"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Duane, I'm saddened by your loss. Anyone who has had a beloved pet can empathize with you right now.
Prayers have been offered for your peace and finding a new buddy!
 
Sorry for your loss. I suppose it's the price we pay for loving a creature with a shorter life span than ourselves. Just know you gave him a good life.

(If there is reincarnation, and if I'm good enough, I want to come back as one of my cats:)
 
I'm very sorry for your loss, Duane. Loosing a beloved animal companion is like loosing a member of the family, because that's just what it is. They give us so much and ask so little. If mankind were as good as our animals, it would be a far better world.

Carl.
 
sitflyer said:
Today was a sad day...I laid to rest my oldest cat. He was 16 years on this earth, and one of the gentlest creatures I have ever known. Many times when I surfed the forum, there he sat on my lap. Diabetes got the best of my little buddy, but I feel he is now in a better place...




Rest in Peace my little friend...
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Godspeed to furry people. I am sorry to hear about him Duane.
 
jackknife said:
I'm very sorry for your loss, Duane. Loosing a beloved animal companion is like loosing a member of the family, because that's just what it is. They give us so much and ask so little. If mankind were as good as our animals, it would be a far better world.

Carl.
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Thank you for these kind words Carl. There is much truth in them, and the latter part especially so.

I really appreciate all of the heartfelt responses here, it has been a help to me...I spend more time with my pets than I do around people.
 
sitflyer said:
I really appreciate all of the heartfelt responses here, it has been a help to me...I spend more time with my pets than I do around people.
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My heart goes out to you, Duane.


On a lighter note, regarding unconditional love:

"...Put your spouse and your dog in the trunk of the car for one hour. When you open it, who's still happy to see you?"


:D

~ P.
 
pertinux said:
My heart goes out to you, Duane.


On a lighter note, regarding unconditional love:

"...Put your spouse and your dog in the trunk of the car for one hour. When you open it, who's still happy to see you?"


:D

~ P.
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Thanks Sarah, you got me to laughing with that one :)
 
Duane, I know this is late but still said with great sympathy. I am sorry for your loss my friend. We've experienced it before as a family and know too that a dreadful day is in front of us with our boy Buddy. His age is showing and all we do is make him comfortable---he deserves that and more. He's my avatar and always will be...

You will have the fondest memories for years on end.

Take Care Duane,

Paul
 
Thanks Paul, as each day passes it gets easier, and the realization has come that it was time...there really is no preparing for that day, and I have sympathy for any pet lover who goes there. It is gift that we can give to our furry friends at the end of their time though...luckily I have others that demand my attention as well
 
Gosh, lots of catching up to do...

Duane, so sorry to hear of your loss. He was a good-looking little man, and having a cat who really loves you is a unique experience for sure. I know that my kitties certainly bring me no small measure of joy and comfort.

Andi, little Max is such a handsome fellow! He takes after his daddy, for sure! My wife has started to drop hints here and there, that she thinks it is about time for us to have one of our own, and she gets all mushy when I show her your photos. I think your son may be trying to seduce my woman, so tell him to back off!! ;) :D
 
Gevonovich said:
Oh Kris, we have not forgotten about the Damascus making excursion and we are hoping for some pics/thread my good man;)

If your feeling it, that is
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Thanks Gev, I did not take too many pics as we were busy and taking pics was not the first thing on my mind, hanging out with my friend was.

We started out forging 29 layers of 15N20 and 1084 bar stock, we forged out enough to make the leaves
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After soaking in muriatic acid to clean the scale, we cut these into 2 inch peice's to make the leaves. We are going for a bamboo tree, so we TIG welded sets of three to make the leaves. Then set into a steel can(square tubing with end welded on) set the leaves the way we wanted and filled with 1084 powder steel. We ended up having a funky weld in the can that Jon had never seen, after confiming with "the damascus master" Tom Ferry, Jon thinks the billet can be saved, and thats where we were when I left. Many more steps have to go just right to obtain the final billet, Jon is one of the best and I am looking forward to what comes out. Making mosaic damascus is very time consuming and anything can go wrong at any step.

The billet and hammer
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To make matters worse, the pad that the power hammer sits on(6 feet of concrete on top of a rock base) was starting to sink, very wet soil. Not good, Jon will have to let the ground dry, pick it up, somehow, and pour thick, reinforced pad to set the hammer back down.

Jon is making me his first lockback ever, it will be a takedown with a bamboo damascus blade, large leaf damascus frame(same damascus, just cut out before the leaves are tiled down to a small size)with meteorite interframe inlays. Jon had a stunning leaf damascus santoku on his bench that I could not pass up. You can see the prototype lockback in the background. Hopefully this will be done in Aug. or Sep. Jon is becoming a good friend.

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Kris
 
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Super interesting and just a treat for you to take the time to write this up!!! Just a treat! I am astounding by his work!! That sabtoku is just stunning...stunning!! Thanks, Kris:D I hope things work out for the hammer pad. Best of luck on your project.
 
Greetings you fine folks,

I wonder in wat way the economical recession affects your knife hobby.
Back in early 2004 when I started my knife crazyness I joined the Spyderco forums.
Having a steady income at that time I could participate like many of you do on this forum; buying the latest models and talk about them on the forum.
Heck I have 6000 + posts on the Spydie forum :)
Then disaster struck in noveber 2004 and they pulled the plug out of the printing shop I had been working for over 14 years.
From that time on I have been going from contract to contract...
When the savings were all gone and with longer times between jobs there was no way I could join the Spydie crazyness anymore, so in 2010 I tried my hands on traditionals being a lot less expensive.
Being unemployed for one and a half year now, I have close to nothing to spend on knives.
I love coming over here because of the friendlyness similar to the Spyderco forums way back.
Only I find it a pity I can't participate like the most of you do.
There are quite a few models I would like to try out, but for a GEC Barlow for example or other, I can eat and pay for gas for two weeks.
So for the time being I try to enjoy the few Traditionals I have and hope for better times.
Maybe then I can join like the most of you and post a little more.
Sorry for the rant, but I felt I had to share this with my second (cyber) family ;)
 
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I guess I'm lucky, being both retired and cutting down, I've been pretty unaffected hobby wise. But my I wasn't always lucky. In 1997 I and most most all my co-workers were laid off from a place we'd been for 20 years. Clinton signed NAFTA and our jobs left for way south, so it was the unemployment line and a giant kick down the ladder. The only bright spot was my kids were grown by that time. I ended up at a little hole in the wall filthy machine shop making a small fraction of what I was, so when I could, I just retired and re-alined my life.

Now on a fixed income social secularity retirement, my free spending dollars for hobbies are over. But life has other dimensions. Now the better half is also retired, so we scrimp and cut some corners to save up for our trips. I don't need that many knives, and what I once has was, looking back on it, extravagant for all practicality. I've reached a point in life where material possessions don't really mean that much to me anymore. It's more about the people in my life, and the time with them. Looking back on it all, we humans tend to place to high a value on 'things'. Last fall, the 5 weeks on the road with my partner of 42 years was the best thing I'd experienced in a very long time. Looked in on family members while traveling, since the clan has gotten a little far flung for jobs in a bad economy. We're going to do it again this summer. May as well put some miles on that new car we bought for traveling.

I think collecting something just for the pleasure of it is fine, as long as everything else in your life is running on track. Collecting is like a luxury if you have the extra funds to dispose of, but it's not that important to short change yourself elsewhere. If your laid off, or have kids to feed, then a collection of GEC's may not be in the cards. But maybe a small collection of working knives, like Douk-Douk's, Opinel's, Mercators, Okapi's, and small Schrade's and camillus pocket knives off the great auction site may be posable. There's great little Camillus pocket knives used but in good condition out there for very reasonable prices.

Sometimes you just have to adjust your goals to where you are in life.
 
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Thanks Carl for the wise words. :thumbup:
At the moment all of my spare money goes to my son for the most part.
After two and a half years of problems (including drugs) he is slowly but surely crawling back on his own.
He lives a good two and a half hour drive away from me at a house for room training where he learns how to live on his own and cope with his ADHD and weed withdrawl (he's 18 now)
His mother is in deep debts so all of the extras has to come from dad.
Luckily I have a nice array of European working knives and 3 Peanuts I was able to buy in the better times.
Most of the time the big aution doesn't send overseas unfortunately.
But hey, who needs more than a Peanut anyway? :D;)
 
puukkoman said:
Gosh, lots of catching up to do...

Duane, so sorry to hear of your loss. He was a good-looking little man, and having a cat who really loves you is a unique experience for sure. I know that my kitties certainly bring me no small measure of joy and comfort.

Andi, little Max is such a handsome fellow! He takes after his daddy, for sure! My wife has started to drop hints here and there, that she thinks it is about time for us to have one of our own, and she gets all mushy when I show her your photos. I think your son may be trying to seduce my woman, so tell him to back off!! ;) :D
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Thanks for the kind words, Alex - much appreciated! :)

Max is just beside me right now.. he´s a little impatient today ;)

I´m really a blessed man. Before he was born, I always thought that this some kind of sentimental talking when men have two or three beer too much - but actually - a baby is making you complete! At least it made me complete. It´s so much fun and sleepless nights ;) but that´s worth all the way - you get so much back...
 
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