Making a kwaiken with Mr. Mike ***COOP PHOTOS ADDED***

Two of my favorite Knife People: Doing good, having fun, supporting our interests.

Good thread! :thumbsup: :D
 
Very nice thread. I knew from Mike that he was "going to Matt's", was pretty sure he meant to visit you, but didn't expect to see it actually documented. Very cool thread, great knives, of course!
 
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I tried to find something in the background of the photos to make fun of, but couldn't. Disappointing, but I did notice that the orientation of these hose clamps puts the screw head at the wrong angle to access easily with a screwdriver, so I'll point it out so that M.Gregory gets bothered every time he sees them, and eventually can't handle it and spins them 180 degrees. I do like how they're oriented the same, though.

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Matthew Gregory said:
I’m left-handed. They’re perfectly accessible.


:D
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Ohh they're Aussie hose clamps then. Well next time if there's something funny to make fun of in the background of your photos there won't be any overthought confusion.

*edit* actually it looks like one of the hose clamps is about 1-2 degrees off of from the other one. Maybe it's just lighting.
 
Thank you all for the great and encouraging comments. It was a truly enjoyable time for me. And thanks to Matt and his very tolerant wife for putting up with me for a week. It really felt like a home away from home.

It's pretty hard to beat starting the days with a morning hike in the cold, fresh air, of the nearby forestry area with Brokk (and Matt) after a cup of Matt's home roasted coffee. (He also makes a killer pizza and roast).

Getting to spend much of the day in Matt's well organized shop was pretty much a thrill for me. Hard to surpass being able to talk about, play with, and even make knives everyday for a week. He took some nice pictures making it appear that I knew what I was doing. I was able to do a lot of the work, but things would not have gone so smoothly had not Matt been there and had the patience to instruct, correct, and fine tune my novice efforts. Making those little kwaiken, from cutting out the profile on the band saw, to grinding the bevels, to doing the final handle wrap was a most gratifying experience. Could not have asked for more.

When we had a bit of down time due to steel heating up, cooling down, or just plain freezing at sub zero temperatures, we did a bit of site seeing.
This is at Letchworth State Park. I'm told that it is refereed to as the Grand Canyon of New York. A very beautiful, but cold, that day, park. Very happy to have been able to visit.

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The week went by very fast and I enjoyed every minute of it. If Matt is not careful, he my find a troll permanently living within the shadows of his shop. Mike
 
One cannot hold back the tides of quality. Matt decided it was worthy of a special set of shots to fully display these capable knives to all:

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Note the nicely rounded spine on Mike's blade, and the accurate swedge on Matt's.

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I handled them both with a critical eye. :confused: Mike, you have Madd Skillz, and Matt is an EXTRAORDINARY teacher.

These were terrific! The twins have parted and are going back to their respective homes tomorrow.

Good thread. :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Ha! I had no clue that these were coming. Matt asked if he could delay shipping mine to me so that he could show them to a “friend”. And while Coop is indeed a friend, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. What a pleasant surprise and fine way to remember the week. Great idea Matt, and very much appreciated.

As always, you’ve done a very fine job of capturing the twins! Thank you, Coop. Mike
 
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