September 2010 Newsletter

Dear fellow knife enthusiasts,

It’s been a while since our last newsletter, but we’ve been busy. Nine weeks ago, I had my left rotator cuff repaired. The right was repaired last September. It’s been almost 2 years with both shoulders messed up and two ruptured biceps. That slowed me down quite a bit, and that is a real understatement.

At least I was able to catch up all my orders before surgery. Oops, found out I spoke too soon. I missed one. Darn…..

The good news is that within 6 months I should be back to as good as it will get and I can go forward at a much better pace.

More good news is that, for now, I don’t have to worry about being behind. Instead I can come up with some new styles and projects. And I do have some of them on the drawing board. I have 2 new blade styles with a third on the way. The beginner in this trilogy is the Urban Scimitar. It’s 8 1/2 “long with a 3 ½ - 3 ¾” blade. Due to the blade style, these are 3/16” thick. It has a strong clip that isn’t meant to be sharpened, but can be modified for that upon request. I have 2 in stock. I’ve been reluctant to put this on the site as yet, because I can’t begin to make any more of them for 3 to 4 weeks.

The second is the BAS, a name given the blade by George Plaza after he saw the first one. It’s sometimes hard to pick names for blades, but that just seemed to fit.

The BAS is similar to the Urban Scimitar, but the blade is 6” and there is a bit more drop to the tang.

The last in this trilogy will be the “Real Deal,” a real chopper and almost a short machete. I haven’t settled on a blade size yet, but am looking at 10-12 inches. Again, it will be 3/16” thick and will be made from carbon steel. I’m going to try this and the BAS in A2, a tough tool steel, and see how well it works. I won’t be offering it in stainless.

There are some other interesting things on the workbench and drawing board. One is a new Damascus pattern. Another is a whole new line of metals for bolsters.

These new blades should be available in October. The new Damascus patterns and hardware materials will be unveiled online just before the new Rocky Mountain Knife Show. That show is November 13 – 14, 2010, in Boise, ID.

Sally continues to create new mosaic pin and lanyard tube styles, as well as refine older styles. I’m constantly surprised by her creativity in this area, and proud of what she’s doing, too.

Sally is also the one who keeps our website updated. The new software helps make it easier, but she’s writing some code now, too.

To skip most of the website navigation and go to her mosaic pins and lanyard tubes, try www.mosaicpinsbysally.com. That will take you straight to her pins.

On the home front, we have 6 fawns so far this year. That’s 2 sets of twins and 2 others. We also saw a quail with about 10 chicks following. They were so tiny they almost looked like giant bugs. It was a really wet spring and early summer. Fire season didn’t start until July 1. Hopefully we won’t have any wild fires this year.

Now that I’m able to work again, even though slowly, it’s nice getting in some shop time. We’ve been rebuilding the smithy during my recovery time, too. It’s tripling in size. Sally has done a lot of the work while I tried to work one handed. It’s coming along well. We even found a spot for the newest edition, an 1878, 146 pound Mouse Hole anvil.

We hope to see many of you in November at the Rocky Mountain Knife Show in Boise, Idaho, or at the December OKCA mini show in Eugene, OR.

All for now,

Gene and Sally