What's happening in the David Mary Custom shop?

I don't bring my handles to a high grit or polish but that's never been important to me. What is extremely important to me is that my knives have no points or sharp edges on them anywhere but the blade.

This handle is now through with all machine and dremel work and ready for hand sanding to tighten up ergos and finish consistency.

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From coarse to satin, next attach handles then home for dinner and fluffy cat brushing. I'll shape these handles Monday and make sheaths for everything then as well. Then they wil be ready to go out.

I have only three left on the books after this with materials I have in stock and then I'll have time to make whatever I want, until the AEB-L run gets back from heat treatment. Jarod said they are almost done so the time of Santokus and Scouts is drawing near.

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David Mary said:
From coarse to satin, next attach handles then home for dinner and fluffy cat brushing. I'll shape these handles Monday and make sheaths for everything then as well. Then they wil be ready to go out.

I have only three left on the books after this with materials I have in stock and then I'll have time to make whatever I want, until the AEB-L run gets back from heat treatment. Jarod said they are almost done so the time of Santokus and Scouts is drawing near.

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How are things with my upcoming Magnacut "knife that shall not be named yet but sounds familiar yet smaller in Spanish" which is cut down to 3.5" blah blah blah... ?
 
David Mary said:
I have only three left on the books after this with materials I have in stock
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DocJekl said:
How are things with my upcoming Magnacut "knife that shall not be named yet but sounds familiar yet smaller in Spanish" which is cut down to 3.5" blah blah blah... ?
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It's one of the three. Actually, four now. Oops, five. 😅
 
DocJekl said:
Except it's not hidden.
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Mom and I talked Saturday night, and we agreed that this talent, if that's what it is, was indeed hidden, and that the ... system, for lack of a better word, did nothing to help us identify it in my childhood/youth. In the last few years I have often thought back on this incident as a missed opportunity of the system to help point me in the right direction to find my calling. I never had a mentor direct me even to shop class, which is a shame, because even from a young age I was artistically inclined, and often told by teachers I was intelligent and special. I just thought they were saying those things to make me do schoolwork, which I hated, and barely ever did. In fact, I often spent more time in class doodling sword pictures than I did taking notes! I don't think I have admitted this publicly yet, but I actually dropped out of high school before I finished Grade 11 (I got one half of my red seal certification when I was 17 [meaning none of it lol], and then got my GED certification in my early 20s, when I realized I'd likely be stuck in restaurant kitchens my whole life otherwise). Maybe if I'd had someone to direct me earlier into the types of crafts that I have ultimately come to enjoy doing in my adulthood, I might have been farther ahead. No regrets, only pushing forward. Now I get to serve a great community by putting something good into the world that makes others lives a little easier and a little more joyful. But I went through two decades of moving from one unsatisfying unskilled labor job to another before I finally landed here. Would you believe that even though I am still pretty new at full time knife making (ie three years since the layoff from the factory) I have actually been doing it for longer than I previously stuck with any one job before? And there is nothing I would rather be doing.
 
Sounds a lot like my school years. One particular parent-teacher conference, my mother was informed that I couldn’t tell you anything about the day’s social studies class, but I could tell you anything you wanted to know about the crow outside on the window sill. Except I did finish high school, and graduate college … eventually … barely. They did discover I had a talent for music at around 9 years old. They got me into the accordion, which I was very good at it, but eventually grew to hate by the time I was 19 and majoring in it in college. After two years I changed my major and sold the accordions. I did teach myself piano and keyboards and finally did something with those in my later years, but I never had the kind of passion for it that you need to make a living at it. I also learned at some point that I had a half decent singing voice, but I had no idea I could have benefited from voice training or a singing coach - I thought it was just something you either had or you didn’t. If I had known at a younger age, I might have pursued that training, and who knows, maybe my mug would have been on one of these album covers people take pictures of their knives on. Or I could have ended up like Kurt Kobain. I did get some voice training much later, but it was too late to save the range I had when I was younger.

But yeah, life is full of what-ifs. If your talent had been found at a younger age, would you have had the maturity, focus and discipline to hone it? Would a mentor have been able to keep you on track, or would you have rebelled against that? Would I have had the same for developing my voice? Who knows. I sure didn’t with the accordion, and I had a very good teacher who tried very hard to keep me focused on it. A lot of it depends on the influences we fall in with, many times by accident. Sometimes people luck into their passions early, sometimes late, sometimes they search them out and find them, and sometimes - maybe most times - never at all. If you find it, whether early or late, you’re one of the lucky ones.
 
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David:
I am glad you found your calling. If I could go back in time and do it all over again I would learn welding, machining and knife making. Making things that are beautiful and functional from slabs of steel is amazing. The time it took for you to find your path showed perseverance and determination as well as a sense of humility. Your dedication to your art/craft now is appreciated by those of us lucky enough to be a part of your journey. Thank you for what you do, for being accessible to us, and for sharing your time and personal stories.
 
Coarse

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And I had to reboot my phone before it would upload the pic or let me post. I bet dollars to donuts it will do the same thing again. I'll know in a sec. If you don't hear from me for a while you know why.
 
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