Red Eye

A horrible thing happened to my little red dog. At the end of the first week in January Leslie and I noticed Red’s right eye was fogging up. Took her in to the vet and he gave her some antibiotic ointment to put in her eye. Well about a week later we noticed it get worse so I took her back to see the vet. Another medication. This time he added a powerful dilater to put in with the ointment. Not sure how well it’s working because her eye is still glazed over. It’s just not quite as bad a before.

One Friday, Leslie said her right eye was blurry. When I looked I noticed it was totally dilated. We kind of freaked and called a local eye doctor and asked if he could look at her eye. When he found out that the drops she put in the dogs eye had a red cap he walked her out of the office and said that she must have rubbed a little bit into her eye. She should be fine in a couple days, and she was.

After more than 3 weeks putting meds in the dogs eye, I’m thinking that it isn’t going to get better and she might be blind in one eye. It stinks but she can still see and I’ll be taking her with me to my camp soon enough.

Spring???????

While walking to the house from my work truck on Feb. 4^th I noticed something outside of the chicken coop. It was bunches of daffodils blooming away. Their usual appearance is the last week of February. Guess that makes it spring officially. I have also seen my Bartlett Pear tree sprouting leaves. Let’s hope this isn’t a setup for a killing frost.

Kinda cold today with overnight lows in the low 20's with a high of 36 tomorrow. Hope it doesn't kill everything.

What's New?

I've been trying to get shop time in as much as possible. Along with the order for Donna came a bunch of cut out blanks. Going to build a lot of EDC(Every Day Carry) knives this year since the smaller ones seem to go out the door quicker. They will mostly be set up with kydex sheaths because they retain the knives very well. Another knife I'm making is the P.A.T. Knife which stands for Pat's Altoids Tin Knife. These are made, without handles, to fit in an altoids tin that so many people use for mini survival kits. Leslie fell in love with them right away and hers will be the first.

I started on a huge chopping knife for myself. This thing is really a beast and it is taking forever to grind all that material off. The sheaths I recently made for myself fit my mini bowie and the Xmas KITH knife I received. Both sheaths were firsts for me. The sheath for the mini bowie is made for horizontal carry and the sheath for the KITH knife is a dangler.

On one of the forums is a Military Build Off. Aldo supplied the steel for 50 knives to be cut out by water jet and these were passed on to volunteer knife makers to grind the blades. Then either the maker could heat treat themselves or Peter's HT volunteered to do it. I was first going to do it myself but opted for Peter's so I could send along a knife of my own to check out his work.

The purpose of the build off was to gift custom made knives to new recruits or family members in the Marines. The knife I make will be going to newly decorated Sgt. Edmundson prior to his special operations training that starts in May of this year. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Xmas Show Knife

At the Pickwick show in December I sold one of my knives to a kind fellow that is into fur trade era re-enactment. The knife he picked was initially designed as an ergonomic paring knife. It sported a wharncliff blade that was shaving sharp and a handle that rested in the hand real nice. Nick picked it up and decided it was going to be his new patch knife and I was obliged to sell it to him. He wanted a sheath, and as a paring knife it was naked- no sheath.

Well I told him I could make one but couldn't get it done till after all the holidays were over. Nick was in no hurry. I pondered many sheath designs for this knife because it was essentially a backwards blade design. Along with his knife sheath I had two sheaths I wanted to make for myself. This would allow me to work on multiples instead of just one.

What I came up with for him was a pouch sheath that could be used different ways as I wasn't sure how he wanted to carry it. It has two holes punched at the top to wear as a neck knife or to lace on to his possibles bag with a hole at the bottom also to lace on. I attached a belt loop so it could be worn on a belt or attached horizontally to a strap.

The nicest part was that he and his wife came by the shop to pick it up and we got to talk for a while. He is also sending me some historical information on a certain fur trade knife he had obtained some time ago. I really look forward to learning more about historical knives.

Order Up!

So here we are, it's only the beginning of February and I'm making another post. The knives from the last post are finished, out the door, to my friend and I'm sure they are in the hands of the gifted ones.

Both of these knives were very similar. One had a straighter spine and a tad shorter blade. They both had kydex sheaths that were made to be worn as a neck knife, slipped onto a belt in a high ride or worn scout style(horizontal).

They were made of 1095 high carbon steel with brown micarta handles, brass pins and brass thong tube.

Thanks for the order Donna and I hope they were well received.

Thus starts the New Year 2012

Not being one to make resolutions, I have instead decided to take steps both forward and back in my knife making.

I will strive to move forward in quality and craftsmanship.

Move back a bit in style. A little more old school.

More forged blades.

More Every Day Carry (EDC) knives.

Try to start a website.

Play out in the woods more for survival skills.

Knife testing of mine and others knives.

Make upgrades to some of my equipment.

Bring more information to my blog in a timely fashion. Wish I had an assistant.

I have already received an order for two knives from a friend and am working to complete them by a certain deadline. Things are right on track and I have taken a picture of the blades. They have only had a little hand sanding..more to go, and handle material picked out.

Mike-another blogger read my blog when I signed up for his newsletter, is also interested in a custom knife. He is at thebackyardpioneer.blogspot.com, I'm sure some of my readers might be interested in his blog too.