Of Teeth and Crafts

I hadn’t been to the dentist in a long time.  Then, last December, I had all my wisdom teeth out, and the dentist mentioned that I had some fillings that needed to be addressed.  So I finally got around to getting them filled, and one of my teeth had cracked (no wonder it hurt when I bit things), so I was going to get a crown, but then the root was bad, so I got a root canal, and am still waiting on the final crown. I also learned that I clench my teeth a lot when I am stressed, so I am trying not to do that , despite the occasional work and home stress.

I still haven’t managed to fire up the forge this YEAR, although I have some ideas.  I figured I should probably make some progress on finishing the knives that have been in progress for a long time.  Lately I’ve been able to use the excuse that it was over 100 degrees outside, and getting even warmer in front of a couple thousand degree fire wasn’t all that appealing, but the rains finally showed up yesterday, so it has cooled off a bit now. 

I did pick up some W2 that I am anxious to try out, since I’ve seen people make such nice temper lines with it. Gives me grand ideas for fancy things, but I should probably stick with something a little smaller to start off with.

I’ve almost made progress on a few of them, but have run into some errors – like forgetting to add the hardener to the inlace on a cholla handled dagger  >:-(  I run into those memory lapses all too often.  I think it is because when I do get to work in the shop, I try to do about 15 things at once, and then I make mistakes. Sigh.

I did manage to finish up the handle on the Spyderco Mule (CruWear).  I like Manzanita a lot, looks pretty J

And I made another Bighorn – this one in Damascus and Desert Ironwood. Fancy!

I also have ALMOST finished AR63 – Just needs its number and design mark. And a couple more coats of finish. And some final touches on the edge of course.

AR63. Koa with steel pins. CruForge V Tanto.

In the lathe-y world of wood turning, I picked up some stylus kits for the iPad world and made a few of them, and a stylus pen too.  Haven’t had a chance to get to the new bolt-action pen kits though.  Maybe next week.

Erica got a fancy new toy (I mean tool) though – a 40W laser cutter.  Too bad it doesn’t work on metal.  It’s pretty cool though, it cuts and engraves lots of things.  So in theory, I could laser engrave stuff on handles and sheaths, but I haven’t tried it yet.  We also have a piece of anodized titanium (courtesy of Pat Pruitt – who does lots of cool things with metal – check out his site), that we are going to try, to see if the laser will do anything to the stuff.

That's all for now folks.

Almost nameless post, now with pointless name :)

The beginning of April 2012 already, kind of amazing.

I never posted a blog about moving into the new house, no new pictures of my new workspace, nothing.

I'll blame all that on work, since I was leaving before real light and getting back after dark, things just didn't lend themselves to a strong desire to do more work, especially after taking care of the kids, and having dinner, and sometimes running errands, and occasionally getting some sleep.

Now that time has changed (a couple weeks ago already) there is a little more time in the evening to get a little bit of work done - so I've been really productive right?

Nope...

We did start to put a vegetable garden in the back yard, and some other yard work though :)

And dealt with a little plumbing issue.

The shop is a little better organized, and I've played with the Lathe once or twice, but very little else. I bought a hollow grinder around Christmas so that I can make straight razors, but haven't even opened the box yet.

I added a guard to Uncle Jed's Country Skinner - not too exciting, but functional.

I also picked up a Spyderco Mule Team Blade - the concept is good - they put out blanks of different metals to give people the opportunity to test them out - everything else is identical. And of course, it is up to you to put the handle on. Which I just started to do yesterday.

The one I picked up is Cruwear, which in theory was designed to be a perfect knife steel with excellent sounding chemistry:

Carbon	1.10%
Manganese	0.35%
Silicon	1.10%
Chromium	7.50%
Vanadium	2.40%
Tungsten	1.15%
Molybdenum	1.60%

I also finally got around to putting together the Bighorn folder that I picked up a long time ago. Its a nicely shaped simple single blade lockback folder. I put salt cedar (tamarisk) scales on it, which look pretty nice, in my opinion at least. It went together well enough that I may do a couple more at some point. At least until I decide that I need to start machining my own, with a bunch of tools that I don't have.

If I don't post this now, I probably won't get to it for another three months.

Until then...

A

Goodbye 2011, Welcome 2012

I wrote this blog a while ago, before the last one I posted actually - but never got around to posting it. Probably because I like to have pictures and this doesn't have any. Oh well.

Here it is anyway. At least three full months late.

I swear that that was the shortest year ever. If I wrote checks, I think that I would still be trying to remember if it was 2010 or 2011, and now it’s 2012. Despite that, I lot happened...

Autumn turned 3 years old.

Penelope was born.

I had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled out.

Erica’s business was booming. Pretty much every month was better than the one before it – a little dip for Penelope’s birth, but lots of business. Christmas season this year was scary. Thank you Alex for helping to make it possible.

We bought a house! And mostly moved in. Mostly it’s Erica and my workrooms that need moving at this point, we’ll work on those this weekend I suppose. Hard to want to go back to the old place though. We picked up some cheap and awesome new furniture from consignment shops – higher quality and cheaper than anything you can buy new!

There was a big drought – leaving Albuquerque the driest it has been in at least 50 years. This made for some challenges out on Laguna, but didn’t seem to have much impact on life in town – other than me missing the rain.

There were some big Snow Storms in Laguna! – But they barely touched ABQ, so I got a few snow days in December, but could still get around just fine in town. Nice!

I finished 5 knives all year. Pretty pathetic, especially since I got a new gas forge! – I do have a lot of partially completed ones, but finishing is a bit more of a challenge these days. Maybe with the additional space in the new house I can get a little more accomplished. We’ll see.

I did do quite a bit of woodworking this year – a bunch of pens, some shaving brushes, and miscellaneous other little projects. I have some ideas for more, but without insulation it’s hard to convince myself to work in the shop – or to take care of the kids when Erica is busy.

Maybe next time I'll add some pictures in again :)

I gotta have SPACE!

I gotta have SPACE!

If anyone remembers the animated short “Creature Comforts” (which you can find on youtube), they will certainly remember the Brazilian Mountain Lion and his need for space. That is how I felt in our rental property.

Now, thanks to some substantial help from my Dad, we own a house. With some basic and very rough body measurements and a little math, we estimated the rental at about 900sqft living space. The new house is over 2700! Erica’s workspace is now about 2/3 the size of our old house – which is good since I’m pretty sure she used more than that at least part time.

Especially during the Christmas rush.

I think the old house shrunk during the Christmas rush period too. There wasn’t a flat (or semi-flat) surface anywhere that wasn’t covered in t-shirts, screens, or packaging materials. And no time to clean. I think that if I showed a picture, I would be shot.

Without the assistance of Alex, Erica’s brother, I don’t think we would have made it, and as it is Erica shut down Causticthreads for the season on December 14 to make sure that everything went out the 19th or 20th– the last mailing day to get stuff before Christmas.

In workshop news…not much. I helped Rocketpants finish up a shaving brush, and sold all three that we had listed on etsy. Haven’t even done much with the pens.

I did pick up a big box of Manzanita, but haven’t even opened the box yet to see what I got. Maybe I can make a vase or something – should be pretty if I get around to it.

Between work and children I feel like I have been too stressed out to do much, but maybe the new house will inspire something. After we finish moving in of course.

In honor of my blog and logo – I bought a t-shirt from Robotarot – the Hanged Man of course – check out his others, they are equally awesome! And then awesomeness of awesomeness I recieved a print of the picture for Christmas! #1 of 10! Thanks Rocketpants!!!

Oh – and we bought a new digital SLR! A Canon T2i. Nice. Hope to have pictures to share soon.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Late July, er.. August, no wait October 2011- Ends of Eras

Late August 2011- Ends of Eras

The end of the one child era:

When I started this post more than three months ago, the imminent arrival of our newest daughter Penelope, stress levels in the design studio had increased. This meant that I was stressed out at the time, because the studio is all in my head. Not that I am any less busy now, but stress levels seem to have decreased somewhat.

Little Penny arrived on July 25, 5 days early, satisfying both Erica, who wanted it to be a little early, and me, because I didn’t get the call while I was at work.

She's grown a bit since July :)

I made quite a bit of pen progress prior to her arrival, and a little afterward, and Erica has taken pictures of them now, so they are in my ballpark again to write up descriptions for them for posting at the store (www.acrylicandsteel.etsy.com).

I’ve now made slimline, slimline pro, Designer NT, Polaris, .30 cal bullet, and big cigar rollerball/ballpoint pens, some fountain pens (several styles), two sketch pencils, several light pulls, a salt grinder, a bottle stopper, and a ice cream scoop. I'm probably missing some at this point. Wood turning is fun!

I tried to make a few more than I have, and made a few mistakes. I tried several times to make an Ancient Kauri pen, with a variety of problems. I did manage a AK light pull though. Hopefully by the time I finish this post I will have been successful. I've broken a couple of click pens, not sure why they aren't working right - so far only one success on those.

Friend Bill, who will be off to Art School in London in a couple of weeks, enlisted my aid in making a special pen for a friend, and whipped up a nice simple maple slimline for himself. Bills gone for a year and we miss him, but the pen got finished and a similar one for a friend of the friend as a result!

Friends Pen

Friend of Friends Pen

I just wrapped up a pair of knives, both for family, a nice hunter and a santoku style kitchen knife. Still have 8-9 in the moderately close phase, but not there yet. The most recent of all was an interesting hunter/fighter knife that I made for friend Rocketpants' trip to Australia. I finished it in time, and it went off and returned with him.

The end of the charcoal forge era:

In addition to being a proud father of a new child, I am also the proud owner of a NEW FORGE!!! Finally, I’ve moved from my interesting but inconsistent charcoal forge to a gas NC Tool Whisper Forge. Hopefully this will give me a little more flexibility, a more rapid heat up, a higher temp, etc…

Sadly, I haven't had the time or mental energy lately to work much on it, but it is a lot faster to get going..

This brings me to the experimental phase:

Mokume gane – I’ve stacked about 24 layers of brass, copper and nickel-silver sandwiched in steel, heated and hammered. Results...Not so good, some bits worked, other bits didn't. Probably the wrong kind of flux. Better luck next time.

Wire Damascus – Using some nasty rusty wire from some flood barriers, I’ve heated, fluxed and hammered. I’m not happy with it at this point, so I will probably do it again, or fold and repeat. I think the rust may have interfered with a good weld. Definitely need to work on my forge welding skills - all of my welding skills are pretty much non-existent though.

I think I'll leave it at that.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Autumn, Crazy Horse, Uncle Jed, and Rust

If I wrote this blog more often, would anyone actually read it?

Maybe. Probably not though. I can’t say I promote it much.

So, in the news… Erica is due at the end of July with (odds are) baby girl number 2.

This is exciting, as it will:

1. Give Autumn a moving toy to play with for the foreseeable future.

2. Fulfill replacement value reproduction

3. Reward the parents with a tax break

4. Be another cute child

5. Give the grandparents something new to talk about

This is less exciting because it will require:

1. The purchase of Diapers for a few more years

2. Another baby seat, filling the car completely

3. Tolerance of house being a disaster for additional years

4. More of Mommies time, leaving less for Daddy

5. And will reduce the number of hours that Daddy can sleep

Generally, blacksmith shops are not considered very baby friendly environments. Carpentry shops are almost as bad. And Blade smith shops the worst of both worlds, plus some sharp edges.

I don’t know why, but people seem concerned about mixing a child (or children) with limited hand to eye coordination with a scattered and disorganized pile of blades you could shave with. Go figure.

I don’t think that I have ever seen Autumn hold a knife the wrong way, and she knew what they were and what they were called before she was 2.

I keep her out of the shop mostly because I don’t have protective gear small enough and she doesn’t like to wear it when it falls off like that. Also because she makes it more likely that I will hurt myself due to the distraction.

At least she can’t really open the door to the shop while I am working yet. But I can’t imagine that day is too far away. Sigh.

And here are some recent pictures of Autumn, since I was talking about her...

With her brand new big girl skates!

And again...

and just waking up from a nap...

News item 2: I spent last week at the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society’s national annual conference at Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota.

Somewhat relaxing, pretty, nice and cool. Reminded me of Northern Michigan.

Now I’m back, trying to catch up at work. Sigh.

News Item 3: I did finish another knife though: Uncle Jeds Country Skinner!

UJCS: AR 61: 5 3/4" Nesmuck Style Blade of hammer textured Cru-Forge V, 11 1/4" Overall. Handle of recycled Texas fence post - might be some sort of Locust? Pins are brass tube, with copper filling. Black vulcanized contrasting liners.

And Finally: Then one of my co-workers brought me a piece of rust that was masquerading as a knife... a little WD-40, grinding, polishing, and effort later - and minus one blade that snapped off. We have a functional knife again!

Open... (there is another functional blade also)

and closed...

That's all for now folks :)

A

Bench Update - Shaving Brushes

Bench Update

I have a lot of projects on the bench right now.

Recently I discovered a place that sells hair knots for shaving brushes, so I bought a few as samples to try out. And then I played with my lathe and turned a bunch of proto-shaving brush handles. I didn’t really have a good idea before turning on the lathe how big they should be, but made a nice variety ranging from a huge piece that I made from purpleheart, to a tiny little tulipwood. Turns out that the smaller size is better for brushes. Right now I have handles of tulipwood, purpleheart, cocobolo, wormy pecan, salt cedar (tamarisk), pear, manzanita, apricot, and recycled ironwood fencepost, and I may be forgetting one or two more. I only have three brushes, boar (coarse), black badger (pretty soft), and silvertip badger (softer). All brushes don’t fit in all handles, but let me know if you are interested.

I bought a bunch of new wood, mostly domestic: Hickory, red gum, spalted ambrosia maple, rainbow poplar, and I swear there was another that I can’t remember. I use a lot of exotics, but some of these have some nice character as well. We’ll see what they turn into.

Knife-wise, I have a couple of big chef’s knives in progress (both CPM 154 Stainless), at least three full tang hunting knives (two drop point, one nesmuk), a few partial tang hunters, a couple daggers, and some miscellaneous others. I’m getting ready to start a couple more, with the basic idea of simple and full length tangs, so I can try out a couple of new handle ideas.

I’ve got some fancy decoration ideas for a couple of knives as well, like for finishing the copper and cholla dagger shown above. It will be pretty southwestern, lots of copper and turquoise. I just have to get around to doing some filework on the guard and pommel.

Using that idea I made this fancy manzanita brush with inlays of turquoise and copper.

That doesn’t sound like too much does it? Maybe it’s just that I don’t have any time.