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Around the Grinder – April, 2017

Around the Grinder – April, 2017


Posted on April 28,2017 by Kyle Daily

What is Around the Grinder?

Around the grinder is a type of blog post that I talk about what happened during the month.  It will be some knife making stuff, some stuff about life, and other miscellaneous things.

There was a lot of cool things that happened this month.  This month started off with not much happening on the knife making front, but ended up getting a lot done on the next batch of 11 knives.

KHDailyKnives.com Launched!

This is one of the things I am most proud of.  This is something that has been going around in my head for a long time.  I cannot talk about this section without mentioning one of my long time friends, David Auble.

How I met David

David and I have been friends since about 2005.  Man when I put that in numbers, it makes me feel really old!  David and I met when we were in college and started talking about one of our mutual interests, cars.  David has since done a lot with web development stuff.  We have always seemed to reconnect at different points in our life.  I am proud to call him a close friend.

Starting the Website

I have wanted to create a website that showcased the knives I have created.  I started looking into what it would take to make a website and even though I am pretty computer savvy, I immediately became a little overwhelmed with what to do.

David called me out of the blue one day and we started talking random things.  The lightbulb clicked on, and we started talking about website stuff.  After a couple of months of going back and forth, we launched the site.  I think the website turned out really great!  If you want me to talk more about how we did the site, let me know in the comments.

If you want to get in touch with him about helping you with a site, you can contact him at https://davidauble.info.

Whats Happening on Knives

I started a new batch of knives at the beginning of the month.  One of the things I noticed about all the pictures I have taken over the years was, I am not in almost all of them!  My wife graciously offered to take some pictures while I am working.  She has a great eye and style for photographing me while I am working.

Knives I am Currently Working On

  • Kitchen Knives
    • 8″ Chefs Knife – 1
    • 7″ Santuku – 2
    • Boning Knife – 1
    • Paring Knife – 1
  • Bushcraft Knives
    • Bushcrafter – 1
    • Mini-Bushcrafter – 4
    • Pocket Bushcrafter – 1

What Happened On Them This Month

I was able to get the filework on the knives.  Doing the filework is a very time consuming process but I think it makes a extremely unique knife.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTF3f9_gr1A/

Heat Treating the Knives

All the knives were wrapped in stainless foil and heat treated.  The 154CM stainless steel blades get heated to 1950ºF.

Finish Grinding Knives

I was able to work on the knives a quite a bit over the last weekend and some this past week.  The knives have to be finish ground to remove the some of the warping that happens during the heat treat process and to bring the knives to their final polish.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTXf5PAAmFK/?taken-by=khdailyknives

Business Cards

I ordered new business cards with the website info and YouTube info on them.  I am excited to be able to not just randomly search through photos on my phone when someone asks me about my knives now.   I can give them a card and direct them to the website.

Goals for Next Month

These are some of the goals I would like to accomplish next month.  I am very much a list type of person and having things written down help keep me motivated to keep moving on them.

  • Order all the handle material for the knives
  • Attach handles to the knives
    • Cut handle materials
    • Glue liners to outside handle material
    • Drill handle materials
    • Epoxy handles to blades
    • Start shaping handles

Summary

There was some great progress on the knife making front as well as the website.  I am proud of how the website turned out and how the knives are progressing.  As I make more knives it is amazing how much faster and cleaner the knives look each time I make one.  Always looking forward to where this will go.

Always remember, Life is too short to have a dull knife!


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