- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
- Messages
- 3,258
...so little time. 
Seems like the older one gets, the faster time goes by. The sense of time passing has me anxious to work more on my knifemaking, but I am also anxious and somewhat melancholy about time passing me by in general.
I guess this is less of a rant and more of a lament. I hope you all don't mind reading my musings this morning. I sense a lot of you are also squeezed for time in your daily lives, and many of you want something more out of it all.
I'm working out these days. Trying to lose some weight and regulate my blood sugar. This crap takes time! It's time I don't have. Instead of perfecting my craft, I am pumping iron and running treadmills and swimming and sitting in the steam room sniffing eucalyptus. I'm starting to feel better, and that's a good thing, but danged if it aint taking time away from the shop.
I'm going full time in July, come hell or high water. I have two loans to pay off between now and then, and that will happen effortlessly. I'm fairly stocked up. I have loads of steel, but not too much in handle materials. I'll have to work on that. I'm not very fond of wood handles, but I'll have to explore more in that area. As far as tooling goes, I have my knifemaking shop, complete with mill and lathe, but I'll be losing the surface grinder I was using at work. That sux. I'll have to get one of those.
I been thinking about building a new smithy too. I have some trepidations about that. The old one fell in a couple years ago from the heavy snows. I salvaged the gear, but the building was shot. I plowed it into a pile and set fire to it last spring - just to clear the spot it was on. It wasn't without some regret, but at the time, my shoulder and elbow was in pretty tough shape. I could hardly hold a hammer, much less strike hot steel with it.
But this time is different. I have some money to rebuild, and I want to get a press this time, maybe an air hammer. The trouble is that my neighborhood has evolved into a "higher-rent" area, so to speak, and property values have doubled in the last three years. Thats good for me because I can sell my house now and make a bundle. Its bad, because I don't want to bother building a new smithy to house my hotworking equipment when I know it more than likely will not be of any use to any future owner. That would mean more money out of my pocket.
Instead, I got my eye on some property closer to town. It's an old rundown shack, more or less. I woudl billdoze it and build a shop on it. Buy some better machines and hang my shingle outside and offer machining services to augment my knifemaking. Hey! It could work!
I dunno. Guess I'll keep plugging along until I finally leave my job, and freedom - sweet freedom - is mine at last.
Hey thanks for reading. I just feel like rambling sometimes. This post probably should be attached to the knifemakers woes thread, but that thread is rather outdated now. I'm glad I got my friends here to bounce things off of.
Peace, my brothers! Have a good day.
Seems like the older one gets, the faster time goes by. The sense of time passing has me anxious to work more on my knifemaking, but I am also anxious and somewhat melancholy about time passing me by in general.
I guess this is less of a rant and more of a lament. I hope you all don't mind reading my musings this morning. I sense a lot of you are also squeezed for time in your daily lives, and many of you want something more out of it all.
I'm working out these days. Trying to lose some weight and regulate my blood sugar. This crap takes time! It's time I don't have. Instead of perfecting my craft, I am pumping iron and running treadmills and swimming and sitting in the steam room sniffing eucalyptus. I'm starting to feel better, and that's a good thing, but danged if it aint taking time away from the shop.
I'm going full time in July, come hell or high water. I have two loans to pay off between now and then, and that will happen effortlessly. I'm fairly stocked up. I have loads of steel, but not too much in handle materials. I'll have to work on that. I'm not very fond of wood handles, but I'll have to explore more in that area. As far as tooling goes, I have my knifemaking shop, complete with mill and lathe, but I'll be losing the surface grinder I was using at work. That sux. I'll have to get one of those.
I been thinking about building a new smithy too. I have some trepidations about that. The old one fell in a couple years ago from the heavy snows. I salvaged the gear, but the building was shot. I plowed it into a pile and set fire to it last spring - just to clear the spot it was on. It wasn't without some regret, but at the time, my shoulder and elbow was in pretty tough shape. I could hardly hold a hammer, much less strike hot steel with it.
But this time is different. I have some money to rebuild, and I want to get a press this time, maybe an air hammer. The trouble is that my neighborhood has evolved into a "higher-rent" area, so to speak, and property values have doubled in the last three years. Thats good for me because I can sell my house now and make a bundle. Its bad, because I don't want to bother building a new smithy to house my hotworking equipment when I know it more than likely will not be of any use to any future owner. That would mean more money out of my pocket.
Instead, I got my eye on some property closer to town. It's an old rundown shack, more or less. I woudl billdoze it and build a shop on it. Buy some better machines and hang my shingle outside and offer machining services to augment my knifemaking. Hey! It could work!
I dunno. Guess I'll keep plugging along until I finally leave my job, and freedom - sweet freedom - is mine at last.
Hey thanks for reading. I just feel like rambling sometimes. This post probably should be attached to the knifemakers woes thread, but that thread is rather outdated now. I'm glad I got my friends here to bounce things off of.
Peace, my brothers! Have a good day.
Not your though.