Hey Paul, great to see ya a round buddy!
So we use different parts of the place depending on what we are doing. So when Nichole is making her wildrags or wool vests she places the dining room /cantina into service.
Her main work area we call the office, thats where I'm sitting typing right now. Its a large bedroom really 16'x14' with a bay window and seat all along one side and a walk in closet. Every inch of in here is used for something. Order paperwork, shipping, taxes ,all the business etc all done in here. Geez I took an order this morning at 0530. PST folks, we're on PST. Took one yesterday at the same time come to think of it. The other side of this room has her workbench and her Cobra 18 sewing machine. She has a large granite surface plate to tool on here:
Much of our leather work and all knife making takes place in the extra wide attached three car garage. We call this the outside shop. This was nine years ago, the first time we saw the place when we were looking for a new house. Done a lot to it since then.
I have a 4'x8' cutting table with two sets of shelves for leather storage behind on the south side:
In the center are two 3'x8' work benches butted up together sided by side making one big 6'x8' table. These are covered in cutting matts. At one end is the Cobra 4 and at the other a storage cabinet with the tool chest with most of my leather tools.
Most leather work is done here. I have my tooling stone here and two hydroma cutting boards. One is used for punches and the other for cutting with roundknives.
On the south wall is another 3'x8' workbench. This one is on wheels. It has five buffers mounted to it and I will roll it outside when using it for knife making. I do keep it plugged in while its there against the wall as I'll touch up a roundknife or an edger there using a buffer.
I use the bricks just outside that door on the courtyard wall to dry leather items. They are protected there by the house from our prevailing winds and get a lot of sunshine. On big days you'll sometimes see stuff on the bricks clear on around to over by the fire pit.
To the north of the leather working tables is another 3'x8' workbench. This is the bench that catches all the misc orders and also where I set up the knives when I'm working on a batch. I call this the layout table.
In that pic ya ca see the legs of my two freestanding drill presses. They are normally in that bare space against that wall. There is a window there but I'd pulled them away cause the window had gotten broken, (Nichole had been cutting down some weeds with her lawn tractor and it had tossed a rock) and I had them out of there for the window repair guys that came that day. To the left of the bare space is a lathe that I use for edge burnishing and rubbing.
Perpendicular to the layout table but separated by three feet so ya can walk around easily is a 4'x6' workbench. The other side side butts up against the north wall. Lots of knife work, bolsters, glue up, filework, etc occurs here.
Butting up against this bench and running along the north wall to the door is another 3'x8' bench. This is where all the sawing of blade steels, handle materials, etc happens:
I have another 3'x8' bench that has all my grinders on it. I roll this outside to use. Here my friend Paulie was making a pair of spurs.
I have two plastic tables that I haul all the knives around on. Have used these guys for years. They also hold all the knives while drying during glue up.
Sometimes if its raining I'll be just under the door with my grinders:
But most of the time I'm outside. I do have a 10"x10" Eazyup that I will put over my grinding bench. Mostly thats for the shade. It don't take long looking at that bright shiny metal grinding a blade in full sunlight and your retinas are burnt! Well thats about it. I do use the kitchen oven for baking sheaths and holsters and one of the kitchen counters for dying stuff over night after oiling or tooling. I will use the kitchen table for hand sanding of all the knives prior to buffing them. See we kinda really use the place. Cool thread.
