May 29, 2020

Jeepers time moves along so quick and things stay undone that should have been done a year ago or more!!!

I’m months behind on newsletters, and months behind (years) on tomahawk production. I was doing pretty good there, figuring out the CNC mill and making progress with debugging the programs and even machined 10 tomahawks that will be functional but not perfect. My bottleneck has been a loss of mojo in turning the machine back on after messing up the tomahawk hold down fixture which now needs to be fixed. Perhaps today or tomorrow I’ll actually grow a pair and try out the internal thread milling programs I wrote to get it done.

Prices of materials and hardware, and services are going up, as well as shipping costs. SO, I’m going to need to make some adjustments and look into negotiating better shipping rates for tomahawks when they start shipping.

GOOD NEWS is that I now have my home built (from recycled and natural materials) a coating and tempering oven that is big enough to hang a sword or tomahawks from a single hook and that can be loaded without bending over like Quasimodo. I’m switching my standard coating to KG Gun Kote, because of its infinite shelf life and just as good performance. If and when there is a bigger batch of blades to do that can make full use of a Quart of Cerakote, then I may consider using it again, but that will probably happen after I move to a new shop with a climate controlled environment and much higher throughput of things that need coating. In house parkerizing, bluing and electroless nickel plating would also be on the list of capabilities in a new shop that would serve not only as a production facility, but also an educational environment for students of all ages.

Visions for the future are grand, but a lot of old projects and day to day chores continue to require attention. My hope is that everything will fall into place at the right time, and my dream of starting a non profit school and dojo can manifest itself without much stress or financial risk.

My nose is already to the grindstone, but now that summer is upon us and the days are longer, I’ll be putting even more time in the shop, pecking away at old work as I ramp up my efforts to get tomahawks made as well as get the big old van taking up space in my shop returned to a functional condition so it can be moved in and out under its own power, and then used for a sales/road trip in the fall.

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