The last couple of weeks have been slammed packed with a variety of things…. From training, teaching, traveling and tidying up my shop. And working on some knives!
Training
I spent several days with another knife maker “Bill” who has over 40 years of experience, and some really nice tools 😉 I have learned a lot from Bill and He lives pretty close so I will be working with him a lot! I hope to do some traveling one day and continue to learn new techniques along the road. I love meeting other knife makers. Here is one of Bills Toys, I hope to have some more toys in the future!
Teaching
I had talked to Jack Spirko about attending the Battery Bank Workshop he was having, but didn’t think I had the time. Well I wasn’t really planning on going, but after reading his blog post where he mentioned that I might possibly being there, I decided I probably should. 😀 LOL And boy am I glad I did! It was a great time and what was going to be just dropping in for a day turned into 3 days of FUN! I sharpened what seemed like a million knives and even taught people how to sharpen. One thing is for sure, be prepared if you go to a gathering of Survival minded people and offer free sharpening, there are less knives in a commercial kitchen than a gathering like that. Whew!
Coffee with Jack
Chris Starr and His Birds!
STAKEHOLDERS!
One of the main reasons I made the trip was to meet some of your fellow stakeholders! I was so thankful to get to meet 5 Stakeholders. That was worth the whole trip! Also got to meet Bryan Black From ITS Tactical . I am going to be working on a knife for him soon.
Traveling
While I was half the way there I swung by Mexico for a couple of days. I had some things to take care of and was hoping to find some materials while down there.
After a week on the road, I was glad to get back home to the family and get back to making knives. I am still working on my custom orders. There are so many things to do around here and things are only going to get busier with spring coming! My Wife and Children tapped our maple trees today, we have seeds to start and our chickens will start arriving soon!
Tidying Up
As if things aren’t busy enough I am trying to organize my shop to make it more productive. This means building new workbenches, shelves, and getting everything in its place.
Chopping some angle iron for the workbench.
When in doubt, Build it Stout!
I love to overbuild everything 😉 this work bench is 3 inches thick with 2in angle Iron lagged together. I will be welding some 2in square tubing together for the legs. I hope to build two more like this one for my knife grinder. You can never have enough workbench!
Solid work bench
Oh yeah, and while I was at Jack’s we shot some footage testing out the heat treat of “The General” and I was impressed! It cut through 3 pennies with no problem and very little blade damage. This would definitely be what I would consider abuse – but it is a good test. Check out the video here Cutting Pennies
Stay tuned until next time!!
I wish I knew you were passing through Juarez – I could have hosted you in exchange for some knife sharpening. Give me a heads up if you come back through. #48.
Yeah me too… man I should of looked at my contacts. Next time I will look you up for sure!
Thanks for the update, Patrick! Glad to hear you were able to get away from the grind…hehe…to make it down to Jack’s. Best wishes.
Man, where is the vids of the Wang Bottle??? At least you could pay homage after defiling the sanctity of the vessel… we did some vigorous wangage… and you’re air-assist proved to go above & beyond with hall-of-fame caliber wangs… cheers,
I will have to go through them sometime and post one. 🙂 I have a replacement for you next time we get to Jack’s