A.D.D. Comes to Trackrock

C

crex

Joined
Oct 4, 2002
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No drug would cure this ailment!!
Andy, Dillon, and Dan all showed up at the Trackrock Hammer-in this past weekend. And.......all three actually tried a bit of forging (I'm holding their work pieces in a safe place in case I need to do any blackmailing).
Was good to have you guys come up and participate along with everyone else. Hope you will come again next spring and step it up a notch.
 
crex said:
No drug would cure this ailment!!
Andy, Dillon, and Dan all showed up at the Trackrock Hammer-in this past weekend. And.......all three actually tried a bit of forging (I'm holding their work pieces in a safe place in case I need to do any blackmailing).
Was good to have you guys come up and participate along with everyone else. Hope you will come again next spring and step it up a notch.
Click to expand...

Oh, they are definitely blackmail worthy. LOL! Mine was nothing short of a ridiculously foolish effort. I think Andy was really the only one that made any kind of headway. Thanks again for having us up there. It's always a pleasure to hang out with you guys.
 
Nothing ridiculous about hot steel.....pretty serious stuff. Just try putting some in your back pocket! Dillon, you got to start somewhere. Can't learn to ride a bike if you don't get on it.
I'll have to come over there to Andy's shop and give you guys some more detailed instruction when I've got time to focus on just you guys. Trackrock is a bit like Waffle House hash browns .... scattered, smothered, covered, diced, etc.
You are always welcome at TR.
 
This was my second Trackrock Hammer-in event, and I really enjoy it a lot. You rub elbows with Carl Rechsteiner (crex), Wayne Hensley, Dennis Bradley, and Rick Lowe to name a few. I always enjoy spending time with these people, and I get to see a lot of great knives there. I always learn a lot, even if I participate just a bit. I bought a Bradley knife, and used it all weekend. So it was all around a great time.

This time I learned to forge the little curley cue that Rick Marchand had forged into the butt of our knife. Its pretty basic easy forging. Quick, and adds a lot to a piece. Carl showed me how to do it, and it was a lot of fun. I'm going to post a wip thread on it.
 
Andy those curly cue's will be a sweet addition to your knives.

This was my first time going to Trackrock to the hammer in, and I just wanted to say that it is awesome being able to work around some of the makers you admire. I know for next time to bring some smaller steel stock so I don't end up making such a big knife...:) I am already looking forward to the next hammer in as well as the next guild meeting coming up in November.

Thanks again Carl for getting me setup with a forge and anvil Saturday, next time I am going to try and bring my own. Oh, and I thought your rasp hawks were so cool, I made one yesterday with the rasp I got from the Iron in the hat.:)

-Adam R
 
Good deal Adam. Just make sure you test your first couple of wrap hawks extensively. Takes a bit of practice to make sure the weld takes solid. Could be embarassing to have one pop open with a customer.
Sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you "big guys", there were too many "little Guys" wanting to get a taste and they come first. Just call me "Hashbrowns".
 
Thanks Adam. It was nice meeting you too. Please post pics of your work here when you finish pieces. I'd like to see your progress, and so would everyone else I bet. I can give you homework if you'd like and you can post WIP's. If I had started making knives as young as you have, I would be a pretty decent maker by now.
 
Thanks guys for the comments,

Carl I do plan on torturing this hawk so I can see how far it will go. The welds appeared to take pretty good, but you never know until you start hacking away at something. I am taking it on a weekend backpacking trip in two weeks so it will really show me what it's got then.

Andy, I have been rather timid about posting my work on here, but I think I will start so there will be an record of my progression. Homework assignments from you would be great, I look up to you as a knife maker and you are a pretty cool guy too :) and honestly, sometimes I run out of ideas. I've never done a WIP post before but it could be interesting.


-Adam
 
Great! Post pictures of each knife you make.

1st homework assignment. Research the pukko, and make a few of those. Post lots of pics and questions. You don't have to do a scandi grind on them. The point is making a very simple knife.
 
Ok Andy, pukko it is. I already have some ideas for them. I like pukkos so this is gonna be fun. I think I am going to make a run of three or four, one stock removal and the others forged. All similar, but each one unique, I may even do a san mai one...:)

I am going to start tonight but I have to go back to work Fri, sat, sun, and mon nights so I don't know how much will get done this week. 12 hour shifts are a pain..

-Adam
 
Yea but you will have tues wed and thrus off. And then you get to work Fri, Sat and Sun day and get Mon off and then work Tues Wed Thurs nite and have the Weekend off and go in Mon-Thurs days and BAM 8 days off!! I myself love my 12 hour shifts and would not want to work anything else.
 
What do you do at 12 hour jaunts?

A batch mentality is necessarary for making $ on knives. Jerry Hossom tought me that.
 
I work at Savannah River Site in Tritium. We do some pretty sweet stuff, a lot of which I can't talk about, but it's not to difficult. It is a lot better than laying hardwood floors, which is what I used to do. The hardest part about my job is actually being there 12 hours :) Needless to say during night shifts, such as this weekend, I can find some time to draw out and design some knives....On lunch break of course.....

-Adam
 
Always liked working in plants on the "off" shifts. Cut way down on distractions, quiet and much cooler.
Guess you don't have to use a flashlight at the SR Site.....kidding of course. Get with the head maintenance guys and negotiate dumpster privileges......great stuff hits the cans in a plant that size.
I got to cruise some of their vast timbered areas toward the south end and harvest quite a bit of timber back in the early 70's. Pretty area with some really nice trees close to the river.
Caught the prettiest big female copperhead I've ever handled on one of their back roads. 'Bout 3 1/2', fat and happy...kept her for a couple of years until I moved back to Atlanta/Kennesaw. Very calm sweet natured gal that was easy to handle.
 
Yeah, the off shifts are better, not as many big wigs around. There is a lot of nice wildlife out there as you said. I've seen a lot of deer and some huge hogs out there, oh and a plethora of wild turkeys, to bad they don't let us hunt on our days off. Oh well, second one down and two more to go, then I can get started on my homework...As for now though, its time for bed.


-Adam
 
You had a pet copperhead? She didn't bite then? I'm totaly confused.
 
Andy, despite common beliefs and myths......copperheads don't hunt or eat humans. They would prefer that we just go away and leave them alone. They are probably the most docile of the pitvipers. They bite a lot of humans and other animals because they have been stepped on, poked, grabbed or otherwise "messed with". Greatly maligned and misunderstood.
Back when I was "catchin" for $, they were my favorites, most could be caught without duckbills or hooks (barehanded) if you were careful and gentle........No, I do not recommend this method to the novice or for that fact anyone not extremely proficient in handling snakes.
Actually had two at different times: Oscar-my first for 4 years while pursuing higher ed. He was a lazy boy about 3' that just liked being fed fresh rodents. Seemed to enjoy being carried around and never got excited about anything but small furry things with rapid heart beats. Sally - mentioned above came a few years later. A true beauty, but she did not like nervous people, so handled like a lady, a bit more carefully. She bumped me once with her mouth closed just to let me know she wanted some privacy, but other than that never a hint of aggression.
Never caught or worked a buzztail that I thought could be trusted, too blamed tempermental and unpredictable. No play, just grab n' bag these boys.
And watersnakes (non-pois).......they are just mean! Cottonmouths are first cousins with copperheads and by nature only bite when harassed, put up a great show, but pretty much just bluff. They have a worse rep than any because most people think all watersnakes are CMs. Guilty by ignorance. Hard to handle due to physical proportions - short very stocky and strong with thin neck makes them easy to injure....all creatures will fight back when injured.
Try never to handle any snake when they are shedding....they can't see and are highly stressed at that time so they bite!
Being in the woods as much as you are, you are probably in very close proximity to copperheads on a regular basis. They are everywhere and masters of docile camoflage. Walk heavy around camp and drop a rock or log from time to time, ground vibrations bother them (how they hear) and they will move away from camp.
Note: the two I had seemed to like the croonings of Leon Redbone if I set a speaker against their cage......go figure.
 
Thats neat. My experience (never as a handler) in S. Louisianna was not good with cottonmouths. They're the only snake I ever had come at me rather than run away. I was almost killed by one once. Huge one. I was stuck in a bayou with slimy walls. Chest deep. The snake popped up other side of the stream and just started at me. I couldn't get out, and my buddy on the shore was a horrible shot with his pelet gun. He shot true that day and hit that snake right in the head while it was on the move. It was only a few feet from me when that happened.

My grandad got bitten by a copperhead while fencing the property with his father, and had a hatred of snakes. I never hated them, but never handled any besides pet Boa's either.
 
The nice thing about copperheads is that when they do bite in self defence it's usually a smaller dose of venom than they'd use on prey. Lots of dogs are bitten by them. I have a friend whose dog's been bitten three times. Each time he had a hugely swollen muzzle and neck (and probably a bad headache). Our cat was bitten once. He's pretty much stayed out of the woods since. I guess it's just the copperhead way of saying, "get out of my space". :)

And yes, I tell everyone just getting into knifemaking to always make at least three. It's really not about money. It's about muscle memory. Each blade improves your feel for the grind so number three is ALWAYS better than number one. Grind all the blades at each grit and you'll be amazed at how quickly you get the hang of it. Good luck. A pukko is a great design for beginners. Too many start out with fancy stuff, screw it up and quit. Simple blades first, and treat them like a copperhead. Speed kills. :D
 
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Hey Jerry, you old poot. Didnt get to say hey at the Blade this year. You're too much of a moving target. Had an old heinz57 ditch dog that hated snakes and got bit all the time, must not have hurt him bad enough to make him stop. My dad loved that old dog (he hated snakes too).

In most cases coppers only deliver enough to kill or immobilize a small rodent, but if aggitated will bite multiple times so don't aggitate. Little ones....all pit vipers it seems.....tend to unload due to inexperience.
That ol' CM was just checking out the disturbance, probably would have gotten real close then turned away when it realized you were too big to eat. Kind of hard to figure that, when you're neck deep in a hard spot. I'd been more frightened of my buddy with the gun. What's really spooky is when they dive after you scare them.....????? where'd they go? what's that bumping my leg?what to do, what to do?????? As for your grandad, can't blame him, even a dry bite hurts. Especially if they break a couple of teeth off in you.
Had a guy try to tell me they can't bite underwater once......asked him what kind of fishing pole he recond they used to catch their dinner......err..uhh...
 
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