Team BEE Forge

Finished Friday

Twisted Damascus drop point made from 1085 and 15N20.
Handle is exhibition grade curly Koa wood
File work and pins are inlayed with crushed opals.
This knife was commissioned and is sold.

Some new scales that got cleared earlier this week.

This isa piece of Redwood burl that showed up this morning.
I think this will make some stunning knife handles once I get it dried, cut up and stablized.

Finished Friday.

I have been working on this one for a while.
It was actually started January 1st of this year, but its been sitting on my bench waiting on just the right piece for the handle.
This chopper was designed by Jason Anstaett.
The blade is hollow ground 1/4 inch thick CTS-XHP stainless steel.
OAL is 8 1/4.
Blade is 4 1/8.
The handle is Thuya Burl.
Pins are 309 stainless filled with crushed Black Fire opals.
Epoxy finish.

New stuff.
These will be listed in the next few days.
If you see something you like let me know.

Here is some of the scales that were made from the big leaf Maple burl I acquired last month.

I recently acquired a slab of old growth Redwood lace burl.
I have been working on getting the slab dried out and cut into blocks.
I was able to stablize 3 of them yesterday.
Here is a sneak peek of how they turned out.

We have had alot of people ask when buying our eggs what the shelf life is and if they should wash them. When you purchase from us they are unwashed eggs. This explains it all here.

OK , so some of you know I tested positive for Covid-19.
If you didn't. Now ya do.
As a result I have been out of the shop for a while.
Finally back out in the shop today.
I was able to get all of these sanded and cleared.

I was able to get these cleared yesterday.

As I am currently limited on the amount of time I can spend on my foot, I have been working on handle material. I will have a lot of new colors and color combinations coming out soon.

The new table saw is in set up and adjusted.
This one is definitely more powerful the old one.
The dust collection is much more effective.
I also love the rack and pinion rip fence.

As some of you know I have been dealing with foot pain for the last couple of years.
Had the surgery to correct it yesterday, as a result I will be out of the shop for awhile.

The pink, black and orange wood turned out great.

More colors coming soon.

Making orange wood today.
Did black yesterday and pink the day before.

SO...
As most of you that follow me know it is very rare that I have knives at the shop "in Inventory". However I do currently have a few that came back from Texas and are available.
If you are interested in becoming the proud owner of one of them let me know.

Here are pictures of the knife and Handle material tables.

As some of you know I was invited to the Texas Select Custom Cutlery Event in Bellville, Texas.

For the record we had a great time.
We both really enjoyed the show . There was always something going on on the stage outside. Sadly we didn't get to see much as we were always at our tables. We did make a lot of new friends, and will defiantly be going back next year.
Oh yeah, and we sold some stuff.

I am going to have a lot of new colors and color combinations available soon.

Handles for the copper Damascus blades have the first coat of epoxy.

Getting close....

I think that is enough for today.

Here is the copper Damascus finger after it's coffee break.

Finish ground these 2 today.

I think that is enough for today.

Well crap....
It dosen't happen that often but it does happen.
This one blew up during heat treat.
Apparently my copper layer wasn't as stuck as I thought.
There's no fixing that.

Latest copper Damascus blades.
Hopefully going to heat treat them tomorrow.

With the new compressor I decided to up grade the shop air system.
I am using 3/4" Max Line hard line system.
This is the distribution set up. I will have main lines running down both sides of the shop.
Next will be running the hard lines.

Set more opals this morning.

Shaped, pins drilled and filled with crush opals and epoxy.

These are ready to shape.

Spent the morning putting handles on.

Set the rest of the opals this morning.

Setting crushed opals in the file work.

Now only final assembly remains.

Once finished this will be a true one of kind. I did it to take to a show.
Because of the difficulty and time involved in making it I will not duplicate it.
The pattern has been destroyed. It is now, and always will be 1 of 1.

Before I am asked, No it does not have an owner yet.
If you are interested in owning it contact me directly.

UPDATE : As of 3:53 PM 2/8/22 The Dark Dagger has a proud new owner.

The blade is out of the coffee.

I polished the blade.
I think its ready for the coffee treatment.

The guard is mirror polished again.

Originally my plan was to etch and coffee the guard and pommel nut since they are Damascus.
However I have decided I like the polished look, so I am removing the mill marks fron the furrows in the guard.

I think that is enough for today.

Step 2

Step 1

I got the pommel nut polished.

I was able to get the handle shaped this morning.
Next is shapong the guard.

Spent yesterday fitting the guard and making the pommel nut.

Next step....
Go bigger.

The aftercooler is installed and the new Quincy is back up and running.

The discharge from the second stage now goes into the top of the 18 row cooler.
I mounted the cooler on the back side on the pump so the pump fan draws air through it while its running.
The cooler drops the airs temperature below its dew point so it drops its water.
The cooled air then exits the bottom of the cooler and goes into a moisture trap with an automatic drain. The moisture trap is the lowest point in the system so the water drains to it and gets purged. The cooled and dry air now heads into the tank.
After some testing this evening I can deffenatly say IT WORKS...
The air going into the tank is within a few degrees of ambient.

Next project, after cooler for the new compressor.

I was able to get one of the Spalted Oak burls cut up this afternoon.
The box on the right is spalted Hackberry. I got the log from a friend we both were curious what it would look like.