March 13th, 2017

The time just flies by.

Struggling all winter to finish projects, keep the shop fairly organized, all the while attempting to take steps toward improving our products and process so we can be ready to take more orders and actually do some real marketing to those who haven’t found our website.

I’ve been grinding my first batch of CPM3V blades. It’s not as challenging as I had been lead to believe.  I still get very good belt life from the Cubitron 36 grit.  I really can’t tell much of a difference from annealed 1095, except that 3V sparks less.

This week I aim to get that batch ready for heat treatment, which  means a fair bit of finish grinding and hand work to make sure all the geometry is right before things get hardened.

I recently took our 3D printer in to be upgraded with new firmware, nozzle and material profiles, so with luck, I’ll be able to print out some prototypes of various knife designs and other inventions, as well as make a few production parts for sheaths.  I’m thinking that the locking mechanism for the bowie knife could be made from ABS plastic and hold up fairly well.  It would save me from having to make it from micarta by hand.

On the list for this spring:

Finish all Anubis tomahawks and contact verbal order customers to see if they are still interested in what we have available.

Finish all other 1095 blades that are heat treated and Cerakoted (Grips, sheaths, sharpening) and then revise the website to operate more like an online store for inventory that we actually have.

Generate some new designs to be made from 3/16 1095: Kodiak one hander, Kodiak XL, Kitchen knives, Revised Lotor S.E.R.E. knife, and others.

Finish design and construction of tools for tomahawk and knife production so that I don’t have to do every operation by myself with just my hands and eyes.

Work on a few secret side projects and see where they lead.

As always, I want to try to do a great job of answering emails and getting my blades into people’s hands who will appreciate the time and effort I put into them. If you have a question, or want to order one of my blades, don’t hesitate to contact me.

So far, this adventure hasn’t really been about making money, but about building a reputation, enjoying my craft, and accumulating the necessary knowledge and tools so that we can take it to the next level, and actually make a good living by putting quality tools on the market for folks to enjoy for generations.