The Oregon show is going quite well, talking to a lot of really nice folks. I’ll do a more formal recap later, as I am more than a bit tired. Saturday is the long day for this show and it can take it out of me.
I also got confirmation that I have a table for the October NWKC show in Kelso Washington. I’ll post more info on that show later this week also.
At long last the promised website update is finished. Take a look around, you will find the blog entries have their own page, there are descriptions of knifes and pictures, a price list or 2 and even a bio. Still can’t believe I let the copywriter actually write a bio about me, it might even be weirder than seeing my name in big green letters on the table drape.
Anyhoo, take a look around let me know what you think.
What does a reference to Broadway theater marquee have to do with knife making? Just the fact that I find it odd to see my name plastered 3 feet wide across the front of a table.
Let me explain. Part of the “kit” I’m putting together for knife shows includes a table cover. Rather than go down to the fabric store and grab some some yardage or pile a bunch of animal skins on the the table, I went all crazy and ordered a commercial trade show table cover in black with the following emblazoned across the front in Lime green:
Flanked by an upright”POD” logo on each side also in lime green.
Honestly I find it a bit disconcerting, but at least people will have a better chance of finding or remembering me at shows. I’ll see about getting a picture up at some point.
pile of patches
It occurred to me a while back that Embroidered Patches would be a pretty neat thing to have. I figured I could include one with each knife and sell or give them away at shows and such. I did some research on pricing and capabilities and determined that it would be feasible. Torrey liked the idea so we spent a bit of time designing the patch and going through a couple of refinement cycles. In the end we came up with a design that I am really happy with.
If you would like one, stop by table P16 at the OKCA show in Eugene April 14 & 15, or stop by my table at Blade in Atlanta June 8-10th (I’ll post table info as soon as I get it). Local folks.. feel free to pester me about one next time I see you.
Here is a close up of one:
close up of the patch
All of the W2 stock I currently have is allocated to orders, and my supplier is out. I’m not sure if this sis going to be a temporary situation on the part of my supplier or not, so until further notice W2 is not currently an option. Availability of W2 has not always been steady, so I will be looking into supplies of 10xx series steel to be able to provide a high carbon option for now. In the long run I may just build a small rolling mill so I can break down the larger stock myself.
The last 3 weeks I have been working on filling an order and finishing out a couple of kitchen knives that were started at the end of last year. Porgress was slowed due to the snow storm but I did get the 5 knives finished and photos taken. There are 2 that will be getting put up here as availible soon. I need to finish processing the phots first though.
Speaking of processing photos, I upgraded my camera at the end of the year because running a web based business and trying to take product photographs with a digital point and shoot is not ideal. The flip side of getting a good camera and shooting in a raw format is that you need to post process or “develop” the photos before you can use them. I must say I really appreciate being able to adjust the white balance and tone down the overexposed spots. I am playing with the Lightroom4 beta and finding that it is possible to really improve the photo quite a bit. Photographing knives is a bit of a pain with the shiny reflective surfaces, pretty much all the photos can appear washed out. I’m not doing any manipulation in Photoshop, just tweaking color and saturation and stuff in lightroon.. but dang the diference is quite large.
Well enough rambling, I spent a hour or so tweaking things around on a photo of one of the knives I just delivered, and think that it isn’t bad for a first attmept at better photographjy. So without further adieu: (as always click for a larger full view)
In the last post the plan was to line the forge with 2 layers of blanket and then cast an interior liner. In order to do that I needed to make a form for the inside cavity.
Once that was completed I calculated that I needed 36 inches off the 300″ long 24″ wide roll to make 2 layers in the forge. Which means I have plenty left for future projects. With the blanket in I secured the form and mixed up the casting refractory. Since I didn’t have a reasonable scale to measure I decided to err on the side of too dry rather than too wet, based on my experience with other casting media and based on my understanding of the product. It is kind of odd stuff, sort of like styrofoam beads in cement with fibers. The mix I wound up with was a “pack-able” consistency and not really pour-able. This was expected and I knew there was the risk of having some voids in the lower end especially around the burner inlet port. Reality did not disappoint in this.
While the forge was curing post patching it was time to fire up the lathe and start making burner parts.
First up was to turn the 3/4 to 3/8 bell reducer which is the burner end cap. This makes it smoother and will allow the burner to perform better.
Once that was turned i moved to the jet injector tube. There are multiple ways to make this pice. One method is to take a Schedule 80 1/4 inch steel pipe and thread it with 1/4-24NF threads and screw in a mig torch tip. This is supposed to work well but I really didn’t like the level of thread engagement. It just was too sloppy and easily stripped out the copper threads on the mig tip. Being the perfectionist that I am and having a lathe I decided to drill out the end of the steel pipe and turn a brass adapter, solder that to the steel and then tap tighter threads in the brass. Here is the result.
Next up more burner parts and applying the ITC-100 to the forge body and heat curing all the refractory.
Just got confirmation that I have a table at the OKCA knife show in Eugene Oregon April 14 & 15 2012. I will be at table P16.
(edit: I remembered the casting refractory wrong it is Kast-O-Lite 30)
A long time ago in a galaxy far way… Nope wait not quite accurate .. Ahem..
A number of years ago at a rental not far from here, I built my first propane forge. Here is a pic of that forge:
Alas it is just too wee for the current projects I’m working on, so time to make a new forge. I have squirreled away a box of 1″ inswool and 2 bags of Mizzou 3000 Kast-O-Lite 30 and a number of objects that can be re-purposed into forge bodies. Yes that is enough refractory for multiple forges, but it is cheaper to buy in full package quantities and I plan on making a crucible furnace at some point also.
So far I have the body prepped with burner, and feet mounts welded on. The rectangular tubing will be mounts for an adjustable work rest front and rear and for mounting gas valves and perhaps a digital temperature controller at some point. Here are the photos:
The plan for today is to put 2 inches of fiber blanket in the shell and cast an internal liner out of the Mizzou Kast-O-Lite and get started on machining the parts for a 3/4 inch burner.
Just an FYI, I’ve started doing some tweaking on the website as part of the re-design upgrade. So far just little things like moving widgets around and adding some plugins. I need to add some pages like an actual about me.. but I hate writing that stuff, guess it is time to see what kind deal I can negotiate with an actual writer, of which I know quite a few…
Look over there——>>> Twitter feed.. well as long as this stays the top post anyway 🙂
Podforge.com 