Blade West (and time at Bill Tuch's shop)

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Feb 1, 2007
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Decided since I missed Blade , that I would go and spend the weekend up in Portland with my bro Dan , he used to be my shop bud when he lived here in Vegas. Had a great time , we hit the show , saw a bit of Portland , took lots of picts around town and Dan took me over to visit Bill Tuch.

I was pleasantly surprised when Bill not only offered to open his shop and invite us in , but to also give me tips , pointers , discussions on knife making , design input and some tutorials on his shop equipment and methods.

I feel in love with his horizontal JL , as well as his dust system , mill , and his sandpaper cabinet. Who knew there was 8000 grit sandpaper ? The finest in my shop is 400 grit... but not for long ! I got about 65% of the knife that I am making for Bill done while at his place , now to taper the tang , fit the scales and etch to bring out the raindrops !

Bill was also kind enuff to surface grind some steel for me , that machine amazed me , I stood there in awe of the precision of it , and how Bill made it look so dam easy

Blade West will be a yearly trip for me , and I need to work in another trip back up there to spend more time chillin with Dan and hanging out with Bill , he mentioned something about me making a folder next time I visit.

It was great to see the Bybee's , Steven Kelley , Shane Sibert , Shane Atwood , Chad Nichols , and many other names I already forget , which is why I took pictures :D

Dan & Bill , thanks for making the trip one hell of a good time. Also thanks to Matt Cook for the trade while we were at Bills place.

Just walking into Bill's place it shows the cleanliness of his knives.
This is lobby before you get to his door...
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Dan on break , while Bill hides the pricey precision files before turning me loose. ;)
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Bills running the surface grinder:
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Dan bestowed on me a new shop mascot..." Stitches " , he is a psycho schitzo serial killer clown who comes from the darkside of planet banned.
we took him all over Portland taking picts..
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Steven Kelley brought out some nice stuff:
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Sick ? or pure torture in fitting it all togther ? :cool:
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Shane Sibert -He won two awards !
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Bill Siegle
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Can't recall the maker on these , think he was local to the area. I feel in love with this one , if I just had the cash , I would have purchased my first forged blade.
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Still have more images to sort thru... they will be added to my album here when I finish converting all the raw files.
http://s1011.photobucket.com/albums/af236/VegasBlades/Blade West 2009/
 
Nice report, John, looks like you had a great trip. Some pretty nice knives there,
I appreciate the pictures.

Win
 
Thanks very much for the report - and thanks in particular for showing us some of the knives. :thumbup:

Roger
 
ohhhh yer a TROUBLEMAKER;)

what are you doing with 8000grit paper ! Don't tell me polishing blades either-
 
Hi John,

I have had conversations with the very likeable (and zany!) Bill Tuch about his shop. He told me it was in a high rise condo. He he he! Nicely clean. I'm not surprised.

Thanks for the clear photos. (What relevance does the finger shot have here? :confused: )

Coop
 
Sorry Coop , that image wasn't supposed to be there in this post...It was removed :)

And Shepherd..... Dunno if i will get to 8000 grit , but I do plan to go higher than my usual 400 grit now that I see the difference it makes...

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some picts a friend took while we were at Bill's..
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Can't recall the maker on these , think he was local to the area. I feel in love with this one , if I just had the cash , I would have purchased my first forged blade.
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Those wouldn't be Raymond Richards, would they???
I came down with something this weekend past or I would have been there... :grumpy: Really missed this show as it's close, has primo makers and manufacturers there and is close enough for a good visit with just gas money invested... Oh well, next year.... :(
 
John, is this you?

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I like to know who I am talking to. :D

Kudos to Michael Rader (if this is his) for, what appears to be, a really comfortable handle and cool wood combo. :thumbup:

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Thanks again. :)

Coop
 
That be him Coop:eek:...

...and Coop, am I really zany? I much prefer thinking of it as...ah...hmm...ah...Ok, I guess zany works as well as anything else.:D
 
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