My Pretty

This is the last of my maple burl wood. I am sad.

Dave's Knife

I think these pins turned out nice. The are made from a hollow brass tube with three stainless steel rods inside and held together with JB weld.

A blast (furnace) from my past

I was just looking through an old CF card and I found some photos that I forgot I even took. Like here is my first attempt at a furnace. Very neat and compact, huh?

See, it even worked pretty good........once.

Yes, I melted a frying pan. Who new it was so easy to accomplish? One would think that pans, by their very nature, would be somewhat resistant to melting.


Dang, I made some ugly knives. I am a little chagrined to remember how proud I was of them. Hopefully I keep progressing and the couple I knives I am working on now (which I think are stunning beuties) will be ugly in my eyes in a few years when I am a superstar in the knife making world..... I'm not sure there are superstars in the knife making world. perhaps I'll be the first.

What's an Uli knife??

I know it's been a while but its been cold out in that garage and I haven't done much. What I did do, I did at Christmas. I made three Uli knives for my sisters and my wife. What is an Uli knife? Well I grew up with my mom having one, we called it the chopper and I thought that it was a fixture of american kitchens same as a can opener. Little did I know that out side Oregon and Alaska they are not all that well known. Well read on to see a step by step of making an Uli knife...Or any knife really since its pretty much the same cept the details.

Step 1. Clean up your work space-OK good enough on to step two!

Step 2. Select an assistant

Step 3. Find some steel. This is an industrial saw blade.






Step 4. Rough cut. I use a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with a cut off wheel.

Step 5. Refine. Now the inside of a curve is about fifty times harder to cut then the outside of the curve because you run out of space. I found the best way is to just start taking triangle chunks out thusly.

And thusly

And when you get it down to where it looks like a country girls teeth you are ready for step 6.

Step 6. take all the rough stuff off

Step 7. Throw the remainng core of your old saw blade ninja star style!

*note, this step should be skiped if you have a cranky wife..sheesh!

Step 7. drill holes for brass pins

Now for the handle. Step1. Find a log

This is a hunk of Myrtle wood that a friend of mine hooked me up with. Doesn't look to spectacular here but just wait till you slick it up and put some oil on it! It practical glows.

Step2. reduce to more managable porportions.

Step 3. rough cut.

Step 4. little work with a router.

Steps 5, 6, & 7 Sand, drill and epoxy your blade in.

Step 8. Make pretty!

Aint she a bute?

Throw it in a bowl for your sis!

Look how prett that wood turned out! Now to get this finish I sanded and oiled it and then finished with superglue which I rubbed on with my finger and then buffed with super fine steel wool.

Money Shot!

Here is another one I made for a coworker diffrent style same idea.

Spring Steel and Coca-bolo

A no knife Blog! (hey, I still have kids you know?)

Look at what a good artist Nathan is becoming! He recently went to the Zoo and drew pictures of his favorite animals.

This first one is a little Arabian wild cat.

This guy here is a turkey.

This one is my favorite. Is that not the best elaphant ever? I mean most kids when they start drawing either do side views of front views. I love how he did an angle.



This one is a Monkey. He spelled it out in case we needed help..... He spells bout good as his dad.

This ones a Hippo.
And this one?...... Duh, its me. See the muscles?



And here my other little scrapper who is also cool as can be. His school recently had a contest for designing an anti-drug T' shirt. Brian was worried cause he doesn't think he draws well. Silvia asked him what he could draw and he said stick figures. Hey presto!! The winning shirt for the school district; over three thousand contestants and Brian is the big winner. Here he is wearing his winning shirt. "I've got better things to do than drugs"

What a couple of cool kids!!

FORGE .0

I upgraded the forge! It was still working just fine but kind of lacked in the awe inspiring power department. Luckily my Buddy at work is also a fan of awe inspiring power and when his in laws were installing a new furnace, saw that the old blower motor was right up my alley.

Here is my old blower. Its an old vacuum cleaner and has a one inch hose. Compare with a furnace blower which is used to circulate air through an entire house and has a four inch outlet! I think you will agree it is a favorable comparison.

Here is a side by side comparison with old tired motor on the bottom left. And new sweet motor dominating center stage.

I will admit I still have a few unanswered questions (it started to rain before I could fire her up) For example; how much air pressure does it take to levitate red hot coals? Is liquid nail flammable? Is my new motor to close to my 1800 F furnace? Luckily I have the gift of not worrying about troublesome questions like these.

I have always been a try-it-out-and -see kind of guy.