Well, I remembered to bring the D70 for morning 2, but left the memory card at home-HA We spent the morning watching a demo and then I started another smaller blade with the leftover piece of steel from the handle of this one.
I removed all the scale off the blade with the belt sander and a 36 grit belt. Next comes the handle. We had some cherry wood left over from our mantle, so I'm using that. Eric cut me some nice little handle sized pieces.

After drilling holes for rivets(I'm using silver), I traced around the blade handle, then cut out the shape using a hack saw and band saw. Not the way you might think, going around the traced edge, but we had to cut little "rays" in from the edge all the way around the shape, then go back and trim them off. The wood is too thick to just cut like a jig saw, the saw blade would have broken.

After that, I went back to the belt sander, and cleaned up the edges. Now the handle is off the knife so we can temper the blades. The above photo shows the knife after I cut the handles, but before sanding them.

A coke fire is much better for tempering than gas, so Ray built a fire and did a demo. First the blade must be made hard by bringing it up to a non magnetic state and slowly quenching in oil. This is the quick qay to do it. A better way would be to bring it up to heat, then let it cool slowly, over night in a bucket of vermiculite.

Now the steel is very hard , but too brittle for a knife, it would just snap when you used it. So the blade now has to be tempered by brining it up to the desired heat for the hardness you want. This is done by watching the colors of the metal. I will be going for a blue/purple, which I might just leave on the steel. I think it would look cool with the cherry wood and silver rivets. I will probably sharpen the blade before tempering, so I have that option.

Knife making-Day 1

Today I spent the day making a knife over at Pieh Tools Blacksmithing Supplies, where I took the blacksmithing workshop last year. This year it is a knife making workshop with world renowned knife maker, Ray Rybar. With the Holidays around the corner, the timing wasn't great, but I could not pass up a chance to learn from this extremely talented crafts person. We started off with a section of coil spring. I was a little late, as today there was school, but i'm assuming it came off a car. Before beginning, we heard about the different kinds of steel, and the best ones to use for knives. High carbon steel is quite strong, but can be brittle and is difficult to work with, so we used a medium grade, which can also be quite strong, and somewhat more forgiving than steel with a higher carbon content. Then a demo, and off to the forge.

I forgot my D70 in the morning, so I didn't shoot the early couple of stages. First we had to straighten out the spring over the anvil, then we used the power hammer to flatten it out. In the above shot, I have started to form the blade end.

That's Ray on the right and Amy, the owner of Pieh tools. It's always nice when the pro gives your piece a little help!

Starting to look like something...

I was working the handle end at this point, letting it cool so i could figure out a good length.

Almost finished for the here, the handle needs a little more tapering, then a grinding to get the 'profile', or general shape the knife will be before sanding it clean.

Ok, really, how COOL is that?!

Stay tuned....

My commute to Jerome

OK, so I'm driving to Jerome, and thought that a little photo journey would be good for the blog :)
Keep in mind that I was clicking as I was driving, so the pictures aren't the greatest. First Highway 260 to Cottonwood, about 15 miles. Jerome is up on the right edge of Mingus Mountain, on the left.

Sedona off to the right, about 20 miles.

Entrance to the dirt bike trails, a little less than halfway to Cottonwood.
We saw a tarantula there last summer-awesome!

Made it through the strip mall part of Cottonwood, I am now headed towards Old Town. Funky little part of town with nice little shops and a couple good restaraunts. We found Gelato there!

Through Cottonwood, i'm now in Clarkdale. When Jerome was a mining town, the bigwigs lived in Clarkdale, while the mine workers lived up on the hill. There are two ways to get through Cottonwood. I decided to take the longer way this morning. There is all kinds of construction the other way.

Now I'm headed "up the hill" towards Jerome. Jerome sits on the side of Cleopatra hill on Mingus Mountain, in the Black mountain range.

Had a slow moving RV in front of me, so I could click away.

Up, up, up. It's only about four miles up the hill :)

Almost there. Can you see the "J" on the peak? It lights up at night :)

Straight ahead(red roof) is the Ghost City Inn, a little haunted Hotel.

The co-op is the tall building on the right. It was the Hotel Jerome back in the day, and was pretty fancy for the times. Phones in every room! First and largest single poured concrete building in AZ when it was built in 1917. Deemed almost fireproof. Couldn't get Completely fireproof status because of the wood window frames. We occupy the street level, and there is private studio space and storage on the upper three levels.

On the left, are two shops that also carry my work. The owner, Christy Fisher, is also a member of the Co-op. Apartments on the upper floors.

MAde it! This is the view from where I park my car. The San Francisco Peaks In Flagstaff are coverd with snow.

A look back down the hill. The Co-op is a couple buildings down the street to the right. I took about 90 pictures on the 45 minute journey, but you get the general idea. Not a bad commute!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had rain and fog to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, and the day before. The above photo was taken at about 8:30 am on Friday. This was the view out the back.

Same view, two hours later. So nice to have a few rainy days, but just as nice to have the sun come out again!

Took a field trip with the second graders today. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, a Sinaguan Indian cliff dwelling. It was thought to be Aztecan when it was first discovered, hence the name.

The kids had fun reading the info plaques. We had a worksheet with questions to answer.

Overlooking the banks of Beaver Creek, the inhabitants were farmers, and built elaborate irrigation systems to water their crops.

It was a cloudy day, and we even got sprinkled on a tiny bit. Looks like fall!

After lunch, the kids got some play time. Good climbing tree. Doug is in the red shirt.

The view from the top of Montezuma's Well, a limestone sinkhole that pumps a ton(IDK the gals per hr) of water into Beaver Creek.

Waterfront property!

We hiked down to the bottom of the well first and saw where the water leaves the well to feed into the creek. Then we hiked down the outside to see where the water comes out.

This is the outside where the water exits the well, and feeds into Beaver Creek. the water stays a constant 78 degrees. I'm sure I read about why the last time we were there, but can't remember :) Google!

A nice field trip, and a short bus ride!! The castle is about five minutes from school and the well is another fifteen or so. A good time was had by all, and it was nice to be out on a cloudy day!

Rain is supposed to show up tomorrow, and storms are in the forecast through the weekend-yippee!

I brought my forge and anvil to the Village Gallery for a little demo on Saturday for the grand opening. It was a little like being in a fishbowl, but whatever. The gallery is right on highway 179, the main road going into Sedona from interstate 17, so there is a good amount of traffic driving by.
I hammered for a few hours, until the daylight ran out. i had to let the forge cool down too, so i could pack it back into my car. It wasn't that big a deal to move it, so I would probably do it again. Maybe up in Jerome too!

The boys came with me, and stayed for a couple hours. After a couple trips to the convenience store across the street, they were pretty much done.

boys forging

Yesterday, Max wanted to try out the forge. I was all over that. Of course when Doug found out what was going on, he had to join the party. They started out making spirals.

Here are the finished products!! Max's is on the left. Pretty darn good for first tries. I'm so proud :)

The sun is setting...

I wanted to post yesterday, right after the election, but I think the site was too busy-couldn't get the pics to upload.
Anyway, the sun is setting on the Bush administration and it's a beautiful thing!

Obama almost took AZ-What a slap in the face that would have been!!! The future looks promising my friends....

This picture has nothing to do with anything. It rained the other day-yippee! This was about as much as we got, and it was dried up in ten minutes. Hopefully the clouds will start rolling in soon. Last year the rain startd early in dec. We're hoping for lots of snow up in Flagstaff!

Field Trip

Max is taking a field trip with school today to the Grand Canyon. they will take a bus to Williams, then hop on the train to the Canyon. Lots of travel time, but I'm sure he will have a blast. The kids don't know it, but the train is going to get 'robbed'.

The building on the left is the site of the newest Cooperative gallery I am joining. One of the artists at the Jerome Co-op works for a resort that is opening this place for tourists to book various tours in Sedona, and they are letting her put artwork in as well. Perfect location on the main road leading to Sedona from the interstate. She's planning on opening tomorrow! Crazy stuff going on right now, but it's all good!

AWWWW

I caught Joe giving the kitty a little bath. This was the second time. The first time,when I got the camera, and he stopped and put an irritated look on his face. This time he let us watch the love fest. Very sweet.

Montezuma's Well

Last weekend we took a little field trip to Montezuma's Well, a National Monument just north of CV a little bit. It is a limestone sinkhole, and quite unique for the desert. The water has an exceptionally high carbon dioxide content, making it unfriendly for fish.
I had the macro lens on my camera, so I couldn't get a full shot. Next time.

We were standing way up above the well here. The peak in the middle of the pic is right near our house, so from miles away, we can see where home is.

Instead of hiking down to the edge of the well, we opted for the outside, to see where the water leaves the well and feeds into Beaver Creek. We can take the other trail next time, when I have the right lens on the camera.

Checking out some bugs on the bush. Max complained pretty much the whole time, but I think he had a decent time anyway. Eric headed home to watch football and I took the boys up to Flagstaff for a little Target fix afterwards, so everyone ended up happy.