6/4/2009

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t promise to have the newsletter posted on the first day of the month; but maybe sometime during the first part of the month…..

We got back from the Blade Show the evening of June 2^nd.  We spent some time visiting the kids and grandkids on our way home, so were delayed in getting back.

The Blade Show went well enough for me.  I sold three damascus hunters, so my sales were decent; but it was far from the best that I have done at the Blade Show.  Attendance at the show was down quite a bit and sales were slow for many of the makers there.  The Dog Bone bowie that I made for the ABS auction was a big hit; I got a LOT of compliments on it.  But, the auction attracted few buyers and the bowie only brought about half of what it was worth.  It faired better than the other knives in the auction however.  The bowie got a lot of attention for me, so it did what I needed for it to do, but I am sorry that the ABS didn’t receive a fair price for it, or the other knives.

I am now working on knives for the AG Russell Show.  I have several orders to complete before the show, so will probably work on them and take them to the show for display and delivery there.  At this time, I’m not sure that I will have more than a couple of knives to put on the table for sale at the show.

A couple of weeks ago, I was working on a folder that I planned to finish for the Blade Show.  I was doing a milling operation on the liners for this knife when I had a little mishap with the milling machine.  The result of which was that the one of the liners was destroyed and my right thumb was cut pretty severely.  Needless to say, I am not going to continue using that process for milling liners.

I ordered some new tooling for the milling machine to improve the safety of this operation, but it did not arrive before we left for the Blade Show.  I called UPS and told them to hold the packages for delivery after we got home.  Well, when we got home Mary found three delivery slips on the front door.  They had tried to deliver the packages and since no one was here to receive them, they sent the packages back to the shipper.  So, despite my making arrangements with them to hold the packages, they screwed it up and sent my tooling back.  So, I am now delayed in working on folders until my tooling is shipped again.  Sometimes I think UPS stands for Unusually Poor Service.

I have two knives on the “Available” page that I expect to have at the Russell Show.  I am considering doing some engraving on the folder.  I will add any other knives that I manage to finish for sale at the show as I get them done.

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