What's happening in the David Mary Custom shop?

[DocJD]

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My beloved wife makes me a daily "honey do " job list , that somehow often ends up with strange damage as seen above ^^^ .

Can't imagine how that happens !

Edit to add : We now have 5 cats , so they are very handy to blame things on .

 

[David Mary]

Haven't even had my coffee yet, and now I see this.



Look where Havelock is in this pic of the projection for around 1:20 pm (two and a half hours from now):



And what's coming after:


Maybe a good thing that I put extra hours in yesterday.

 

[David Mary]

florida ain't lookin so bad now.......

You should move to Florida.

I know

 

[Maximumbob54]

To be fair, Florida did see it's first snow this recent winter. Saw it for a couple of hours or so. I'm sure it was shocking to many.

 

[David Mary]

Florida did see it's first snow this recent winter

Exactly.

 

[David Mary]

Well, just glugged a coffee and better get there and finish as much as I can before God installs our new province-wide hockey arena.

 

[jbmonkey]

Exactly.

not down where I am. those parts that got snow are basically alabama and georgia

 

[David Mary]

Let’s go!

 

[SharpBits]

Might need more firewood.

 

[David Mary]

Had been keeping these in a canvas grocery bag but that was getting tedious stuffing them back in. This is better.

 

[David Mary]

Platen needs a clean before this step. The rest of the gunk is either underneath in very shallow recesses on the platen. It’s been in there a while. Once I can’t get a finish to my standard it gets flipped over or if that’s been done as it has on this one, replaced.

 

[David Mary]

My belt satin finishes are what I consider working finishes and have never been perfect, especially on MagnaCut and other high carbide steels. But the WD-40 trick I learned in the surface condition belts thread in Bladesmith Questions and Answers a couple weeks ago has proved to be a time saver and help me get my satin finishes a little nicer particularly on MagnaCut. Looking forward to trying it on 3V as well.

 

[David Mary]

So now these get a shop towel alcohol wipe before electrochem etching my mark on. Sheaths are outside getting sprayed by me helper. Then they can be banged together with eyelets.

 

[David Mary]

Probably start by cleaning the contact and replacing the pad. Maybe.

 

[David Mary]

Been in this same bottle since the very first makers mark I ever did. Probably enough in there for another few dozen marks. And I’m pretty sure I’ve even always used it too liberally.

 

[David Mary]

This will easily do thirty of forty marks. I’ll change it after twenty, probably.

 

[David Mary]

 

[SharpBits]

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Loverly!

 

[David Mary]

Thanks. What do you think of my new easy clean sheath format?

 

[David Mary]

Make no mistake though, it’s still quite difficult for me to get a nice satin finish on these steels. Still far from perfect. Behold:








But that word has also never been an attribute of my work, even though some guys tell me their knife I made was perfect. Truth is I have always been able to find something I want to make at least a little better but I have to work with what I’ve got and just keep aiming for that balance of quality and efficiency that my conscience and budget require. There are three things I find much less room for improvement on however. You can find them on the back of my craftsman card and they also happen to be the most important things to me in a knife since before I ever even made one.