What did you do in your shop today?

[Joshua States]

This morning before work, I took that dagger I'm working on to 400 grit on the disc.

[Kreg Whitehead]

I am guessing I am not the only guy with tendonitis here. Peening some pins in a bolster a week or so ago was about more than I could do. I may edit in a pic of that one. Anyone try dry needling? I gotta say that wasnt a pleasant experience.

I am gonna feel pretty dumb if I do that a few more times and it doesnt help.

If my arm didnt hurt before it for sure does now. lol

 

Edited April 4 by Kreg Whitehead

[billyO]

On 4/4/2023 at 2:59 PM, Kreg Whitehead said:

I am guessing I am not the only guy with tendonitis here. Peening some pins in a bolster a week or so ago was about more than I could do. I may edit in a pic of that one. Anyone try dry needling? I gotta say that wasnt a pleasant experience.

I am gonna feel pretty dumb if I do that a few more times and it doesnt help.

If my arm didnt hurt before it for sure does now. lol

 

I'm assuming (possibly incorrectly) that you went to a PT for the dry needling.  If so, hopefully they instructed you in the proper stretching exercises and how/when to do ice massage to reduce inflammation/swelling from the overuse and you are doing these things regularly. 

PS - The reasons for my assumption is that I've been a PT for 26 years and I've also worked with acupuncturists and this takes years to learn and even more years to master.  Dry needling is a relatively new technique that's marketed pretty heavily to outpatient PT clinicians.   One reason that I haven't spent money/time on these continuing education courses (which are a requirement for PTs in every state) is because I don't think you can learn this adequately in a weekend or even week-long seminar.  Having said that, there are many examples of patients getting relief from dry needling so I hope it works for you.

Edited April 8 by billyO

[Alan Longmire]

I need to see a PT about my tendonitis, I've been out of action since January. It's mostly better, but not completely. The one I'll see doesn't do dry needling, which is a plus in my book.  My chiropractor does acupuncture with e-stim, and I hate it.  Itchy, seems to cause more inflammation than it fixes, and the needles hurt. My wife swears by it, I swear at it. . To each their own, of course.  The guy did train for months, and is an excellent chiropractor, but acupuncture is not for me.

[Kreg Whitehead]

To answer Billys question. Yes it was a PT place right by my house.

A friend of mine recommended a person there that she said did wonders for her and her leg there after a car accident.

He gave me a single stretch to do and pretty much told me it was up to me to quit pissin it off long enough for it to heal....and said there would be exercises to strengthen it after that.

I am with Alan in that the needles were a new kind of pain......like a bad cramp meets sharp pain.lol

Told them I was having a few shots before the next visit.....and I havent quite figured out if I was kidding on that yet because its litterally across the street from my house.

I will ask next week if its normal. But my arm for sure hurt worse after that than before......and my arm even had a knot in it this morning drinking my coffee,

I am gonna ask about cortizone also.

Great timing as I just got 8' of stainless here to make my bff a set of steak knives. lol

[Bob Ouellette]

I had dry needling done on a muscle in my back. It was done very intense pain but did end up helping to loosen up a bound up muscle after I had mono.

 

Edit: the pain was not as intense as raw dogging foot surgery when my pain killers didn't work after I left the hospital. I didn't spontaneously start crying until I was too tired to continue after dry needling 

Edited April 6 by Bob Ouellette

[Gerhard Gerber]

These days I go to a PT before the doctor, went to a chiropractor first time late last year, apart from trying to break my back he also stuck needles in me, walked out feeling great.
First time was rough, lady PT that treats a lot of the sporty types, advised her to put up sound proofing because I'm sure it sounded like cattle being slaughtered to the people in the waiting room.
I spent just short of 3 hours in line at the cop shop trying to do an accident report on Tuesday, right leg started going numb and been bothering me since, need a visit to the chiro next week.

 

I hate needles, they made me pass out well into adulthood, but if the choice is between a pill or needling, I pick steel 

[Bob Ouellette]

On 4/6/2023 at 6:09 AM, Gerhard Gerber said:

These days I go to a PT before the doctor, went to a chiropractor first time late last year, apart from trying to break my back he also stuck needles in me, walked out feeling great.
First time was rough, lady PT that treats a lot of the sporty types, advised her to put up sound proofing because I'm sure it sounded like cattle being slaughtered to the people in the waiting room.
I spent just short of 3 hours in line at the cop shop trying to do an accident report on Tuesday, right leg started going numb and been bothering me since, need a visit to the chiro next week.

 

I hate needles, they made me pass out well into adulthood, but if the choice is between a pill or needling, I pick steel 

 

I couldn't exist in any kind of comfort or functionally without a handful of pills a couple of times a day. I also have some permanent nerve damage in my ankle that makes parts of my thigh numb or highly sensitive and painful. I never know which.

[billyO]

Hello all.  I think I should add a little to my above comment, so as not to offend any acupuncturists. 
Here's the TLDR version:  I have experience with acupuncture and can honestly say that when done correctly it works.  

 

Here's the details:  about 20 years ago, when I owned my own PT clinic in Olympia, WA there was a western acupuncturist who trained in China (6-7 year apprenticeship/training) across the lobby.  I had a benign cyst/tumor on my back that was right were the back of the chair hits and the constant/repeated rubbing kept it inflamed and  itchy.  There was an urgent care clinic also in the building so one day when it was slow, I had a doctor look at it and he said it would probably take 10-15 minutes to remove.  I was able to convince him to do this but instead of Novocain, let's try acupuncture to block the pain while slicing into me.  While lying on my stomach, Vickie (the acupuncturist) put 3 needles in specific spots on each ear lobe, and one in the web of my thumb.  I watched her push it into my hand until my thumb twitched slightly (no pain) and said to Ron (the doctor), "OK go ahead" and he stated slicing.  I felt everything he was doing, but there was no pain.  When the scalpel cut into me, it felt like he was drawing a line on my back with his finger.  The tumor took 45 minutes for him to remove because he said it was wrapped around some muscles, and 15-20  minutes in I started feeling little pains like a pin prick each time I heard the scissors 'snip'.  Vickie noticed me twitch, asked if I was feeling anything, and then pushed the needles in my thumb a little deeper and no pain. She had to do this 2-3 times before Ron was finished.  Skilled acupuncture works.

As an aside, I ran into Ron years later and asked him if he remembered that day and he said that not only does he remember, but that it still brings him anxiety when he thinks about it.  He said he was glad I couldn't see what he was doing because his hand was shaking so much right before the first incision that he had to use his other hand to steady the scalpel because he was sure I was going to jump off the table in pain.

Hope that wasn't too long...

Edited April 8 by billyO

[Jaro Petrina]

[Alan Longmire]

2 hours ago, billyO said:

6-7 year apprenticeship/training)

I think this is the key.

[Jaro Petrina]

[Carlos Lara]

Nice Jaro. How did you polish it?

[Jaro Petrina]

8 minutes ago, Carlos Lara said:

Nice Jaro. How did you polish it?

Actually it was polished by a friend of mine, who bought the blade and then etched. This is how it looked like before the etch. Probably taken to about 1500 grit by hand. He is bit of a fanatic.

[Alan Longmire]

Even though it's Easter, the guild still met.  We meet pretty much no matter what, actually.  Today's project was installing the new firepot in the portable coal forge.  The pot itself is this one: https://www.ffforge.com/shop/p/firepot. Made of 1/2" steel plate, fully welded, with rotating clinker breaker and counterweighted ash dump.  It was slightly wider than the cast iron pot it replaced:

That's Scott on the torch.  He was replaced shortly by Brian, who actually knows how to get the best out of one.  I didn't get a pic of him, though, sorry, Brian!

 

Installed:

 

 

And underneath:

 

Luckily the old blower and air gate fit right on, with a little cold forging and hammering, anyway.  That end of the pipe looks loose, but that's just the flare I forged into it to get it on the tuyere.  It does not leak, or even move.  We didn't fire it up because nobody had a project they wanted to work on...

[Joshua States]

On 4/8/2023 at 10:41 AM, Alan Longmire said:

I think this is the key.

Yeah. My accupuncture doc spoke broken English, had his own apathacary in a small room, and went back every other year for continuing ed. The man's a miracle worker.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Guess you can say I commissioned my new grinder, struggled a bit with the tracking but sorted it out.

The hollow grind function seems to work great, but I think the one handed grinding thing will take some getting used to.

Seems to be used as a selling point with this type of grinder, truth is except on a very wide blade there's no space for the supporting fingers, you'll run them into the wheel.

I ordered a 200mm 2" wide contact wheel with the grinder that I was actually intending to use on one of the other machines, but unfortunately won't work without major adjustments to the motor and idler wheel.

Strangely the new grinder seems to be able to switch between 1" and 2" attachments and belts without issue, just the pain of doing the switching I wanted to avoid.

 

Had lots of plans for the long weekend but it seems I need a new battery/alternator for my body, talk about late starts.
I've had a marble top for several years taking up about a third of the workbench, crap piled on top of that meant about 25% of the slab was available for flatting, its intended purpose.
This got a frame and is nou mounted securely to the side of the workbench.

Got about 70& of loose tools like files, saws etc hung on a board mounted behind the workbench.

 

I've got so much wood and steel to sort through and try to store in a more practical manner, new bandsaw to mount and figure out where the polisher needs to go.........not to even mention sorting out the smithing tools and build the new forge.

 

Scale of the job is getting me under, trying my best to remember how you eat an elephant.....

[Bob Ouellette]

How do y'all stay motivated to polish your blades? It's the one thing I absolutely can't stand about knife making.

[Joshua States]

4 hours ago, Bob Ouellette said:

How do y'all stay motivated to polish your blades? It's the one thing I absolutely can't stand about knife making.

Develop an easier way to do it.

I know that sounds glib, but seriously, if you have machinery, and are still hand sanding your blades up to 400+ grit, you need to rethink your method.

 

Edited April 13 by Joshua States

[Bob Ouellette]

1 minute ago, Joshua States said:

Develop an easier way to do it.

I know that sounds glib, but seriously, if you have machinery, and are still hand sanding your blades up to 400+ grit, you need to rethink your method.

 

 

I need better machinery lol. That and a lot more practice. I just finished one and have 12 more in progress. I set up tool magnets for needs to be ground, needs to be heat treated, and needs polishing/handles. I still have 10 more blades I need to forge before my surgery too.

 

 

 

[AJ Chalifoux]

4 hours ago, Bob Ouellette said:

How do y'all stay motivated to polish your blades? It's the one thing I absolutely can't stand about knife making.

I really can't recommend random orbital sanders (followed by final hand sanding and/or buffing) enough for all but the most crisp grind lines.

Edited April 13 by AJ Chalifoux

[Bob Ouellette]

4 minutes ago, AJ Chalifoux said:

I really can't recommend random orbital sanders (followed by final hand sanding and/or buffing) enough for all but the most crisp grind lines.

 

I've got one and it irritates me too 

[Joshua States]

32 minutes ago, Bob Ouellette said:

I just finished one and have 12 more in progress. I set up tool magnets for needs to be ground, needs to be heat treated, and needs polishing/handles. I still have 10 more blades I need to forge before my surgery too.

Nice rack! (hunting joke) You are a machine dude!

 

15 minutes ago, AJ Chalifoux said:

I really can't recommend random orbital sanders (followed by final hand sanding and/or buffing) enough for all but the most crisp grind lines.

 

10 minutes ago, Bob Ouellette said:

 

I've got one and it irritates me too 

They make ones with a handle rather than the "palm" sanders that give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Tim Hancok used one of those square 1/4 sheet sanders upside down and held to the side of his workbech with a hose clamp.

 

I can't say enough about how much I rely on my disc sander.

[Gerhard Gerber]

4 hours ago, Joshua States said:

Develop an easier way to do it.

I know that sounds glib, but seriously, if you have machinery, and are still hand sanding your blades up to 400+ grit, you need to rethink your method.

 

Part of my justification for the new grinder, local maker who got the same machine in December is getting very good results, first time I'm considering buying 600 grit+ belts.

[Bob Ouellette]

6 hours ago, Joshua States said:

Nice rack! (hunting joke) You are a machine dude!

 

 

They make ones with a handle rather than the "palm" sanders that give you carpal tunnel syndrome. Tim Hancok used one of those square 1/4 sheet sanders upside down and held to the side of his workbech with a hose clamp.

 

I can't say enough about how much I rely on my disc sander.

 

I found some 14" diamond lapping disks on eBay I want to try out, but they're not very high on the list of stuff to do. I've got a small mill on the way and I'm planning on making some icosahedron forging dies. As much as I love knife making, I think I can sell forged dice easier lol