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GRS engraving school

Kirk Rexroat — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:00:08 +0000

It was a long trip to the GRS engraving school but well worth the time invested. I live in Wyoming and the GRS facility is in eastern Kansas. About 850 miles one way. 12 1/2 hours later I arrived in anticipation of the next mornings meet and greet. The school is run very professionaly and we where met by the entire staff along with D.J. Glasser the owner and C.E.O. This class was taught by Steve Dunn, a Mastersmith in the American Bladesmith Ass. and a superb engraver and teacher. He put us strait to work. Learning to sharpen the tools was the first order of business. We where then given patterns and shown how to transfer them to the practice plate and the cutting began. Each bench was well equiped with everything needed, no tool spared.

I know it will take away from some of my knifemaking time but my goal is to do more knives with sole authership. I will be able to add more dimention to my knives without having to send them out to be engraved. There are some new and different types of engraving patterns that I would like to experiment with. Many hours will have to be spent studing and drawing to perfect the layout. This is the class room, it is equiped with 12 stations and each one is loaded with the GRS tooling. I was suprised and delighted with the verity of interests that the other students had. There where teachers, knifemakers, lawyers, welders, jewelers, and wives. Steve told us that by Wed. we would be engravers and he was

right. It all seemed to come together and things flowed.

This was our first exercise, a scroll pattern. It didn’t look like much until we started shading and removed the background.

: practice Nomad bolster

Friday we worked on a project of our own design and we all picked our favorite. They where all quite good and of totally different styles. There was a portrait, leaves and berries, and geometric patterns.Above is my final project, a thistle for a Nomad fixed blade bolster. With a few alterations I hope to have one done for the August San Antonio American Bladesmith Show.

This exercise shows the importance of shading. The flower on the right was engraved first and after some practice, I came back and did the left one. I can see this art is going to really take some practice to learn. Art classes would have really helped as I would understanding shading and balance of design. Alas, I’ll have to take a crash course and learn as I go. None the less it was really worth my time to attend the GRS engraving school.

I’m curious, what do you like, scrolls, flowers, scenes, or leaves and vines? This is your opportunity to enfluence the direction I follow.

Customized Al Mar S.E.R.E. 2000

Kirk Rexroat — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:33:58 +0000

: Customized Al Mar SERE 2000

This is a production SERE 2000 that I have made Damasteel blades for. I did a limited number for the 2010 SHOT show.

Home on the range

Kirk Rexroat — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:58:27 +0000

Where the buffalo roam

This is a photo my daughter took while she was home visiting at Christmas. Living in Wright we are blessed with a large buffalo ranch near town. The Durham ranch has over 1000 head and on occasion they are near the road and pose for pictures. The buffalo is a prairie icon and a symbol of the west, for that reason I have included it in my picture mosaic knife series.

: forged mosaic buffalo blade

This is the blade that will be the Where the Buffalo Roam Bowie. It is 1 1/2″ wide and the blade will be 7″ long. Mosaic buffalo tiles down the middle with explosion damascus wraped around the edges. In a future blog I will show the steps that have brought the blade to this point.

Hydralic Press

Kirk Rexroat — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:42:43 +0000

I’ve had a question asked about my home built hydralic press (Thanks Wally). I will try and show some pictures and give measurements where I can

The first press I saw was built by Jeff Carlille in MT. The Imagination Express, It worked great so since I am a welder by trade I figured I could build one myself.

I hope that any of you that see this blog will comment on things that you have seen that worked better or ways that this design could be improved.

John Reynolds, a fellow knifemaker and friend of mine built one that I have copied and have had great succese with.

Bottom attachment and slide

The slide is made of 3/4 inch steel with four 5/8 bolts holding them together, the center piece is shimmed to a little over 1 inch and it is drilled and taped for a grease zerk. One inch was used for the cylinder mount and that was welded to a piece of 1 1/4 that was beveled on both sides to match 4 inch channel iron.

: Hydralic Press

The beam I used was 6 inch H beam with a 1/2 inch web and flange. It is 45 inches tall. I then added 1/2 inch piece to each side to box it in. Those where moved in 1 inch to make room for the slide guides. I then plug welded a 1/2 by 6 inch piece on the front to stiffen the beam further.

: Front view

The ram is a 5 inch with a 1 5/8 rod and the stroke is 8 inches. I set it up to only run at 7 when fully extended so it didn’t bottom out.

: Top cylinder mount

Where the ram attaches at the top I used a 1 inch by 6 inch piece and cut out the H beam so it would fit back into it then welded it all up solid. You can’t see it in the photo because the boxed pieces are covering it but the mount runs to the back of the beam. In this photo you can see the front 1/2 inch piece that was added.

: Press die attachment

This photo shows the way the dies are attached, John came up with this and it works great. They are easy to change, the only draw back is that they slide out some times. I have many different dies for drawing and shaping.

This has been a very good press for me and I have not had a bit of trouble with it. I do have a two stage hydralic pump on it that I like, it moves fast and maybe to fast sometimes when you are try to do delicate work but if you are carefull it is fine.

Please if you have any questions or comment let me know.

S.H.O.T. show 2010

Kirk Rexroat — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:22:33 +0000

One week in sunny Las Vegas, Ha Ha

The first couple days where sunny and nice but the rest of the week saw clouds and lots of rain. It rained three days, mostly in the evening and totaled 1.8 inches. The average yearly rainfall for Vegas is 4 inches and last year they didn’t even reach 2 inches.

Most people try to get a hotel close to the convention center and walk every day. With the rain in the evening the line out front waiting on taxi’s was huge, several thousand people hutled under the eves to catch a ride. The traffic was also backed up and added to the problem. The police showed up and started directing traffic and that seemed to help. We, as in the Al Mar crew, had a rent a wreck that we parked near by for a quick getaway. The booth was manned by The president of Al Mar Knives, Gary Fadden and his wife Rumiko, my son Kalob and myself. We also had various friends drop in to help.

Setting up the Al Mar booth

Too much to see too little time

The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor, Trade show is a dealers show that is not open to the general public. The companys show their products to the dealers and take orders for the coming year. Many new products are introduced at this show and it is well attended as the dealers are anxious to see the latest hot items for sale. The booths very greatly in both size and content at the show. All the major gun company are there with giant booths, also scopes, knives, tents, barbeque and outdoor cooking, camoflauge gear - pretty much everything but fishing equipment. I’m sure the fishing and boating industry have their own trade show.

This a shot looking down one of the many isles at the show. There are many miles of isles and thousands of booths to see. Four days just isn’t enough to cover the show. Since I’m working the Al Mar booth the whole time, I don’t get a chance to see much. That is why I make a list of the things that I am interested in prior to the show, look them up in the show directory, and I can go directly to them.

This years show was held at the Sand’s Convention Center. The venue was not well recieved as it was on two levels and very confusing to find your way around. We were on the first level which I think is a converted parking garage because it had a low ceiling and not quite enough light. It was a little slow the first day, I think because it took people a while to filter down. The rest of the show moved quickly with lots of traffic. The upper level had high ceilings so the companys could hang there banners and construct the larger booths.