12/1/2009

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with daughter Jennifer and her family.  Our daughter Erika joined us there.  Afterwards several of us went to a casino in Kansas City.  I managed to hit a jackpot on one machine, but overall, we helped pay a portion of the casino worker’s wages for the night. J

The engraving class that I took at GRS last month was really great.  I learned several new engraving techniques.  We learned how to inlay gold and other metals into the engraving surface.  A new type of work for me was how to do sculptured engraving.  In that process, you use punches to push the metal into raised ridges and also form depressions to create three dimensional artwork.  The instructor also gave us some instruction on cutting script lettering and I picked up some tips on fine line shading.  I am looking forward to including the things that I learned in my future work.

I finished the sub-hilt fighter.  It is now posted on the “Gallery” page of this site.  I used the sculptured engraving technique to do a flower blossom on the top of the sub-hilt piece.  This knife turned out to be quite difficult to make.  But, as always with a difficult job comes a lot of learning’s that I will be able to call on for future projects.

I have several knives on my bench at this time.  I just started work on a slip-joint folder,  I have another large folder that I will finish after the handle material returns from being dyed,  I’ve got a camp knife to build this month and I need to get some knives made for the AKA Show in February.

I am also scheduled to be an instructor at the Moran School of Bladesmithing, in Washington, Arkansas during the second week of February, 2010.  So, I’ve got the get some knives made before February as I will only have a week between teaching at the school and the AKA show.  Sounds like I had better get to work!!!

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year!!

Home  Knife Gallery  Knives Available  Knife Sheaths  Newsletter  Newsletter Archive  Show Schedule  Background  Contact Info  Shop Gallery  Links Page