September roaring in like a lion?

So the July update never happened, and neither did the August, and here we are at September.  I have a few projects going on, and they all move slowly.

Little Penny turned 3 already in July, I turned 41, and Autumn started Kindergarten.  There have also been various work events, and derby things to get in the way.  Life, as always is busy.  I’m still sitting on gifts (now for CHRISTMAS and Birthdays) for my nephews too; I am a terrible person. 

So what do I have for a progress report:

1.       Bows and Archery

a.       I decided that SCB1 didn’t need to be a 70# monster.  So, I thinned it down a little bit, I haven’t scaled it, but I am guessing closer to 55# at this point.   It works pretty well with my Nice arrows, as does my Oak bow.  I just need to practice a lot more, on a less windy day.  And I need to work on an arm guard, since I am sick of having a mildly bruised wrist.

Update: I guess I should say “worked”, I broke both of the bows L  The Oak cracked in half, the salt cedar appeared to just crack at the fiberglass, but when I reglassed it, it cracked in the same places.  Better luck next time. 

b.      Salt Cedar Bow 2 (SCB2) was making progress, but stalled after breaking the others, I am letting it season a bit in the shed, and hoping that reduces its desire to crack.  Right now I am thinking I will try to make it more flat, like the oak bow.  We’ll see.  I think I will make it relatively thin, might layer something else over, like a modern laminate bow. Not sure at this point.

c.       In the meantime, Erica bought me a bow for my birthday.  It’s a Sammick Journey 66” takedown recurve.  I think that my 400 spine arrows are working pretty well. Not that I am a judge, but I seem to be able to hit the target most of the time at 30 yards.

2.       Forges and Knives

a.       In the forge I have also made some progress.  I am still  working on a 1095 Machete.  It looks pretty cool right now. I peened along the back edge – like the uncle Jed’s country skinner I made a while back.  I like the effect. All it really needs now is a handle.

b.      And I also finished a nice little Wharncliffe EDC knife in a more modern style, despite the W2.  I went for a hamon of course, because they add interest value, but it wasn’t very impressive. 

Usually I quench and temper my knives before taking out all the scratches, which makes getting rid of them a severe challenge.  This time, I sanded the blade to 220 first, and it was MUCH EASIER to get the rest of the scratches out.

I picked up a variety of G10 handle material too.  If you follow my work at all, you probably know that I prefer working with natural materials.  I get the point of the modern stuff, but just think that wood is prettier.  So far I’ve made two plastic handles,  black canvas micarta, and white linen micarta. They both smell pretty bad when shaping the handles.  I haven’t worked with G10 yet, but I hope it doesn’t smell as bad.  I bought more military colors this time, Ghost green and sand, black and grey.  The EDC has a black and grey handle.

c.       9” Chefs Knife in 1084g is in progress.  When I joined the facebook group Cool Knives and Gear and posted pictures of my in stock knives, someone asked about a big chef’s knife, so I decided to make another one.  It’s coming along pretty well, just need to Normalise, harden and temper. 

d.      After talking about it forever, I finally started on my Navaja. Have the blade forged out, but am missing some of the folder hardware, and haven’t done any of the heat treat yet.  Still needs more holes too – I haven’t decided which order to do it all in yet.

e.   I also finished AR 81, a nice mid sized knife.  Blade is about 4 1/2, and 9 1/2 overall S35VN steel, Copper guard, Cocobolo handle with peened brass pins.

f.      And I sold a knife!  Haven’t done that in a while.  My moonstone dagger J 

3.       Turnings

a.       Honestly, I hadn’t touched the lathe in a while – at one point I decided I wanted to try to bore out a flute, but got distracted, and haven’t played with it since.  There are a few pen kits that I should still make, and a light pull, and couple other things that I have kits for, but motivation is low.

So I made three pens (and most of a 4^th) and a light pull, this weekend.  None of them are very exciting, but they get the materials out of my shop.

b.      I have sold some things though which is pretty cool, a couple pens, a bowl, a light pull, the last full shaving set!