The 25th of June is half way between birthdays for my little sister and my cousin, both born on the same Christmas day in 1982. Growing up, because Christmas is its own holiday, we celebrated my sister’s half birthday so she would feel like the center of attention on her own special day. This year, she was in Oregon with my brother in law, visiting friends and seeing the old stomping grounds in the beautiful state we lived in for nearly 10 years. We both learned to drive in Oregon, and went to college there. I hope to go back for my own vacation before long to visit friends, family, and enjoy the great beauty in all 4 of the amazing ecological areas of the state. If the state government wasn’t overun with socialist leaning folks who’ve created a tax system and absurd regulations that kill small businesses, I’d seriously consider moving back and settling down somewhere near the coast.

This month has been a pain in the ass, Literally. After returning from the blade show, I tried to tidy up some things before going under the knife for a complete hemorrhoidectomy. The week after was hell, and the week after that was just as much hell, and now, I’m up and about most of the day, doing well and instead of having a pain in the ass, I’m trying to work smart and balance light yard work with shop chores, design and hopefully some order fulfillment which requires a significant amount of sheath making, sharpening and money collecting.  Cerakote is not advisable when the humidity is high, so I’m having to wait on the weather to agree before I can tackle some of the 3V blades that haven’t been coated yet.

If you watched the latest youtube.com/sressentials video, then you may have noticed the big CNC machining center in the shop. I’m still cleaning it up and trying to organize around it so it can be put to work before too long. There are still many tasks to check off the list before I can get it running, not to mention learning a new CAM software and of course, learning to intelligently tell the machine what to do without crashing it. I aim to make many amazing inventions with the machine, and when it is all running well, I hope to find a helper who can join in on the button pushing, and fixture loading between cycles as well as do other production tasks around the shop.

As usual, I have too many irons in the fire, and feel like I must finish up some old projects before I move on to new ones. After that, I plan to revise much of my product line and pair down to the essentials so I can hopefully reduce cost, increase quality, and get more product out there to serve their owners with excellence and supreme efficiency.

I have a hand full of customers waiting for nearly complete items which are my priority, and only a few deposits in on the next batch of Anubis tomahawks, which I need more commitments before I begin metalworking. Once I have all the current inventory ready for shipment, I will be photographing everything and building the webstore. I will need to sell most of the blades I have before I can really move into the next phase of business for Omnivore BladeWorks because I’ll need some extra money for a few new tools, a lot of supplies and the cash flow to afford a helper.

If you have suggestions for ways to reach  more customers, or if you are interested in any of my current designs and want to help make Omnivore Bladeworks a brand that grows instead of fizzles, please help keep me inspired. I thrive on feedback because it helps me remember that I’m making a good product and there are people who appreciated it even though there aren’t too many of you out there. I want to continue making the best possible tools for the most practically minded and discriminating customers.

In the design lineup for the next phase are the following:

Ursus Series: Hidden tang: Parvus Bushcraft and Bushfighter; Americanas Bush Bowie, Americanas Fighting Bowie; Middendorfi “kodiak” short sword; Arctodus Frontier sword

Corvidae series: Hidden tang: Crow boot dagger (3V or titanium), Raven battle dagger (3V or titanium and a pry tool with chisel point of the same basic shape made from a super strong but cheaper steel or titanium); Murder tactical gladius; Unkindness (lighter, slender version of the Murder); Conspiracy Bastard sword: Yatagarasu sword that converts to a pole sword with a pole that has square thread attachment points on both sides for the sword or a shorter spear head/throwing knife.

Tanuki series: Hidden tang, all with pre ground distal taper on blade and handle for more traditional construction: Tanto, waki, Katana 3V with stainless or titanium fittings

Tanuki series: full tang construction with distal blade taper (hopefully cheaper to make from austempered 5160 or 1095)

There are some more small fixed blades I’d like to make, and some battle swords that will be in the “Sapien” series including a Falcata and Ginunting as well as a folding knife that will probably only be available to returning customers on a secret squirrel type of purchase arrangement. There will also be a couple new tomahawks, and hopefully a revision to the Anubis tomahawk that will bring it to a previously imagined level of performance.

All that should keep me busy for years to come, so I guess I’d better start making things happen.

PS, I’m also going to set aside a couple of hours every day to do some exercise because I’m getting old and don’t want to be a wimp. I’m going to develop a new martial art called Zom-Fu and start a crowd funding campaign to buy 500 acres somewhere nice to build a permanent obstacle/training course and resort/dojo/manufacturing facility with cabins for old people who want to retire there, and for young people who want to raise their kids and work there. I could use some help with that project too, because I don’t really know where to start.