind. They are made with old silverplate knives, spoons and forks. If you have some from your grandmother and would like to share with other family members I would be ecstatic to make a few sets for you from your families old set. I hear a LOT of people say "psst we could make those ourselves psssst psst" but it took some time to get it right. They make great homewarming gifts. The display for these is a pole clamped to the table with a 4 way head to hold about 10 chimes.


The Key Rings I make start out as a shoulder bolt that I cut, grind the sides flat and drill the hole for the ring. As with ALL my antler products, there is a lot of work involved trying to find what I think are the right pieces to fit the product. The bolt is heated to red hot and coated with beeswax before it's epoxied to the antler. The display uses an antler on a piece of walnut to hang them.

At the suggestion of a customer I came up with an antler handled Sewing Seam Ripper. They work well and people are buying them. As with most of my creations I designed and built the little display unit.

We do some heritage shows and they usually ask that you dress up in period clothes. NO not THAT kind of period! I'm talking about clothes from the 1800's or so. Well some of the things I make pertain to the old days. I've had muzzle loader items on the table for quite a while. Most people quizzically ask what the heck a couple things are. They are Ball Starters and Shot or Bullet Boards. Ball starters get the lead ball started into the barrel of the rifle before you use the long ramrod. I make these with a large piece of antler with a 1" and 3" oak dowel. The shot/bullet board is an old timey speed loader. Made from wood, these hold a number of patched balls ready to put into your rifle barrel with the ball starter. Recently I've added an antler handled Leather Awl to the muzzle loader supply although they can be used by any leather worker. They're small and fit well in the hand. I start these with an 1/8" piece of steel rod and grind them to a point. Then they're mated with an ergonomic piece of antler.

Everyone needs a good portable Diamond Sharpener for all their knives and other cutting devices. Mine sport a good sized antler handle for a good grip while sharpening. These have have a flat and round sides for a multitude of sharpening uses.

I recently started turning wood with an old Sears lathe I got at a yard sale. After getting the thing to actually work, it turned out to be an enjoyable new hobby. No pun intended. I signed up for the IAP-International Association of Penturners forum to get some insight into this venture. My idea is to mesh my knife making with the wood turning. Still working on ways to cross them over. Anyway, while playing around I came up with the idea of Keepsake Magnets. You know refrigerator magnets. Everyone uses them. Why not make some with the super strong rare earth magnets I have sitting out in the shop. They are small but can hold a bunch of stuff to the ol' keepsake fridge. The display is a recycled piece of steel from an old file cabinet attached to an aluminum rod, stuck into a piece of walnut. Wanted customers to see how strong these magnets are while keeping the display small.

Then there's the Pens. Pens are cool and the Pen/Sword thing makes them go together naturally. It seems my table was lacking something in the price range between jewelry and my knives. There are so many cool woods in my shop and a lot of other materials to use. So far Antler is my favorite medium for pens. I just have to come up with some new ways to deal with it. People want to buy stuff they just have to have things with the right dollar amount on them to let the cash go. My sincere intention is to bring some of my knife making materials and techniques to pen making. There is so much for me to figure out, so I'll just keep practicing in the mean time and put a few pens out on the table to sell. My pen display was made entirely from oak. The base is solid oak, the top part is oak plywood and the uprights are oak dowels. Everything was sitting in the shop just waiting to come together.

Guess I gotta get my Jewelry on here as soon as I can. Hope y'all like what I'm doing here. It really is a LABOR of Love. I have to get a few knives done soon then it's pretty much jewelry season in the shop. It's far easier to work on a piece of jewelry in the heat than it is a knife. Although now turning can be done a little at a time too.

Thanks for reading!