After The Show

The 3rd annual Blooming Arts Fest on March 19th 2011 was not a great success for me. It started out a bit colder than everyone anticipated. The crowd seemed to be smaller than last year and the wallets were tucked in a little further. Overall it was still a good day for being outside as the weather warmed up and crowds became more plentiful. Everybody seems to like my knives a lot, with very positive comments. Many stand there and admire but won't pick them up. It's also hard to sell a well priced hand crafted item when a vendor is selling chinese made knives for $3 just down the way.

This economy needs a kick in the pants. How can a hardworking individual making a decent product compete with low quality low priced junk? I guess a huge factor is this area of Tennessee. Perry county is about the poorest county in the state. Wayne county to the south is a poor county too. Events like the Blooming Arts Fest brings people in from all over. There really needs to be more draws to the area. Enough of my tirade.

A lot of wonderful people stopped by to chat, look and a few even bought things. Friendly faces from last year came to look at the new items I had. I didn't have jewelry at the show in 2010 so selling some pieces made it worth it. New knives (in picture) with my home-made micarta was very fascinating to many.

All in all, it may not have been as good as expected, but getting my stuff out there and meeting new people is a great way to spend a beautiful day in Tennessee.

Shown in the pics are the knives I got ready for this show. There are 6 hunters with different colored handles, 2 utility knives, a tactical knife and a knife with a forged tail on it. They are surrounding my new brochure which was an Xmas present from my wonderful wife. The other pic is of a bunch of knife blanks I have on the bench. I'm doing some larger camp type knives. They have been fun to do so far and I hope they are a hit.

Spring Is Here!

Can't believe it's the middle of March already. Next weekend is the first show of the season for me. The Blooming Arts Festival in Linden, TN will hopefully start out a prosperous year for this knife maker. I have been busy in the shop getting some knives ready which stared with making my own micarta handle material. The micarta turned out well, with the hippy micarta especially cool. I know I'll have to make more of this as it seems to tickle a lot of people's fancy. There will be 12-15 knives on the table along with my jewelry. This show, last year, was my first real show and was considered a success. So many nice people came by our tent to check out my wares. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and bestow upon us a wonderful sunny day.

More to come following the show.

Last year for my son's birthday I made a belt buckle for him. It was designed with one of his passions in mind. That passion is bicycle riding. As for me I put on way too miles as a kid and those seats aren't very comfy to this old tush. I'll leave the riding to those that enjoy it. After aquiring some old bike gears I set out to create a buckle he might like. It took a bit of gear swapping until I found the combination I was looking for. A few of the gear teeth had to be cut off the top and bottom of the piece so his belly wouldn't be punctured. Next I had to weld on a bar to attach the belt to and a hook for the hole. It was actually after Sam's birthday before it was sent to the chrome plater. There it sat for almost 4 months. Well I just got it back and it looks AWESOME! I really hope he likes it. He should get the package on March 12th. The picture doesn't quite do it justice.

Well that's it for now. We'll be back soon to show some of the finished knives and sheaths before they go to the show.

Earlier today Japan had an 8.9 earthquake and tsunami that wiped out a lot of stuff. Maybe that old end-of-the-world-thing actually is happening.

KITH

A few days after finding Red I received an email from Stacy Apelt. He is in charge of the 2010 Knife In The Hat (KITH) on Bladeforums.com. Was my knife ready? What knife? Oh yeah. I signed up for this KITH in July on the forum. Luckily I did have a knife ready for the exchange. It happened to be a “Bee & Trout” that I made for a friend that wanted a skinner instead. This was a small forged knife that was crazy sharp and felt like a scalpel in the hand. All I needed to do was make a sheath for it and it would be ready to ship. The guy this knife was going to is Justin Reeder (ClemsonReeder) in Summerville, SC. It shipped out Dec. 9th, I hope he likes it.



So in the KITH you don’t know who is sending you a knife. The names are drawn at random and it is the luck of the draw. Well, after a long day at a really slow Holiday Bazaar Dec. 11th in Linden, TN I stopped to get the mail in a downpour. There was a bow inside waiting for me. Everything had to be unloaded from the truck before being ruined in the rain. With the work done I got my chance to open the box from Dan Pierson. Inside was a beautiful Nessmuck style knife that Geioge Washington Sears would have been happy to carry. It has lightly spalted stabilized curly maple handles, a 3/32” A2 blade that shaves and is accented with copper pins. This is a really awesome package that I will cherish for years to come.

Red Dawn

The day after Thanksgiving I had to work at the turd factory. Being a holiday I decided to hunt a couple hours before heading to work. Just as hunting time started I saw what I thought was “The Fox” coming towards me. That is until I saw the tail wagging as it came down the trail. This was a dog, messing up my hunting, and it proceeded to set it’s furry butt down right at the base of the tree I was in. I yelled and cussed and spit at the trouble maker to no avail. It wasn’t going nowhere. When I got down outta the tree this young red dog was waiting for me like she knew me. She followed me home and passed a couple dog tests. Those were…getting along with Charlie and not bothering the chickens. She got a good bill of health from the vet and is now my new shop dog. She is the dog I’ve been looking for, for quite a while. Guess I have no choice when she found me. I named her simply Red.

Tusks and Boogers

Tusks- A while ago, I showed the scrimshawed sperm whale tooth to my friend Dan Shaw and he expressed interest in making a trade for a pre ban tusk that he had. You might be able to see it's broken, but to me it is some nice handle material. I was happy to trade and can’t wait to see it on a knife. Maybe I’ll make the knife that actually inspired me to make my first knife. It was a blued hunter with wrought iron bolsters and ivory handles that was raffled in a magazine back in the ‘90s. Who knows? Do I need another knife? YES!
Dan also makes these cool walnut boxes with burl tops that a knife just might fit into. He offered a few to me for help in finishing them. Dang I like to barter and trade. What have you got that I can use? They will look cool on my show table.



Boogers- For the gift exchange at the city shop I got Boogers(Jason) name to buy for. I grabbed a knife blank off the bench and cut up some G11 for the handles cuz they are booger green. It is a 6” EDC with G11 handles and copper pins & thong tube. The sheath for it was done in leather even though kydex was my first choice. That little knife sharpened up real nice. Hope he likes it and uses it. Paul drew my name and got me a Camo Jacket. Dee gave me a Carl Schlieper Sodbuster knife with yellow delrin handles and brass liners. Another wonderful day.

Thanksgiving

So much has happened in the last 6 weeks that I have to be thankful for. The best thing first. It's 7a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 17th. I get a call from my daughter. She is getting ready to go to the hospital to deliver her first baby. The baby can't seem to wait cuz he's a month and a day early. Milwaukee here I come! Airline tickets were purchased, and the trip north started about 1:00p.m. By the time I got to Nashville airport she already delivered Little Bobby aka Robert Patrick Olin at 3:05p.m. My plane touched down in Milwaukee at 8:45 and I was picked up by my son Sam. We headed to the hospital where I got to see my beautiful new grandbaby, my daughter Jessie and Bob. The baby was so small and seemed so fragile but he caught on to that feeding thing pretty quick. He only weighed in at 5 pound 2ounces. Both baby and mother were in great health...such a relief. Life is very precious. Bobby spent a week in the hospital to make sure he was ready to face that big ol' world out there. He's right in track and growing like a weed. Can't wait to see him again. I miss y'all a lot.

I spent the next few days buzzing around. Up to the hospital as often as possible and going out with Sam. BTW Hangovers are worse as you age! My folks came down to see the baby and it was nice to see them. My sister let me stay at her house a couple nights which was nice. I just don't get to see family and friends very often. Going to the city is nice but I need to get back to the country before too long.

Running At The Speed Of Life

Hey Ya'll! Can't believe it's been 5 months since I wrote anything here. With the summer being so long and hot it was nearly impossible to spend any amount of time in the shop. Most days I'd go out for a little while and hammer out some copper for new jewelry. Didn't do much knife work at all. WAY TOO HOT. Now with summer behind us and a beautiful fall upon us it's time to get things going again.

Leslie and I hit the road to Grand Junction, TN on October 9th for the 13th Annual Ames Plantation Harvest Festival. It was a long 2+ hour drive to get there and it was worth it. Once we arrived we had a wonderful breakfast provided by the show coordinators. Our tent was set up all by it's lonesome along a split rail fence. It turned out to be a great spot as most people had to walk past us. This was the first time we dressed somewhat in period clothing too.

You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was sunny with a high of 85. The coolest thing was a cannon going off every 30 minutes or so. You never knew when it was going to happen and BOOM! people were jumping out of their skin. Then everyone started to talk loudly.

There was a steady stream of people all day long stopping to check out my wares. Fire Stix and Chimes were the best sellers as usual. Jewelry did well and I sold 3 or 4 knives. A good time was had by all. As it turned out this may have been a better choice than the Meriwether Lewis Festival. Our friends Doug & Claudia of Sunart Studios may join us next year at the show.

I couldn't get myself motivated to restock my inventory for a handful of days. Only problem with that is the next show is less than two weeks away. So I kinda took it easy until after Leslie left for Milwaukee on Oct. 14th. She gave daughter Jessie a baby shower for our newest grandbaby. I wish I could have gone up there with her cuz I sure do miss my kids. Things went well up north, while I spent my time working on stuff for the upcoming Alabama Renaissance Faire.

In the last week I came up with new items to sell. Diamond Knife Sharpeners with antler handles, sewing seam rippers with antler and leather barrettes for the fair maidens. We'll probably come up with more ideas at the Ren Faire. Hopefully things will sell and we have a medieval time.

After the Ren Faire it is Deer Hunting time which I'm very psyched about. Muzzle Loading starts November 6th and we'll be out trying to put meat in the deep freeze. On Nov. 13th I've got a homebrew class scheduled and it looks like there'll be 6-10 guys here for that. Should be fun for everyone. It's great teaching stuff and what could be better than making beer and drinking it too. After these guys brew a batch or two I'd like to have a beer tasting/judging day with all the different homebrews. Gun Deer starts Nov. 20th. Then it's already Thanksgiving. We shall be eating one of the three turkeys we've raised here at our place. What a wonderful holiday...no material expectations. Just people enjoying mother earths bounties, and oh yeah, hunting. The Artisans of Wayne County will be having a show to hawk our wares for christmas.

Take Care