Joshua States

Someday, I want to sit and watch you do that carving thing. Maybe the wife and I can plan a trip to Scotland......it is on the list.

Very nice, all of them.

Amen brother.

Very clean lines Garry. Ever think about putting a metal bolster on that Safari model?

I did OTR for a few years when I was in the music business. A completely different type of OTR driving, but I know the lifestyle. I was driving as little as 4 days to as many as 30 and my time off was equally as variable. It was difficult to say the least, to focus any energy on other things. Good stuff to consider from Daniel and Ben above. Having a plan is a good thing. Even if Geoff Keyes and Napoleon were right about the survival rate of plans. A friend of mine used to drive for Swift doing local runs only. His typical route was from Phoenix to either Flagstaff or 29 Palms where he would switch trucks with another driver and run back to Phoenix. Are there any opportunities like that in your area that you could make the switch to? Another thing to consider is stock removal making. This is how I started and my mentor believed that learning stock removal before you learned forging was the way to go. It still has the three basic steps of blade making I outlined above and uses less equipment. Either way, living in an apartment is not conducive to this craft.

Excellent restoration job. The video was good enough to earn you another subscriber too! No criticism from me, but I do have a method for removing tight fitting guards if you want it.

Do you have any epoxy colorant? I find that ram's horn (and buffalo horn) both start to look like plastic when they get sanded and polished. You might (and I stress might) be able to color the epoxy to blend better. Other than that, I would side with Garry on the heat it up until the glue fails option.

I would look at the Sgian Dubhs that Jake Cleland makes. Search for his posts by author. I consider him to be the resident Scots knife guru, but he shows up here sporadically. Use the forum search tool. Type "sgian dubh" in the term, click search by author, and enter Jake Cleland. You will get a ton of hits.

It's not meant in puritanical way. It doesn't mean a total lack of machines, it means that even with the machines, it is hands-on fabrication. I always take it to mean things like: I shape the blades with the hammer (even a power hammer) and the grinder. I do not have my blades cut out on a CNC water jet. Every knife needs a sheath. It's a Yin-Yang thing. Leather working will come in handy. I was a leatherworker long before I was a metalworker. Excellent. Then you have come to the right place. Read all the pinned threads, more than once. I've been at this art for 12 years or more and I still go read them every once in a while. If you want my advice, here it is. Learn the basics of moving metal with those two tools (and a couple pairs of tongs!) Start simple with small craft projects like coat hooks with a leaf on them. There are a few basic skills to this blacksmith craft. After all, a blade smith is just a blacksmith with a specialty. There's a couple of books out there by Mark Aspery. Buy volume 1 and a few basic hand tools. Start moving metal. Join the local blacksmith's guild. I see your location is "everywhere", so it shouldn't be difficult to find one close by. Don't think you need a 200 pound Nimba anvil to start with either. The Vikings had anvils the size of Dixie Cups and they made all those items you mentioned on them. A good smithing hammer is a must, but there are so many different styles to choose from, it's a crap shoot at the beginning. This is where connecting with a network of local smiths comes in handy. Most smith groups have open forge nights and demonstrations where you can get in front of the anvil with a hammer and give it a go under the watchful eye of an experienced smith. Most of these events also have Tailgate sales where you can buy used equipment. There are a bunch of pinned threads here that discuss anvils (small and large) and other tools of the trade. It is far easier to start small and upgrade over time than it is to buy a lot of expensive equipment at the git-go (unless you have serious amounts of disposable income).

That is priceless.

I don't know Jeremy, this statement: Has me feeling really inadequate somehow.....

Muy Bueno senor.

@Eric Byers First of all, regarding FIF, what Geoff said. Second of all, Clayton Cowart (another FIF contestant I know) once told me "I can teach a monkey how to make a knife". To answer the question "is it that simple?" well, it can be. It depends on what your intention is. If all you want to do is make an object that will cut another object, you can use a clamshell or a sharp rock. The human race did that for a long time before they developed metallurgy. The truth is, the basics of making a metal knife are: 1. Shape the metal. 2. Put a handle on it. 3. Sharpen it. The devil is in the details. To a lot of the people on this forum, knifemaking (or blade making for that matter) is an artform. It's more than the utilitarian production of a tool. Before you jump into this craft, it's probably best to have some sort of goal in mind. What do you want to do with metal and blades? How artful is your intent? What is your goal? For me, it's the phrases "Craft, not business. Value, not price. Quality, not quantity. To create, not produce, Hands, not machines" taken from The Northmen Guild. (and the rest of it for that matter), but how you feel about it may be different. I'm not saying that this is the only respectable goal, just that this is what I intend. What I want for me. Others may feel differently, and that's good, if that works for them. What do you want to do?

OK. That was funny. You describe what I call "harvesting time", or simply put, finding those small pieces of time that I waste doing nothing and putting them to use. I have found that if I can find anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours during the evenings when I get home from work to take a project or two another small step forward, I am winning. Great work JPH. Nice to see you back in fighting shape.

Nice work Kris. That would make a great charcoal chopper!