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j.w.s.

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Everything posted by j.w.s.

  1. Hey guys, just wanted to post that I'll be out at the Tri-County Gun and Knife Show this coming Saturday and Sunday. Time is 9am to 5pm, admission is $8 and there's going to be around 1000 tables. If you're in the area, pop out, say hello, hang out for a bit and shoot the breeze! I've got a few copies of Steve Sells book I'll have on hand for purchase. Of course there'll be guns, knives and food plus whatever else the organizers have planned! Show is at the York Expo Center, parking is free. As always, it's just nice to meet some IFI members in person. J
  2. Lancaster? That place seems to ring a bell... J
  3. Yeah, my kids are with me in the shop constantly.. both the 16 year old son and the 7mos old daughter - she tags along when it's a leather bench day and is fascinated watching me work with my hands. As for the forklift.. well, I'm also from Amish country, and I'll tell ya, I know a 10 year old Amish girl that can outmanuver any certified union equipment operator. That girl can park a full 21000lb tobacco wagon within half an inch of where she's told in half the time I've seen other people doing it. It's nothing to see a child driving a quarter million (or far more) dollar farm rig down the roads here - so I really think it's all about how you rear them and the responsibility you instill. J
  4. j.w.s.

    Cutlass

    Here's my take on the VOC (Dutch East India Company) cutlass. Blade is 1075, bell is brass, done as individual elements and brazed together. Overall length is 34", blade is about 28". Unfortunately the customer picked it up as I was finishing the handle so I didn't get a chance to take some close ups, but here's a few of the process and final product. J I started by hammering out the tang. Next I marked off where the fuller will go. This is my fullering setup. A simple air cut off saw on an adjustable shaft connected to my vise pedestal. I set the height, turn on the air and then grind the fuller in. I have several other air tools mounted to shafts for other operations as well. I lock a plate in the vise jaws to provide a stable work surface. After cutting the fuller, I hammered out the edge and adjusted the amount of curve. A quick grind before heat treating. Close up of the fuller. These are the brass elements. I cut most of them into long strips, annealed and then hammered to shape. Testing my layout. After playing around with assembly ideas, I brazed the individual pieces to the base of the bell, cutting and making any additional pieces as I go along. Essentially, once I have a base I can build upon the design. It doesn't have to be pretty, just solid. After assembly I annealed the entire piece and hammered to the final shape over the horn of my anvil. And the final piece. For the handle, I used strips of leather, glued to the tang. Then I wrapped the strips in thick hemp cording, covered the cord with a wrap of dyed leather and then coated the handle with lacquer to harden the leather. The customer wanted the entire piece to have a worn look, otherwise I would have really gone to town with the final grind and polish. The pommel is copper and steel with leather spacers and a peened nut to draw everything tight - however I may replace the pommel at a future date with a larger cast brass piece once we settle on the design.
  5. Essentially just wrapped them and used a small ball peen and a pin punch to bring the ends in tight against the handles. J
  6. I've used the water trough heaters we have for the horses. They can handle a rather large volume, but can also be used in just 5 gallons. Rather cheap at TSC if I remember correctly. J
  7. $30 a pop? Wanna come to my shop and make Damascus for me? I can offer payment in CNY, PKR or INR - very competitive wages, and I don't believe in beating my employees unless they actually deserve it. J
  8. In Japan, no one would think twice about it. The majority of homes use ventless kerosene heaters for primary heat. They've got one's over there with digital displays, remote thermostats, programmable heat cycles, you name it - wish they'd start selling them over here like that.. kerosene is already effecient (up to 99% depending on the system), but with a real thermostat/automatic ignition I'd put one in the shop and just keep it filled. J
  9. I shut the door, put a pot of coffee on the stove and maybe add a nip of whiskey if it's really cold. Lol but seriously, my shop is insulated by being under a hill, 10ft below ground - i dump most of my heat through the ventilation. I have a small "blue flame" kerosene heater that'll burn for 2 days on a tank that I put in the upper room (the least insulated area where my large drive in bay door is) and that seems to keep it toasty even with our 25F nights this past weekend. Now I haven't been in here in the dead of winter yet, but I've been told by a previous occupant (the guy with the shop above me now) that once these foot and a half thick stone walls get heated its really low maintenance to keep it in the mid 60's even in the worst of weather. I'll keep my fingers crossed. J
  10. I had a bader in the old shop, but that stayed in place when I went off on my own. Which is fine, it's been becoming a Frankenstein over the past 20 years or more and would have cost more just to fix it correctly. I've got a nice collection of smaller belt grinders plus I'm rather fond of 4.5" flap wheels. As for the water. It stays on the belt with minimal loss over the 8" wheel. Where it comes off is over the smaller 4" wheel, collects in the shroud - so I've got a small pale under it to catch it. I wear an apron when using it which does get a little moist, but that's the nature of the game. The Amazon part was FORSUN-000009 but they're out of stock now. There's some others, I just chose this one due to where it shipped from so I knew I wouldn't be waiting 6 weeks for it. J
  11. Try changing your directions when you sand. We touched on it in class, but there was a lot of information covered over those two days and you were finishing two knives! Let's think about it two dimensionally. If you start sanding x1 to x2 then go y1 to y2, then to diagonally between x1 and y2 and lastly x2 to y1.. essentially cross-hatching your scratches which will blend them and give you a nice finish. Otherwise, any deep scratches you see, you can step back a grit and try to remove, if it doesn't work, step it back again - repeat until it's gone, then start stepping up again. J
  12. So on a whim the other night while sitting in the chat room, probably having a beer, I had another tab open and was looking around at 2x72 grinders. Love kmg, but at $700 for just a frame without the essentials I knew I'd sink well over $1200 into the grinder just to have it the way I want. Coote's are cool, but after really examining it, I realized its really just a nicely put together Grizzly G1015 aka a two wheeled Burr-King clone. So i took the bait and ran with it. I've used this grinder before but really needed one in the new shop immediately. Ordered at 1:30am Tuesday morning, it was here at 8am Wednesday - if anything Grizzly shipping is on the ball. I wish it were variable speed, but more importantly I desired a way to keep stock cool while grinding. So a quick search on Amazon found me this little gem for $19.99 and free shipping (such a sucker when the word free is used and my credit card is in hand). It's a air powered coolant mister with a ball valve. I just drilled a hole in a 1 gal water bottle and ran the feeder into it. So far, I'm kinda impressed. It keeps my blades cool, keeps them on the belt instead of constantly dunking in a bucket and it seems to have improved the life of my belts. I've had this idea floating around in the back of my head ever since my abrasive vendor told me that their belts were waterproof. Anyway, works well, not a lot of mess, no puddles under the grinder and it seems to be yielding some nice results. I did add a few drops of dish soap to the water which seems to hinder rapid oxidation on freshly ground wet blades. Just figured I'd share and see if anyone else has been using something similar on their set-up. J
  13. In my defence, it was 1am when I wrote my last reply and I was heading for bed while trying to type that on a 4" phone screen, I should have read it a little better before posting it. Not that this will make any more sense as my daughter just woke me up at 4am and I'm just trying to get myself back to a state of sleep. lol I'm not saying that it's a lot of money, but when it comes to cost vs benefits my membership PABA wins hands down by a long shot. I was an ABS member for years, had some personal things happen and for whatever reason couldn't rejoin immediately - went to again a few months later and got told that the "accounting period would be started over from the renewal date" aka, pay us again for another 3 years after that we'll let you take the test - ouch! I know there's bylaws and everything, so it's not as though I don't understand - but that just made it seem like a waste of time and money. Don't get me wrong, I've got friends in the ABS, I don't think it's all bad. However, in my years of membership, I didn't get that much out of it. A few things in the mail, a membership card, access to the forums (which are good, but I've learned more here over the years), and a few unhelpful contacts. My wife is legally blind and can not drive, I've got a 6 month old daughter and a teenage son, I need stuff close by and accessible. When I go to an event on a Saturday or do a weekend show, it takes a weeks planning just to make sure everything is going to work out for all of us, I can't just drive down to Arkansas for a workshop. Working out our schedules on a daily basis is a job unto itself and the fact that I'm able to do this for a living still astounds me because I feel like a taxi driver/personal chef/accountant/secretary/daddy/house keeper most days. PABA is local, my $25 membership gets me work out of the shop, it brings work into my shop, it promotes members at events both public (free) and semi-public (adm fee) all across my state every single month with exposure to well over a million people a year, it's a brothership/kinship/mentorship vs a stamp of approval and proof I paid their dues. We've got the old guys who pass on their wisdom, that go out of their way to invite the new smiths into their shops; we've got professionals, the retired-semi-pros, we've got hobbiest, we've got the curious - all walks of life, all manner of skills, and each one is willing to learn from each other and share what they know freely. A few sponsored hammer-ins scattered across the country each year, two annual regional shows and a private forum just don't seem to do the same for promoting members, growing their skills and actually bringing them work. While the mission statements of such groups might be similar, the business decision is clear to me as to which does more for it's members. Yes, it's great to pass a test, it's great to get recognized by your peers, but at the end of the day what really matters to your customers? Do they care that you've done these things and have kept up with paying your dues or does it matter more to them that they like what they see in your work and how it performs? I like what T.J, said: "If I do join the ABS and work towards the MS title it will be for my own satisfaction and sense of accomplishment." - I think that's the best way to sum it up. J
  14. Some people when starting out use a wood mallet, but with the right touch it can easily be done with your regular hammer. J
  15. I'm with Steve. I have a very good ms friend in the abs. That said, my issue with the abs is this: pay us x amount for 3 years, test, if we accept your first 3 years work pay us for the next 3 and we'll test again - pay a lot more money, present us with knives, if we like you we'll give you your js stamp. If not, keep paying us money, we'll eventually get you to pass. Once the whole ms thing comes into play, it's: give us money, show up at one of two shows, maybe if we like you our panel of five will declare you a ms - if not, pay your dues and try again. Sorry, but my customers who use my knives on a daily basis give me all the validation I need, bottom line. The abs has become a political entity in and of itself and I'm in the business of making knives and money.. not spending it and playing games, I'd still be living in my parents basement were that the case. J
  16. Looks like that link has been hijacked. Try http://www.masasmiths.org/ J
  17. Nice shots Doug, thanks for sharing! Andrew does great joinery - prioritizes rivets above all, weld as the last resort - after all, this is blacksmithing, not fabrication. The biggest thing he touched on today is that when doing rivets, the support and strength have to come from your design - you've got to think through the weak points and incorporate reinforcement into the design you're creating. It doesn't take much, just a knowledge of how it works and a little thinking. He's got great examples of this scattered throughout his shop. All-in-all, it was another great PABA hammer-in, the talent and knowledge in this group never ceases to amaze me! Getting to hang with Doug, Steve and Nick from here on IFI was just an added benefit! I hope this thread will inspire some people and perhaps entice a few of the more local ones to our next real hammer-in in February - yeah, there's always the December gallery show, but there's a lot more work and sharing of knowledge that happens around an actual forge. Thanks again guys for helping out with some great pictures! J
  18. Thanks Doug, I knew there was more to take pictures of around the shop I was just too busy talking with everyone else... lol looking forward to seeing what you may have! J
  19. Any and every.. from needle files to double cut bastard and half rounds. You'll only ever need the one you don't have. J
  20. Here's some more pictures of the fallen angel sculpture. Hopefully someone else has some more. The last picture is another work in progress. J
  21. And the final set of Andrew's piece.. I started this thread when the project began earlier this morning. The hammer-in today was at Artisans of the Anvil, the shop of Andrew Molinaro. Andrew started by sketching this piece out to scale on a sheet of steel, then forged the armatures to form, cut the plates and riveted the entire piece together. All in all, great demonstration, a nice example of free form forging and classic joinery. Hope you enjoyed it! J
  22. Well, our hammer-in is still going on, figured I'd share a few pictures of what you're missing. Perhaps DSW, Nick O or Stash can add more. J
  23. looks like the worst of it is going to miss us now.. just a little rain this weekend. J
  24. I'm car-pooling with Stan Newcomer so I don't have much of a choice at this point.. lol .. I'll find ya if you're there! J
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