Armour Cutlery

This isn't supposed to be a "blog" as such, just an occasional posting of thoughts springing from the demented mind of a bladesmith on way to little sleep and way too much caffeine.

6-08-09: Surviving Blade

I went to the BLADE Show in Atlanta last weekend.  This is THE show for the knife industry and by far the biggest.  I was stunned by the number of people there.  Friday I commented on how big the crowd was only to be told that this was slow and the crowd would be "right" on Saturday (he wasn't kidding- it was busy).  Having Mastersmiths like Ed Fowler and Joe Szlanski suddenly be in front of you table looking at your blades can be intimdating, but it is a great experience for a developing bladesmith.  I got a tone of ideas to tighten up my fit and finish, and learned a bunch about metalurgy that will help the performance of my blades.  I want to thank Mr. Singley, Mr. Kelly, Mr. & Mrs. Jones, and the folks from Woodlab for putting up with the poor luck of spending the weekend next to a ADHD teacher who is really not used to sitting behind a table for 3 days.  Also, Mr & Mrs. Whitney, it's always a pleasure to see you again.  Knifemakers are a great bunch of people, and it's to the point now where it is less like 3 days alone and more like a reunion.  BLADE is an experience any knife fan should experience.  The 11 hour car ride home with a power-puking 3 year old, a 6 year old human pinball machine,  and a whiney teenager is an experience I would skip if I were you.

6-8-09: Summer Plans

 Just to let everyone in on some plans for the summer:

I'm phasing out using 1095 as a knife steel.  I'm switching over to using just O-1 and L-6.  Not that 1095 doesn't make an excellent knife, I'm just wanting to stick to using 2 steels and I like my performance from O-1 and L-6. 

Not that 1095 is going to disapear from my shop.  I got started making knives from blade kits, and I've noticed that most kits now are stainless steel and I saw multiple tables at Blade selling the same blade blanks.  I'm going to roll out a line of blade blanks to sell here this fall.  They won't be forged, but cut or ground (still figuring out which is more cost effective) out of 1095 barstock, ground to 220 grit, and clay quenched and tempered.   More details to come as I hammer out the details, but expect about 12 different models.

Thanks for looking.  More to post later.