- Joined
- May 5, 2010
- Messages
- 622
In a rather belated fashion here are the pictures wrapping up several projects (Ladysmith and MS test) that many of you have been a part of in different ways. Here is my MS test set from Caleb. I know some of these have already been posted and you all have been very generous with your comments. Please pardon the duplicates for the sake of having it all in one thread finally. I wanted something different in my group photo and this is what we came up with.
'Fisher Of Men' 13.5" Blade
4 3/4" Handle
... 1080/15N20 6 bar composite blade in 'Batsauce' damascus.
12 bar integral ring guard followed by a grooved spacer also in 'Batsauce' followed by a stainless spacer.
Stabilized African Blackwood fluted handle with twisted argentium wire with an 18 bar carved 'Batsauce' pommel.
click image to enlarge
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Carved Integral
Single twisted W Damascus in 1080/15N20
High relief carved Stabilized African Blackwood handle with hammered bronze spacer.
PDK/EDC
5 1/4" blade
10 1/4" OAL
Laddered damascus 1080/15N20
Twisted 'Batsauce' damascus guard and spacer with hammered bronze shims. Desert ironwood handle
Gyuto
210 mm blade
6 bar Merovingian damascus in 1080/15N20
Stabilized Koa handle with hammered bronze spacer
Keyhole
4" blade
8 3/4" OAL
6 bar Batsauce 1084/15N20
Stabilized African Blackwood handle.
Another long process came to a satisfying conclusion, the Ladysmith knife won Best Collaboration and the auction raised 6500 for a very worthy cause! Of the two acrylic awards that they gave us one was given to the new owner of the knife and the other we decided to bandsaw into five pieces and share. Grace always has such good ideas...here she is teasing me in public at the CKCA banquet.
Our Ladysmith's Aperitif at Maggiano's Bar before the banquet gained another attendee as Andrea Lisch picked up knifemaking this last year. We missed Vero and Silvana this year due to the jetlag of long flights from Belgium and Brazil.
The banquet was a blast as always. I was pretty keyed up about testing the next morning but was able to forget about it for a couple hours visiting with good friends. This was my first time in the mini-show, I really appreciated the chance to display my work to new collectors. Also a big thankyou to Kevin for allowing us to setup the Ladysmith knife there as well. The benefit auction ended Saturday afternoon and we were perhaps unduly excited that it went home with a lady collector. We decided a picture was in order! We stood behind the table, awkwardly grinning while an unlucky show goer we pressed into service took pictures. He politely said, "that looks great". When we looked at Grace's phone we saw the classic BLADE show pic. Yellow tinted and grainy with shiny faces and tired looking bags under your eyes. Surely we can do better than that someone said. Grace and I looked at eachother's hair, both pinned up into buns, most likely still wet underneath and started laughing. "Audra isn't the only one with hair" we declared! Things went downhill rapidly at that point and someone got this picture amid all the off goofing. It was the perfect end to such a fun project.
The next morning the five of us MS applicants gathered early outside the judging room, waiting to place our knives on the table. When they closed the doors we hung around encouraging eachother and dreaming up things to pass the time. I left this photo of Vero and I with my parents in grayscale because that's the color our faces were anyway.
When the doors opened they called out John-Louis but when he walked over there they didn't let him in. Then they called out another name...what in the world? Soon all five of us were standing outside the doors and they let us all in at once. I looked at Veronique and said "That has to be a good sign right? We can't have ALL failed!?" Once inside they told us we had made history, we had all passed, unanimously. I can't really tell you the relief and elation in that moment.
We went out to the Stoney River Steakhouse to celebrate the night after we all tested. My folks had come down with us this year which was really special. Dave and Andrea Lisch, Mike Quesenberry and Mike Deibert rounded out the party for a night we'll always remember. If you haven't heard Dave slamming his original poetry in the sky-bridge on the way back to the Pit I would say you are missing one of the good things in life!
We also got to spend some time with Sam, Claude and Yoni, planning our upcoming Belgium trip. It promises to be quite an adventure.
It's become something of a tradition to take an alpine camping trip to decompress after BLADE. This year we took 8 days, a rifle and a bow. We climbed up the coast mountains behind our house which range from 2500-3000 feet and walked to Leconte Bay which has the glacier that sends all the icebergs onto our beach at home. Here's a few pics from that trip.
'Fisher Of Men' 13.5" Blade
4 3/4" Handle
... 1080/15N20 6 bar composite blade in 'Batsauce' damascus.
12 bar integral ring guard followed by a grooved spacer also in 'Batsauce' followed by a stainless spacer.
Stabilized African Blackwood fluted handle with twisted argentium wire with an 18 bar carved 'Batsauce' pommel.
click image to enlarge
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/471/19753671525_0bfd9d4c89_k.jpg]
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/286/19567096839_ea83726b50_h.jpg]
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/526/19132785373_334b86152c_h.jpg]
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/476/19746479452_754fb2cbc2_h.jpg]
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/395/19567083289_541790bf64_h.jpg]
Carved Integral
Single twisted W Damascus in 1080/15N20
High relief carved Stabilized African Blackwood handle with hammered bronze spacer.
PDK/EDC
5 1/4" blade
10 1/4" OAL
Laddered damascus 1080/15N20
Twisted 'Batsauce' damascus guard and spacer with hammered bronze shims. Desert ironwood handle
Gyuto
210 mm blade
6 bar Merovingian damascus in 1080/15N20
Stabilized Koa handle with hammered bronze spacer
Keyhole
4" blade
8 3/4" OAL
6 bar Batsauce 1084/15N20
Stabilized African Blackwood handle.
Another long process came to a satisfying conclusion, the Ladysmith knife won Best Collaboration and the auction raised 6500 for a very worthy cause! Of the two acrylic awards that they gave us one was given to the new owner of the knife and the other we decided to bandsaw into five pieces and share. Grace always has such good ideas...here she is teasing me in public at the CKCA banquet.
Our Ladysmith's Aperitif at Maggiano's Bar before the banquet gained another attendee as Andrea Lisch picked up knifemaking this last year. We missed Vero and Silvana this year due to the jetlag of long flights from Belgium and Brazil.
The banquet was a blast as always. I was pretty keyed up about testing the next morning but was able to forget about it for a couple hours visiting with good friends. This was my first time in the mini-show, I really appreciated the chance to display my work to new collectors. Also a big thankyou to Kevin for allowing us to setup the Ladysmith knife there as well. The benefit auction ended Saturday afternoon and we were perhaps unduly excited that it went home with a lady collector. We decided a picture was in order! We stood behind the table, awkwardly grinning while an unlucky show goer we pressed into service took pictures. He politely said, "that looks great". When we looked at Grace's phone we saw the classic BLADE show pic. Yellow tinted and grainy with shiny faces and tired looking bags under your eyes. Surely we can do better than that someone said. Grace and I looked at eachother's hair, both pinned up into buns, most likely still wet underneath and started laughing. "Audra isn't the only one with hair" we declared! Things went downhill rapidly at that point and someone got this picture amid all the off goofing. It was the perfect end to such a fun project.
The next morning the five of us MS applicants gathered early outside the judging room, waiting to place our knives on the table. When they closed the doors we hung around encouraging eachother and dreaming up things to pass the time. I left this photo of Vero and I with my parents in grayscale because that's the color our faces were anyway.
When the doors opened they called out John-Louis but when he walked over there they didn't let him in. Then they called out another name...what in the world? Soon all five of us were standing outside the doors and they let us all in at once. I looked at Veronique and said "That has to be a good sign right? We can't have ALL failed!?" Once inside they told us we had made history, we had all passed, unanimously. I can't really tell you the relief and elation in that moment.
We went out to the Stoney River Steakhouse to celebrate the night after we all tested. My folks had come down with us this year which was really special. Dave and Andrea Lisch, Mike Quesenberry and Mike Deibert rounded out the party for a night we'll always remember. If you haven't heard Dave slamming his original poetry in the sky-bridge on the way back to the Pit I would say you are missing one of the good things in life!
We also got to spend some time with Sam, Claude and Yoni, planning our upcoming Belgium trip. It promises to be quite an adventure.
It's become something of a tradition to take an alpine camping trip to decompress after BLADE. This year we took 8 days, a rifle and a bow. We climbed up the coast mountains behind our house which range from 2500-3000 feet and walked to Leconte Bay which has the glacier that sends all the icebergs onto our beach at home. Here's a few pics from that trip.
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