Daniel,
Fill us in on your plan to keep producing.
What will you need as far as materials, equipment, a place to work, etc.???
A GoFundMe would be a good way to get needed cash to help in the mean time. Please let us know when one gets set up.
Thanks Stacy. I was in my forever shop with 15 years of gear built up. 6k knives made...
I had come down to Texas to help my bedbound Mom in an emergency and it has been rough... only somewhat recently lost my CO shop which was insured... built this up with a Tormach 1100 cnc mill, Laguna CNC router, 2 KMG's, 2 Ameribrades,manual mills, a lot of equipment I had made, all of my Luthier power tools as guitars are my hobby... also lost a lot of personal stuff including my 1966 Mustang which I had a million hours into, my Mig and brand new Tig welders and tanks, all my forging stuff including my Forge Press. Rolling toolbox after another with hand tools and power tools. I was a jeweler at one time and lost most of my whole setup for that, I was just finally getting everything into place when it happened after a full on nightmare with my family taking care of crippled Mom, mentally ill sister and Dad with dementia. I was blind before this for a couple of years and just overcame that through multiple surgeries when all of this started... been making up to $1200 folders with half an eye and very happy to be able to do so.
Goal is back to making folders immediately. Inset locks, framelocks or liner locks depending on how it goes. I also have some fixed blade blanks I salvaged but need a grinder for.
I have a kiln, some indoor stuff like my anodizer, leather sewing machine, some of my hardware for folders. I just used some donation funds to purchase almost all of my folder tooling last night, ordered some richlite and glass for frames, Franz Supply is sending me some Ti and CF. have a lot of salvaged materials to use that I think are good... a lot of warped stuff like Titanium/Zirconium/Timascus that is partially good. I might get some precision ground steel from AKS to save myself some time. I'm hoping to get some more scale materials together soon, mainly folder supplies as that is where I have a following.
I joined the local Maker Spacer which has a few tools but is not ideal. They do have a Wazer mini waterjet which is huge, I trained on it when I checked out the place. Grinder is a big thing to get and I have two plans on that, I might get some help from a manufacturer but we talk later today. I must gete a grinder asap. The maker space has a big knee mill, I saw a dial indicator and holder so hopefully I can tram it well enough to make folders. I can cnc route inset lock frames and I think I know the router program they run, very steep learning curve so may make liner locks if it is too dificult.
So Maker Space to waterjet or route frames, mill to drill them and do milling processes, hand lap blades (this may be a small stopping point and I'll send them off for double disc hopefully) heat treat in house (no plates but I think I'll be OK), figure out grinder situation to grind bevels/finish.
Long term goal is to finance another Tormach because I can do almost everything on a 440 and my grinder with a kiln.
I live out in the country and can set up my grinder out in the yard right now. A good friend is locating free construction supplies to see of we can throw something together on the burnt slab, it will take a lot as I have just tons of roof debris on top of everything and need knife income to make anything happen. The fire was so hot it just vaporized stuff like my bandsaw, turned my car wheels, grinder wheels into piles of metal dust way beyond just melted.
I'll get some pics and videos up, I need to re-up my knifemaker membership here first which I want to do.
My wife and I work together full time on the knives, we both lost our jobs and the place we worked at.
So, I know I can do this. There are a million little things I need to get this going. I feel very positive I can get this back to better than ever pretty quickly. I really appreciate the help!
