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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Found a shop!
- Thread starter Rob Babcock
- Start date
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- Jul 16, 2007
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- 1,041
I will! Went over to start assembling shop furniture this afternoon. We worked for a few hours but ran into something we needed to get at Walmart (only place open Sun night). I'm heading back over in half an hour to change a light figure and an internal door lock. With luck the rest of the furniture will be done tomorrow. As we get closer I'll get some pics.
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- Jul 16, 2007
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Well, got a new lockset on the bathroom door and changed the light fixture to something cleaner and more modern. With a bit of luck all the furniture will be assembled by tomorrow night. And I have a laminated poster being printed as a temporary sign for the door.
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- Jul 16, 2007
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Spent most of the day building out furniture! I hate it but it's necessary. It went smoothly except the glass display case! The instructions were absolutely horrible and I had to improvise with a large handful of wood screws to augment the $h!tty cams of Pakistani pot metal.
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- Jul 16, 2007
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I got of a few pics of the progress so far:
Tomorrow I'll get the grinders and buffers set up to actually sharpen, as well as the laser engravers. It's starting to resemble a shop! Pardon the mess, it's a work in progress!
Tomorrow I'll get the grinders and buffers set up to actually sharpen, as well as the laser engravers. It's starting to resemble a shop! Pardon the mess, it's a work in progress!
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
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- 1,041
Yeah, it's getting there!
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
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The local fiber internet company came out for site inspection. We'll see if it's economically feasible to run fiber for my shop. If not I'll get cable internet from Spectrum. Plus I went by a local sign shop and talked about what I want for my shop. Hopefully I'll get a quote before the weekend but we'll see. We got the lasers up and running today! Haven't done a lot of work but test burned in some metal business cards, everything is running fine. Machine wise I reversed the motors on all the wheel grinders and buffers and took off the guards. Tomorrow I'll mount the new wheels; I have Scotchbrite and felt wheels for polishing and deburring and diamond wheels of three different radii for cutting in serrations. Lastly I got the temporary sign on the door! 
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- Jul 16, 2007
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Thanks! It took some work to get something I liked. I was going for simple but distinctive enough to be a "brand" that folks will recognize.
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- Dec 28, 2017
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Nice logo
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- Jul 16, 2007
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Got some pegboard up for my belts and a set of wire shelves for customer knives!
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- Jul 16, 2007
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Well, it's a bit rough! The floor has a lot of dings, the walls have weird smudges, the windows are drafty, etc. But it's mine! 
It's not huge, a little more space would be nice, but I think it will suffice.
It's not huge, a little more space would be nice, but I think it will suffice.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
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- 1,041
It's getting very close now! Seems there's always a few minor snags. I went to mount my diamond serration wheels but didn't consider that the arbor is meant for 1" diameter wheels; only 1 out of 3 of them were so I needed to hit Home Depot. Fender washers would have been ideal but I could only find crush washers. Still, they're on and spinning true! More than I can say for the Scotchbrite wheel I had on my 2x42! I have two of those wheels a 600 and the 120. The 600 is pretty round and runs great but the 120 is so lopsided I can't keep the grinder on the table! Oh well, I have surface conditioning belts til I can true up the wheel. Just need to mod my angle guides and I'm ready (couldn't find any of my cutting wheels for the Dremel nor the angle grinder, had to hit Home Depot yet again...).
I'm going to set up all the belt machines on the bench on the right (where they are now) with all the wheel-type grinders on the left workbench.
I don't have pics right now but I engraved a couple of my pocket knives yesterday. Heading back over soon to do a bit more shakedown work. The goal is to open to the public Monday.
I'm going to set up all the belt machines on the bench on the right (where they are now) with all the wheel-type grinders on the left workbench.
I don't have pics right now but I engraved a couple of my pocket knives yesterday. Heading back over soon to do a bit more shakedown work. The goal is to open to the public Monday.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2007
- Messages
- 1,041
Okay, this will probably be the last "teaser" update before I open! My plan is to open Monday. I got the machines modded and set up, belts on the right workbench and wheels on the left. A few things could be tweaked (eg I have a self-aligning set of washers for one of the wheels that doesn't run quite perfectly true) but mostly it's good to go. Unfortunately the internet doesn't work, got a tech coming out tomorrow to see what's wrong with the install. Honestly I'm dead in the water till then! It's surprising how little I can do with the laser stuff without connectivity, at least till everything is updated and firmware patched. Still, I've got the weekend to dink around with it still. And I doubt I'll get bum-rushed the minute I open, either.
Here's how things look so far! I'm actually pretty happy with the setup, although I'm sure things will be tweaked on the fly once I see what gets used the most.
Here's how things look so far! I'm actually pretty happy with the setup, although I'm sure things will be tweaked on the fly once I see what gets used the most.