Montana7

John, As someone who has looked at & bought quite a few custom knives over the years, I think you're right. The handle is the first thing that will draw to me to any particular knife I may purchase. If I see something in stag, buffalo horn, rams horn, elk or some of the nice wood scales out there.....the maker has my attention. Then comes the style, size & the type of steel used. A nice sheath to compliment it is always a big plus. Bruce

Mike, I love to canoe myself & couldn't agree more on the Adirondacks. Have you paddled Hemlock lake? That's another treasure in our back yard I go to often. Bruce

Glad to see you made it here. I knew this site would offer more input than GJ & why I sent you the PM. Very nice job on that bracket...

Just when I thought I'd seen everything....

My thoughts exactly. It's the gesture that counts.

I noticed you've been concentrating on the hawks.....certainly not a bad thing. I already have a few, otherwise I would have grabbed one of yours along the way. Never know, I still may at some point.

Let me know what you shoot with those hickory shafted clubs. :rolleyes:

Butch, Nice to see you posting over here. I'm very familiar with your work, as I bought a couple knives from you way back when (when you first joined) over at the knife forum. I found this site about a month ago & just happened to see your hawk. As always, it's a a great looking hawk & very similar to your self-proclaimed mentor's. Hope all is well at your end. Take care. Bruce (Mick57)

That's a great looking hawk!

On a knife forum I frequent, knives made out of RR spikes are big sellers & go quickly. Just a suggestion for some of them in that 5 gal bucket.

Got it. Thanks Caleb. Thanks Yetti for those pics.

That's a great picture.....thanks for sharing. What is that vise (?) in the center, just to the right of the anvil? (& his left) I see what looks to be a good sized post vise over to the far left.

Nice. Have you weighed it yet?

When I looked at your 1st attempt at the rams head, my first thought was it looks more like a horse to me. :D (minus the horns of course) But what do I know......nice work.

You'll have better luck getting opinions if you post pics. I recently bought the same anvil (& weight) in good shape (just needed a good cleaning with a wire wheel to know what I actually had) & paid $1.50 lb for it, which I was fine with. Other than that, I'll defer to the more knowledgable members.

From what I've observed on ebay, it's a fairly common occurance with just about anything. As Cross Pein alluded to, pick your poison for why it happens. Anything goes when it comes to the internet & auctions.

Wow. Very interesting thread with plenty of opinions & insight. SmoothBore, For me, your posts very much stood out from the rest & always got a big "thumbs up" from me. Although there are plenty of other posts I completely agree with, to my way of thinking you said it the best. I do like your style.

I ran into the same thing with a Mouse Hole I picked up that has 1 0 14 for the weight, which should come to 126 lbs. On my bathroom scale, it weighs 120. So like yours, it comes up a bit short. Given it's age, use, how they were originally weighed & my scale possibly being off, my thinking was....close enough.

Now that's a vise! By far, the largest Wilton I've ever seen. Nice score on that monster.

That's a nice one & at $3 a pound a fair price. If it was local to me, that would be mine.

Tim, You might want to post it on this thread....190 pages of vises. Someone there could probably tell you more about it. It's a nice one. Link removed Bruce

Or don't look at all. I find things (that I previously looked for & couldn't find) fall in my lap when I do that. Funny how that works.

Lots of good information there Mr. Powers. Thank you from another newbie who just got his 1st anvil, a 120# Mouse Hole. There certainly is a wealth of info on this site & it's nice to see it shared with others like myself. Just one quick ? that isn't clear to me. Why would the worn anvil with a gentle swale be *PERFECT* for blade straightening, as opposed to one with a dead flat face? Logic tells me a flat face would be better, but obviously I'm missing something. Bruce

carlp, Sent you a pm. Bruce

Carl, I have some taken when I was half way through cleaning it. Now that it's cleaned up better & the full name can be seen, I want to take a few more. When I do that (if not today, than tomorrow for sure) I'll send them on to you.