All Activity

Nice!

I was nice to meet you Spencer.

Thank you Alan & everyone else who coordinated it! I was able to meet a lot of people in person. I left with an addiction to silver hilted dirks! 😁

As always Eric, appreciate your advice, compliments and encouragement! One of the things that's a silver lining when I have a minor setback is learning something about the order in putting together a sabre. While making the trim strip for the sabre grip I found out the best way to start bending the trim is on the small-radius curve on the inside of the grip handle and working outwards from there (I didn't do it that way but will next time). Another part of the learning curve is to cut the wood grips after the trim is soldered to the base plate (discovered my wood scales are too small to match the pistol grip part of the handle. But despite that, happy with the handle trim.

I resent that accusation! I'll post some soon, catching up on the 50,000 emails that came in over the two days I took off. Bill said he'd send video highlights as well, but he's got over 400 hours (!) of video to edit.

Just starting a new set:

It was a good time! Drove home 8 hours to find the power was out, so I should have just stayed in the beautiful Tennessee mountains. I'll post one pic of our fearless leader proving that he does indeed know how to use a file. The rest of my photos are in the hands of someone much more responsible

I survived as well. But I attended only 2 days. And I learned a few new tricks and met new people (all very nice). I placed second last in the cutting competition (although my knife was a bit oversized), but I guess for my first such test I am satisfied. Not to mention my hands are not as steady and strong as they were 50 years ago. Not sure if I will have a chance to come next year but will try. And maybe practice just a little... Thanks again Alan, to put up that show!

It's over and we survived! Any attendee, feel free to start a photo thread.

Nice. Makes me wish I had the time to join this year in hopes of snagging this one.

Some quick 120g grinding this morning to dust off the scale from heat-treat and some layers are poking through..

Thanks guys, got this all wrapped up! A natural patina had started to develop from handling, but it was not very even, especially around the inlay. To restart, I went back down to bare metal with some pumice. I like pumice over something like aluminum oxide for polishing pieces like this with a hammer texture. I started with a brown heat patina, but thought it would look better if I went further with the oxide. This is after 4 or so heating cycles with cleaning between. This looks like black in photos, but is more of a dark brown-purple color. And here it is with the pivot set and some better lighting for the patina. The sky shade is less midnight and more “nautical twilight”, but I am happy with the effect. I look forward to seeing how everyone’s entries turn out!

I'll grab a couple of boxes of doughnuts on my way this morning!

Cutting competition is Sunday. The edge is important for sure, but skill is as well.

Any cutting/slicing competition? Maybe my Bowie could do the job. But judging from last year, this is anyway more a matter of the skill of the guy wielding the knife than the actual steel edge...

I'd shave with it, if I shaved!

Raffle is Saturday. Around 1 PM eastern. It's the usual semi-organized chaos. And unless we have a surprise volunteer, since the passing of Mike Crenshaw there will be no donuts. Mike would love that that's his legacy. Seriously. He will have other words for me when I join him, no doubt.

As planned, I will be a day late... Hope I am not missing too much Friday. And I believe the Raffle is anyway Saturday?

Looks great Gary! I'll probably be there early tomorrow if folks need help schlepping stuff around.

I'm calling it a pocket razor. It was mostly an experiment in hollow grinding. Single sided, 1080, very hard, just a boiling water temper with a mosaic pin decoration. The scabbard is a plastic slip on blade cover, covered in a bit of ray skin. It will be on the table at SLT BladeWest next week. g

Porta-potties arrived at 10, the guild moved our equipment and did the setup between 11 and 3, KMG pulled in at 4:30, and Clark Iron is there unloading presses and forges right now. The forecast has improved, the grill is set up, and I am trying to get some rest before it finally starts!

Same here! For the raffle…. Gary LT

I normally wouldn't post a second-hand ad on here, but I thought this might be of interest to some of you: https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/morristown-custom-made-knife/e7SnNQdoeeZsHNnhqvWowA Feel free to take this down if it violates any of the forum rules.

Woot! I'll be puling out of work about mid-day to start the drive. I should start seeing some hills around 5pm Looking forward to seeing everyone!

This was 1095 with a weird auto hamon btw