What's going on in your shop?

Know what caused it or else you may destroy/fry something . Possibly arced the leads?
That's the only thing I can think of. It's worked fine before. I got a little bit careless (and irked) taking things off when I realized I had buggered up my logo. I could have easily done that.
 
Guess who spilled an entire bottle of red leather dye on the table tonight? Looks like I will be refinishing a table

I forget which leather company tutorial I was watching but he had obviously spilled before and recommended putting the dye jar in an old pickle jar so it would be harder to spill.
 
A repeat customer of mine who has become a friend approached me a couple of months ago. He wanted to give his son a Christmas present of making his own knife and asked if I’d be willing to do that. My answer was ABSOLUTELY!! I’ve known his son for about six years. He was a kid starting high school when I met him and now he’s in college. He’s a terrific young man.

His son has been coming over to the shop where he works on each stage of his knife per visit. It has been a blast watching this young man learn and seeing his nervousness turn into pride as his knife takes shape in his hands.

We did the heat treat yesterday evening. Here’s a picture of him holding it before it went into heat treat.
 

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A repeat customer of mine who has become a friend approached me a couple of months ago. He wanted to give his son a Christmas present of making his own knife and asked if I’d be willing to do that. My answer was ABSOLUTELY!! I’ve known his son for about six years. He was a kid starting high school when I met him and now he’s in college. He’s a terrific young man.

His son has been coming over to the shop where he works on each stage of his knife per visit. It has been a blast watching this young man learn and seeing his nervousness turn into pride as his knife takes shape in his hands.

We did the heat treat yesterday evening. Here’s a picture of him holding it before it went into heat treat.
That's awesome John! Must be a great feeling to be able to pass on the joy of knifemaking to another. Well done.
 
Drop Point for a client - aebl, stainless bolsters, black/brass accents, stabilized maple burl scales with mosaic pins.

Tried to talk the client into solid pins but they wanted bling. This is also the first time I tried out my "fold up photo box" and it worked great. Basically folds up like a car sunscreen and then when you want to use it, it just pops open. Cost me about $25 on Amazon, came with 3 colors of backgrounds. It was nice not having the glare from a light. That glare always seems to be pointing right at the camera.


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Just finished this one up for a customer. Another with 2 different scales. This has been what I consider a strange request. But I get paid for both sets of them. Just don't know what to do with the extra scales though!! Hopefully they'll order another knife!
 

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Just finished this one up for a customer. Another with 2 different scales. This has been what I consider a strange request. But I get paid for both sets of them. Just don't know what to do with the extra scales though!! Hopefully they'll order another knife!
That is a strange request but considering both are of a patriotic theme I guess I understand. Hope he buys another one. :)
 
I think they are doing Alec Steeles 2x72 and Surface grinder attachment.
Yeah I got it through Alec Steele Co. Wish I could afford the SGA, even though I don't have any need for it right now. Gear addiction is a thing. But I can quit anytime, I swear!
 
My buddies Peter Martin and Jess Hoffman are coming over Friday to play in the shop.
Peter and I like to see what goofy stuff we can do while Jess supervises.

We decided to attempt to make a Titanium canister. We found some powdered Ti on amazon and hopefully we can pull this off. This the start of my can. Filling a 3x3x3" can with Ti is stupidly expensive - and especially for an experiment that we can't find any others to copy from.

I have done a couple cans of Ti previously but never with powder. We will see how it goes.
Ti can.jpg

Naturally, there has to be a blood sacrifice.
mandatory blood offering.jpg

After some thought I came up with this. Using a TIG welder I joined these pieces on the top and bottom just to hold them in place.
tig the ti.jpg

The Tig is hot.
hot ti.jpg

ready for powder and weld it shut.

can o ti.jpg


We know that Ti turns really soft inside a can around 1900F. Like jelly soft. I have had it squirt out in the past when I've done this.
Our plan to get the can to temp is to soak it in an oven at 1800F for an hour. After that we will squeeze with squaring dies in the press and then move the billet over to the forge to stretch it out. We are going after bolster material about 1.5" square.

We are also going to try to lay up some copper san-mai billets.
Neither of us has used Ti powder in a can before. Hopefully we can get it to weld up.
Wish us luck.
If you are in the neighborhood Friday afternoon, stop by the shop.
 
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