What I did instead of getting Knives Finished

W

Will Leavitt

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Jul 28, 2006
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Here's some pictures of my youngest daughter, Sarah, 10 years old. My ex-wife likes to drop projects on me without notification, I don't mind but probably be a little courteous to ask if I had plans.

Anyways, the pictures are Sarah using the rasp and wondering why I don't let her use the Burr King. Sarah spraying sealer, Sarah hand sanding and wondering why I don't let her use the BK.. lastly the finished car. She didn't want to tape off the window areas :(, it's her car so I guess I can't complain.
 

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I emailed pictures to some customers that I was supposed to finish up some blades for this weekend. I hope they understand, if not then I probably don't want them as customers.
 
Bill Moran was leaving his shop on day to go feed his dogs. A wealthy customer pulled up and stopped Bill, saying he was traveling through the area and wanted to talk about a knife he had on order. Bill told the man that he was just leaving to feed his dogs, and would be back in an hour or so. The customer gave Bill a cold look, and said," Which is more important,your dogs dinner or my knife!" Bill got in his old truck and said ( as he started the engine) , "You figure it out.".....and drove away.
Bill told me he never had any use for people who didn't care about dogs.
Stacy
 
that reminds me of the cars we made in Scouts when I was a kid. Good fun!

Just remember, sometimes you have to deal with pricks. Sometimes, 'dealing with them' means telling them to eff off. Problem solved, right?:D
 
Actually they all emailed me back and said they fully understood and that the knives would be finished when they were supposed to be finished. Cool! they kind of have the same mentality that I have about things. :D Makes me happy to have them as customers.
 
bladsmth said:
Bill Moran was leaving his shop on day to go feed his dogs. A wealthy customer pulled up and stopped Bill, saying he was traveling through the area and wanted to talk about a knife he had on order. Bill told the man that he was just leaving to feed his dogs, and would be back in an hour or so. The customer gave Bill a cold look, and said," Which is more important,your dogs dinner or my knife!" Bill got in his old truck and said ( as he started the engine) , "You figure it out.".....and drove away.
Bill told me he never had any use for people who didn't care about dogs.
Stacy
Click to expand...

This is priceless and says a lot about Bill.

I appreciate you sharing this.




Will,

Without a doubt, you handled this like a father who cares for his child.

Good choice.

Put this in the fond memories file.

Fred

I have cassette tapes that I made with my son, It was Easter and we colored eggs together.

He was five, I was his hero.:)
 
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This thread reminds me of when I used to work nights... sometimes I had to be late or take a couple hours off to go deal with a parent-teacher conference, my kid's school play, etc. I always offered to either punch out and not get paid, come back and stay late to make my production, or use vacation time. My boss never did understand why it was necessary for me to do this stuff... maybe that's why he's been divorced three times and his grown daughters want nothing to do with him. *shrug*

F#&* money, family comes first! No one ever laid on their death-bed and said, "Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office/shop and less time with my family."
 
I wish I could miss work when I'm on nights but my employer isn't very understanding and the slowdown during the first 2 months made me burn a lot of my vacation days so I wasn't totally broke come payday.

My kids are just happy I'm around. Years of tramping around the world for Uncle Sugar has made them appreciate just being to talk to me on the phone.
 
Thats awesome Will, you'll make a knifemaker out of yet!!! I remember wanting to make one of them cars when I was young but never did, There was to much work to be done in the GARDEN!!! as my Grandfather would say,LOL
 
She's tried... she forges a point in about as well as you do Charlie :p She's small for her age and can't really swing a hammer hard or large enough to move much metal :(
 
She could probaly do better than me with her eyes closed, one handed:D, My 2 nephews love to come to the basement and make knives as they call it, I finally just got them 2 very small ball peen hammers and they just beat on a piece of junkyard steel They love it tho!!
 
What Mr. Edmondson said.

Will, get her a lil teeny ball-peen and a thin piece of steel, and let her go to work. Who cares if it doesn't turn out good? You're investing your time and attention on your lil' monster (as I call mine). I've sat and watched my daughter hand-polish a piece of mild steel for an hour. No real purpose to it, other than chillin' together :) It makes me smile when my kidlet puts on "her very own safety goggles" to come in the shop and watch me work. "Daddy, why ya do that?" I love to answer those questions.

I've said it a hundred times; my Dad and uncles and Grampa spent that kind of time on me when I was little, and I'm eternally grateful :)
 
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Oh she's got her own safety glasses, ear muffs, gloves, hammers, respirator and she's beaten on some steel and actually "helped" polish some blades. She actually does a pretty good job of hand stitching leather, just can't get her to stick at it long enough to do a sheath :( After her weekend visits I normally spend a lot of time cleaning up her messes like the other weekend she wanted to know what wood chisels did, I put a piece of clean 1x4 in the wood dog and let her rip at it.... course I had about 40# of wood shavings to clean up :p
 
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