What's happening in the David Mary Custom shop?

Surface grinder was another suggestions. And a good one! I see shops that have mutiple grinder stations on multiple benches. Looks convenient. I am not in a position to do it now.

Remember I’m a high school drop out (got my GED with high marks at 24, though) who worked entry level hospitality industry jobs in young adulthood, stupidly drank every weekend, and thus never had money.

Age thirty or thereabouts started taking life and its true purpose a little more seriously but still had not much money until about age 35 when I got a decent factory job making $20 an hour and started blowing all my money on knife stuff and RRSPs (Canadian 401K).

Then Covid and I financially barely survived the first year after the layoff due to both consuming all my savings and being blessed by a few guys “putting me through knife making school” that buying my work and enabling me to keep going. I had been a hobbyist since 2015, but made as many knives or more between march and August of 2020 as I had previously done in the past five years before that.

A married guy with kids and a house and car would probably not make ends meet on the money I’ve made so far.

So I have to be very selective about what I spend my money on, and it has to have a clear and undeniable benefit that justifies the expenditure.

The reblade project I attempted in 2021 I think it was, ended up setting me back significantly. Logically I could probably do reblades to most peiples delight now that I have improved at CAD design and other skills. Maybe even a folding knife. But for many reason including psychological I am not ready to take that step.

And on and on.

I make fixed blades. I’m getting decent at it. And I just invested a bunch of your money and mine into a pile of blade blanks for that purpose, expecting to follow my familiar and proven process, improving it as I go. So that’s the plan for now.
However it happened , I'm selfishly thankful for your knife making . 🙏

Just some incredible , brilliant stuff you create .

It's a gift , yes , but still it's yours .

Your economy of work and generosity , allows me to actually own some . 🥳

Some of my most used and prized, are your work . Special , in a way not possible , for my mass produced products .

I never before, even remotely , considered become involved in buying custom anything .

I'm thankful for the experience . Better late than never . ☺️
 
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:

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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.

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I’m really liking the mill scale left on the unground flats of the blade.
 
Was hoping someone would pick up that ball and run. oldmanwilly oldmanwilly knows where I mean.
Little known fact: not everything is automatically bigger in Texas. Sometimes ya need to soak it in spring water for a bit first.

Although, in the German areas you'll need to add some salt and vinegar. South of Hwy 90 you'll need lime and chile powder.
 
I stand corrected.
 
My whole world is suddenly upside down
 
It just sorta happened out of nowhere. And it’s all my fault.

these clamps are in the wrong place 🤦😖

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