August
The glacial pace of work in the shop has continued since my
last post. I have managed to make a few
things though.
Back in March, I talked about clay tempering and slowed a
couple of blades. Well, I finally got
around to finishing 2 of them.
The tanto (AR67) has a
hammered titanium guard, Macassar Ebony and stacked leather handle, and brass
Raaen pins.
The drop point hunter (AR68) also has a hammered titanium guard,
and a desert ironwood handle with brass Raaen pins.
Now, you may not have heard of Vernon and Helen Raaen of
Tennessee, and they don’t have much of a web presence, but their son Nial was
my next door neighbor growing up and helped inspire my desire to make
knives. When his father passed away,
Nial, knowing that I made knives, offered me a bunch of pins in a variety of
sizes, so expect to see them on a lot of my work in the future, if I ever
manage to produce a lot again. Thanks
again Nial, and thanks to Vernon and Helen as well. One of their chef’s knives is still in daily
use in my kitchen.
Turning projects….
I had thought I was done with my bolt action pens, but found
that I had three more. So I made and
sold those also – amboyna burl, macassar ebony, and black ash burl.
At request I also
made a matching ball point and fountain pen set out of kingwood.
I can’t believe that it has been almost 4 months since I
turned a bowl – but I was getting kind of board with those also. I had a series of pieces split, crack, or
generally break on me, and that soured me a little bit. I was dreaming that I would put 20-30
together and give them as Christmas presents.
Maybe I will start up again one of these days, I think I’m about a third
of the way there. I do still have quite
a bit of wood left over.
Oh yeah, I finished up another ice cream scoop in Macassar
Ebony.
Back in March/April when I was working on the bowls, I
bought a replaceable carbide tipped roughing tool for my shop. It is amazing how much faster and easier it
is to work with that hard and sharp of a tool.
I’m pretty sure that without it, I wouldn’t have finished quite so many
bowls. I haven’t tried sharpening the
bits with my diamond sharpener, but I’m hoping that I can extend the life of
them just a little bit.
Upcoming projects…
I started working on a new pepper grinder – and had to
repair my salt grinder as well. So
hopefully I will finish that soon, and post them together.
I have the 2nd Tanto blade, that I would like to
get a handle on soon. I’d like to make a
slightly fancier guard rather than just the beaten titanium, but I’m not quite
there yet, nor do I have a design. I
also haven’t figured out what I want to do with the handle. I might try for traditional Japanese style
(rayskin, silk cord) since I have those, and haven’t done it yet; but I really
haven’t decided yet. I also have some
more modern materials that might work well – m3 volcanic black ash, white
canvas micarta. We’ll see. Might depend on how the guard turns out.
I also want to make a Kindjal. Double edged but curved – did I mention how
much I dislike making double edged knives, and here I am,wanting to do
another??
I must be crazy!
I also turned 40 this month.
