12/1/2006

  Nothing much new to mention in the Gunsmithing side of the business.  I’ve been very busy with a lot of gun work.  I keep thinking that I have had a lot of gunsmithing business and then I get even more guns in and realize that I haven’t begun to see busy yet.  The down side of this is that my timeline for completing work on a customer’s gun is getting longer.  Still, I am able to get most work out within a couple of weeks, provided that I don’t have to wait too long on parts.

  The Oklahoma Custom Knife Show was great!  It was an excellent show with some top makers displaying there.  I entered the Ivory handled dagger, pictured in the Knife Gallery, in the judging for Best Art Knife of the show.  The dagger won the Best Art Knife award and also the Best of Show award.  I sold three knives at the show, so it was a very good show for me.  The Knife Group is working very diligently on making the Oklahoma Custom Knife Show one of the premier shows in the country.  Time will tell, but I believe this show has the potential to be one of the best.

  I recently joined the Arkansas Knifemaker’s Association.  My memberships to knifemaking associations now include the American Bladesmithing Society, the Knife Group Association of Oklahoma and the Arkansas Knifemaker’s Association.  Again I went out of state to join a knifemaker’s group.  We do not have a knifemaker’s group in Kansas, but I would like to see one formed.  I’ve talked to a few Kansas knifemakers about forming a group, but none of us really knows how many knifemakers there are in Kansas.  If any Kansas makers read this and want to be a part of a Kansas association, please contact me and we will try to pull something together.

  I have added a page to the website for my Model Knives.  I’ve still got a couple of Bowie models and a folder to complete and then I will get them on the website.  I have started making them and they are on the bench waiting completion, but I have some knife orders to fill before I can get back to them.

  I’ve also added a links page to the web site.  I’ll be working on reciprocal links with some other knifemakers as well as adding other links that may be of interest to visitors to this site.

  We’ve got our daughter’s weddings done and all went very well.  Mary and I are very pleased that the girls married a couple of very fine gentlemen.  We are proud and honored to have them as members of our family.

  I had a different kind of project yesterday (Nov. 30).  This fall, we have had a few mice get into the house.  This isn’t something that we have had problems with in the past.  I set out some traps and have caught three of them in the last couple of months.  Yesterday, Mary was taking a shower when she stepped on something.  She looked to see what it was and discovered that there was a live mouse in the shower with her.  Needless to say, my job yesterday was to find out where the mice were getting into the house.  I spent the day with a calking gun and cans of expanding foam insulation filling every crack and hole that I could find in the house.  I pray that I filled whatever route the little rascals were using to get in.  My apologies to my customers whose jobs were waiting on me to complete while I executed this very important operation.

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