1/1/2009
Happy New Year to all and I hope that the holidays were good for you and yours.
We had a good Christmas, but it was a bit disjointed and not what we had planned. Chris, Shanna and Granddaughter Emma traveled to Ohio to visit Shanna’s family for Christmas. So, we expected to not have them here for Christmas and instead celebrated Christmas with them December 28th, after they returned home. All of the other kids and their families were to join us for a Christmas dinner on the 24th. But, Grandson Aidan came down sick a couple of days before Christmas preventing Tara, Chuck and Aidan from coming up from Oklahoma for the holidays. Jennifer and Erika’s families came to our house to celebrate Christmas on the 24th, and then on Christmas day I drove to Tulsa to spend Christmas day with Tara, Chuck and Aidan. Mary stayed at home to spend Christmas day with her parents and her sister’s families. So, Mary and I didn’t get to spend much time together on Christmas day. That and not being able to get everyone together kind of took the “sparkle” out of the holiday for us. Maybe next year things will go smoother.
Jennifer had a sonogram a couple of weeks ago and we found out that she is going to have a girl. Granddaughter Devin is really excited that she will have a baby sister. This will give us four boys and four girls out of eight Grandchildren.
I finished the small dagger/letter-opener last week. A couple of photos of it are on the “Gallery” page. It was much more difficult to make than I had expected. This was the first time that I had attempted so much sculpturing on a handle, but I think it came out very nice. I learned a lot on this piece and believe that my experiences on this knife will help me in the future on other sculptured works.
I am currently working on the “Mastersmith” knife that I am making for the ABS auction. It is a damascus blade Bowie with a “Dog Bone” handle. The blade is finished and I am now working on the handle parts. I have the damascus handle frame shaped and will fit it to the blade tang today. I still need to make the damascus ferrules and liners and then do all of the file-work on the handle parts. I planned to use mammoth ivory on the handle of this knife, but I have been having a hard time finding the material. It appears to me that there is a shortage of mammoth ivory right now. However, I have contacted a supplier who may have some walrus ivory that will work.
I have been practicing engraving every day and am starting to get comfortable with my ability to cut the main lines and relieve the background areas. I’ve been trying different angles and point styles on my gravers and feel that I have found what works best for me. My focus now is on learning to shade the engraving properly. Shading is the most important element of engraving and is what gives the engraving life and a three dimensional look. Once I get comfortable with my shading abilities, I think that I will be confident enough to start engraving my knives.
The Kansas Custom Knifemaker’s Association is still growing. We now have 41 members. We will hold the first meeting of the Board of Directors this Saturday (Jan. 10th). At this meeting we will set the annual dues rates and adopt the KCKA By-laws. I have opened a bank account for the association and we have our web site up. www.kansasknives.org After the BoD meeting, we will put a “Join the KCKA” page on the web site. On this page will be a printable sheet for members to fill out their contact information and mail in with their dues. Paying members can have their contact information and links to their web sites added to the “Members” page of the site. We hope to hold our first Shop Tour in the near future and will probably discuss this at the BoD meeting. The place and time of the Shop Tours will be posted on the web site.
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