David Mary Multi-alloy run, CPM-3V, AEB-L, 15N20 - Closed to additional orders until further notice

Good evening friends! I got the quote back from NJSB today, and am just about ready to pull the trigger on the run. Once deposits are in, I will be ordering enough blanks to cover everyone's orders, with a few extras as a safety buffer. Invoices should be in your email inboxes as you read this. My sincerest thanks to everyone who has placed an order on this, possibly the most complex run I have initiated to date, with over a dozen designs in three different alloys, and four heat treatment protocols. Your kind support is what is making this happen, and I thank you again from the bottom of my heart.
 
Finally finished all the logistics on this run. Got the last email sent to NJSB today with instructions on how to group these for Peters' and a couple printouts for Peters' so they know what gets what. Hardness numbers were very carefully determined, in the cases of AEB-L and 15N20, based on a combination of prior research, and my practical experience with alloys.

In the case of 3V, which I have never touched before, I have chosen a manufacturer recommended heat treat for a hardness of 58 RC for a few reasons. First, the process of getting blades cut and shipped directly to Peters' contraindicates a low temperature temper (like the Delta protocol) because that type of temper requires significant blade prep prior to heat treatment. And even if that were not the case, low temp tempers also result in blades that are more sensitive to heat, and my grinder is a single speed fast grinder, and my grinding process is "grind, dip, grind, dip," which is fine for the blade steels and heat treatments I have used thus far, but I consider it too risky on a blade that has a higher sensitivity to grinding heat, especially when the blade steel is already multiple times as expensive as the steels I normally use, and will likely require multiple times the grinding duration. A low temp temper adds significant complexity and cost to a blade, and while that is definitely worth it to some people for the marginal boost in blade properties, it is something I will have to hold off offering until such a time in my knife making career when my shop and process is more developed to accommodate it. CPM-3V already had an excellent reputation for its properties as a blade steel even without the low temp tempering protocols.


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I was going to make only designs that people had ordered, but I decided to go ahead with a few that didn't get snapped up yet. Between those, and blades I have extras of, at this time of this post, there are enough unclaimed that at least one of every design on the run is still available, with the exception of the Mini Insomniac, because that is an Empire Outfitters exclusive.
 
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I received a work order for final approval from NJSB today, and had to make some small changes to it. I have updated the run to a total of 100 blades, one up from 99, by adding two more Prevex units and removing one Mini Insomniac. Empire ordered 10 of them and I wanted a few extras as a buffer, but failed to note that the "batch x", i.e. multiples that NJSB would cut it in is 6, so I dropped it down from 13 to 12, which is widely recognized as a multiple of 6. ;) And there was a few other discrepancies to resolve as well, so that took a bit of time. But that is done now and I have sent the corrections and updated printouts for Peters' Heat Treating, one of which I have edited into the post above to replace the slightly uglier and no longer correct one.

Also something interesting happened. This is perhaps my most ambitious run yet, and due to the increased PayPal activity on my account, I received an interesting message that I have never seen before about approaching a threshold of allowable cash flow within a certain time frame, and the email said something about adding tracking numbers to transactions and other best practices to prove that I am actually sending products out, or any further transactions coming in (once I hit the threshold) would be placed on hold. Now there won't be tracking numbers for these transactions for at least a couple months, so you can imagine my concern about that.

I called PayPal and asked an agent to help me understand. She explained to me that I had reached 75% of the threshold, so I don't have holds on any funds at this time. I asked her, if I were to go above the threshold what would happen? She explained that as long as I provided tracking numbers to prove that my goods are going out, I could go above the threshold and funds would not go on hold. I said these are deposits, so I may not have tracking numbers for quite a while. She said that when a transaction is for a deposit, the process to use is to go into the transaction, click "add tracking" and instead of selecting "shipped" and providing a tracking number, instead select "order processed", and this functions in the same way to alert the system that that particular transaction is not pending a change in state. Previously what I had done once an item was ready that someone had paid a deposit on was add tracking to both the balance due transaction, and the original deposit transaction. She said that is not the correct way to do it.

So I will be updating my practice now to the process she prescribed, and applying the "order processed" state to deposits from now on, so those of you who have placed orders on this run may see email notifications from PayPal to the effect shortly.

I've also created a sticky post in my sub forum to give a bit more info for people about what to expect when placing an order:

I was kind of stressed when I called PayPal today, but Cierra, who I spoke with was understanding and took the time to answer all my questions, and frankly this threshold process sounds like a very good way to protect buyers and sellers alike. And that threshold can be raised if a seller is consistently doing sales above that range. I read stories about how people hate PayPal, or PayPal screwed them over, etc. but any time I have had a concern they are always willing to educate me, and I always come away with a renewed sense of validation for using their service these past fifteen years.
 
David Mary said:
I received a work order for final approval from NJSB today, and had to make some small changes to it. I have updated the run to a total of 100 blades, one up from 99, by adding two more Prevex units and removing one Mini Insomniac. Empire ordered 10 of them and I wanted a few extras as a buffer, but failed to note that the "batch x", i.e. multiples that NJSB would cut it in is 6, so I dropped it down from 13 to 12, which is widely recognized as a multiple of 6. ;) And there was a few other discrepancies to resolve as well, so that took a bit of time. But that is done now and I have sent the corrections and updated printouts for Peters' Heat Treating, one of which I have edited into the post above to replace the slightly uglier and no longer correct one.

Also something interesting happened. This is perhaps my most ambitious run yet, and due to the increased PayPal activity on my account, I received an interesting message that I have never seen before about approaching a threshold of allowable cash flow within a certain time frame, and the email said something about adding tracking numbers to transactions and other best practices to prove that I am actually sending products out, or any further transactions coming in (once I hit the threshold) would be placed on hold. Now there won't be tracking numbers for these transactions for at least a couple months, so you can imagine my concern about that.

I called PayPal and asked an agent to help me understand. She explained to me that I had reached 75% of the threshold, so I don't have holds on any funds at this time. I asked her, if I were to go above the threshold what would happen? She explained that as long as I provided tracking numbers to prove that my goods are going out, I could go above the threshold and funds would not go on hold. I said these are deposits, so I may not have tracking numbers for quite a while. She said that when a transaction is for a deposit, the process to use is to go into the transaction, click "add tracking" and instead of selecting "shipped" and providing a tracking number, instead select "order processed", and this functions in the same way to alert the system that that particular transaction is not pending a change in state. Previously what I had done once an item was ready that someone had paid a deposit on was add tracking to both the balance due transaction, and the original deposit transaction. She said that is not the correct way to do it.

So I will be updating my practice now to the process she prescribed, and applying the "order processed" state to deposits from now on, so those of you who have placed orders on this run may see email notifications from PayPal to the effect shortly.

I've also created a sticky post in my sub forum to give a bit more info for people about what to expect when placing an order:

I was kind of stressed when I called PayPal today, but Cierra, who I spoke with was understanding and took the time to answer all my questions, and frankly this threshold process sounds like a very good way to protect buyers and sellers alike. And that threshold can be raised if a seller is consistently doing sales above that range. I read stories about how people hate PayPal, or PayPal screwed them over, etc. but any time I have had a concern they are always willing to educate me, and I always come away with a renewed sense of validation for using their service these past fifteen years.
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Back in 2003 I was doing $40,000 a month in PayPal transactions for my SubaruPlanet dot com (which I sold when I got sicker that year); and I never heard a peep from PayPal, as they were just happy to take the money. But, the people I worked with as a business were always pretty helpful and professional. My whole shopping cart was automated with PayPal payments.
 
She told me this was brought in recently, like within the last three years or so. How it works is if a PayPal account shows higher than usual activity beyond a certain threshold, it triggers that hold funds process as a safeguard, in case the account had been hijacked. That way the funds are in reserve in case of a sudden influx of disputes. She said it also protects the seller, in that in the event of disputes, the funds are still available in the account so that the seller doesn't experience chargebacks. But she also said that if an account goes over the threshold two months in a row, a request to increase the threshold would more than likely be approved, if the account remained in good standing while its activity increased.
 
David Mary said:
She told me this was brought in recently, like within the last three years or so. How it works is if a PayPal account shows higher than usual activity beyond a certain threshold, it triggers that hold funds process as a safeguard, in case the account had been hijacked. That way the funds are in reserve in case of a sudden influx of disputes. She said it also protects the seller, in that in the event of disputes, the funds are still available in the account so that the seller doesn't experience chargebacks. But she also said that if an account goes over the threshold two months in a row, a request to increase the threshold would more than likely be approved, if the account remained in good standing while its activity increased.
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So the money is there, it just can't be moved to the bank or sent via PayPal to your suppliers? Seems like it's not really available when you need it.
 
It's a temporary hold due to increased activity beyond the specific account's threshold, as a sort of "waiting period" to see if disputes start flooding in. She told me that the period per transaction is 21 days, and that after that the hold is released.

Again, I did not breach the threshold for my account, I merely received a notice that I was approaching it. But based on the numbers they specified, I am not in actual danger of overshooting the threshold for the month, as I don't anticipate enough additional funds coming in from the handful of knives I will be working on for next week. Nor in the near future, either. A whole bunch of invoices came in all within a two day period, which triggered the warning, but the chances I will get all the knives done within two day period when the blanks arrive is pretty slim... It might take more than two days to make a couple dozen knives. ;)
 
I did see the update to my order. Gotta wonder if Survive had a small part in this gift to actual honest and hard-working vendors.
 
Just noticed I got tagged here... Sorry David, I did get the update from PayPal.

I'm pretty pumped about the Hudson Bays on this run. I've already been fantasizing about next trapping season... Provided the beaver market stays strong, and I can find a few places to string some steel.
 
Hi conan11 conan11 thank you for your kind interest! I’ll make a note to contact you once I get finished the existing orders.
 
I'm please to announce that New Jersey Steel Baron has finished cutting all our blades, packaged them and created FedEx labels for shipment to Peters' Heat Treating.
 
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