JAB

Thanks all for the comments and compliments.  I'm pretty happy with it for a 'first attempt'.  I have a couple of kits I bought at the Woodcraft store (only came with blades and pins) and a little strip of maple I bought to make scales that have been collecting dust.  Hopefully, this project will be the 'ice breaker' I needed to help me get motivated to work on those.   I looked at a small belt sander at Harbor Freight the other day.  The belt it uses was just an inch or two wide but the thing only costs about forty bucks and the hang tag that was on it specifically stated that it would work well for stock removal.  I am going to try my hand at a few kits and purchased 'naked' blades and if I end up being decent at finishing those, I might buy one of those sanders and try my hand at stock removal.  It would eventually be fun to actually hammer one out using a forge, I think.

  I stopped by yesterday on my way home from work and there was none left.

Late to the party but cool find, Spots!  Some months back, a guy on another forum posted a link to yet another forum (confused yet?) where a fellah was attempting to restore a 1911 pistol that had been found - oddly enough - buried in mud in a field in Tennessee.  He documented the process of his attempts to restore it so I thought the link might be of use to you in case you decide to clean up that old revolver:   http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=500894   Included in that thread was a link to another thread on using electrolysis to clean rust:   http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=476906&highlight=rust

  Thanks for the info!

I had an old kitchen knife blade laying around and was trying to think of what to do with it. It was an Old Hickory knife and was so old that the wooden scales had gotten brittle and broke off. I can't even remember exactly where it came from to begin with but my thinking is that it is older than me. It looked like this: Anyhow, I wanted to do something with it other than just re-make a kitchen knife out of it. I kept trying to think of ways to put wood scales back on it but doing so would have just made it look, again, like a kitchen knife. It laid around for months and every once in a while I'd look it over, fail to come up with any ideas and put it away, again. Then I got an idea. Last year, I happened to be in the right place at the right time to pick up a deer that the local LEO had to put down. It had been hit by a car and was suffering and, because the stars aligned correctly (I was at an auction that an off-duty officer was also attending - he got a call from the guys at the scene and put out the word that the deer was still alive and available) I got to the scene before they had even put it out of its misery. I took it home and when I processed it I left the parts of the forelegs that have no meat, etc. lying with the gut pile. One of those forelegs showed up next to my fence in my mom's yard (mom is my neighbor on one side) a couple of months later, obviously dragged there by her dogs. For several weeks, I looked at that foreleg and was tempted to take it and toss it down across the woods. It was pretty well 'mummified' by that point and not smelling or anything, though, so for some reason I felt like I should leave it be. Then, last week, it hit me - that was the new handle for my knife. Like I said, it was pretty gnarly looking when I decided to start on it. Luckily, stuff like that doesn't bother me, much ( one of my undergrad degrees is in Anthropology and I would have been a Forensic Anthropologist if it hadn't meant moving to Arizona to continue my studies plus spending another eight to ten years in school with not much chance of getting the job I really wanted.) So, with a warning for the feint of heart or weak of stomach (probably no one here), this is what the deer leg looked like when I started: I had to cut the tang of the blade down so it would fit into the cavity inside the shaft of the bone. I tackled it with my Dremel. A few minutes and a couple of cut off wheels later, I had this: I actually ended up having to trim it some more to fit in the bone the way I wanted but I didn't get pics of that. Then it was a fairly simple (a little messy but simple) matter of using a two-part epoxy to fix the tang inside the bone. I then built up a little 'bolster' (for lack of a better word) of epoxy around the top of the handle/base of the blade. I used Loctite epoxy of a type that comes in the double-sided 'syringe' and during the process confirmed something for myself that I already suspected - I hate that stuff. It is probably fine for larger jobs but for fine work I simply can't get fine enough control of the flow or placement of the epoxy. In the future, I'll have to find something that is more suited to the purpose. Once it was cleaned up and everything, I ended up having to superglue the epiphysis onto the diaphysis because I wanted to keep it as the 'pommel' and the epoxy, for some reason, didn't work. In the end, while it wouldn't work for gluing the epiphysis to the dyaphysis, the epoxy did work for keeping the blade in the handle. Once it had set for a few hours, I wrapped the blade/handle junction area with some beading wire I bought (on sale/clearance) at Walmart. All in all, I think it turned out looking pretty good for my first, real attempt (I sorta kinda made a blade once, years ago, by cutting out a blank and grinding it but never really finished working with it and don't even know where it is at the moment.) That pic was before I re-polished the handle and cleaned up the blade to get rid of the stray epoxy. This was after I re-polished it but the lighting isn't as good in this pic: Being a learning project, I didn't think about sealing the bone until after I had finished the knife. I have read in several places online that applying a coat of superglue, sanding and repeating until no more superglue will soak in is a good way to seal it with the bonus that it will actually polish up even better after sealing with the glue. I will probably try that at some point. The only disappointing thing is that I can't seem to get the blade as sharp as I am generally able to get Old Hickory knives. I can get a cutting edge on it but can't seem to get a 'scary sharp, razor edge' on it. For some reason, it gets to a certain 'cutting edge' point then if I keep sharpening it looses the edge altogether and I have to start all over. Oh, well, it really isn't intended for a whole lot of heavy use so a 'cutting edge' will probably suffice. I also plan to eventually make a sheath for it, just to complete the package, even though it likely won't be carried a whole lot.

  Do you really reload .25acp or are you just kidding around?  I ask because I have wondered how much wailing and gnashing of teeth would be involved in reloading .25acp.  I imagine the powder charge would be miniscule - do you have a scale that can measure a charge that small or do you use a scoop, etc.?  I like shooting my .25 but don't like paying the going rate for ammo.  I don't cast but I might eventually consider reloading .25, especially if .22LR ammo doesn't return pretty soon and at a reasonable price.

I, for one, am glad to see .25acp ammo coming back. I've seen a box or two at some of the Wally locations around here, lately. I have a couple of boxes at home so have resisted buying any, so far. but might give in soon. I just wish the price would come down. I have a Titan .25 that I enjoy shooting because one of those (not the same one) was the first handgun I ever owned. I bought a Phoenix .25 as a plinker during the last shortage because .25acp ammo was all I could reliably find (and then it dried up, too.) I got rid of the Phoenix after I found and bought the Titan. No, it isn't a powerhouse round but it is fun to shoot and trigger time is trigger time.

  That's actually pretty much what the price was before the current scare/shortage/panic.  For about a year, the Remington ammo like that in the OP was cheaper at Bass Pro in Sevierville than at Walmart (was $17.xx at Bass Pro and $19.xx at Wally) but the last time I was in Bass Pro the price was the same as Wally.

After seeing your list of names and then the picture, my first thought was, "Wow, that's a 'Sadie' if I ever saw one.

  Notice that is the 100 round packs, not a 50 round box.  That would be $16 per 50 rounds.

  Not owning a 40, I thought that $25.xx sounded pretty high for ammo - then I looked closer at the picture (second pic down in the OP) and realized that they were 100 round boxes.  I don't pay that much attention to .40 ammo but I'm not sure that I have ever seen 100 round Federal boxes in 9mm or .380.

This is the one that caught my eye. A new Walmart location recently opened in Sweetwater, TN. I was in there last Sunday and they had a couple of the 100 round value packs of Remington UMC .380 ammo but the price was just over forty bucks (IIRC, it was $42.xx.) A dollar or two difference between Walmart locations is understandable, I guess, due to possible differences in overhead in different areas or whatever. A difference of more than $10 for identical 100 round boxes of .380 ammo between two Walmart locations in the same state, though, I find to be quite excessive. Funny that during the last shortage, .380 was the most difficult to find but it seems to have only completely 'disappeared' from shelves for a few weeks this time. I built a little onhand supply after the last nonsense (because my P3AT was my most carried gun back then and so I practiced with it a lot, meaning I had to run around to try and find ammo last time.) I also don't shoot as much .380 as I used to (a S&W 642 is now my most carried gun - although the P3AT still gets carried a little.)

Between the less than ideal soil where I now live, all the rain and critters eating what little my garden managed to produce, I had might as well have piled all the money I spent on plants, top soil (to try and make up for the existing bad soil) and everything else into a big pile, poured the gas I used in the tiller on it and set the whole thing alight.  Waste of time, money and effort this year.   I am building a couple of raised beds for next year.  I will likely go ahead and build them soon and start piling leaves and other stuff in them to compost.  Screw topsoil - I'm going to fill those beds with the compost and some potting soil.   I had intended to can a few jars of salsa using my own, homegrown tomatoes, peppers and cilantro.  Unfortunately, the tomatoes and peppers crapped out (I got maybe two usable tomatoes this year), my peppers did nothing and my cilantro was dead less than a week after I planted it.  For next year, even with the raised beds I am tempted to plant tomatoes just for eating fresh and simply purchase a basket or two from the Amish market in Delano for making salsa.  I can buy hot peppers there, too, if need be.  I'd rather grow my own than buy the stuff but I'd rather buy the stuff than waste money on plants and materials then not get anything out of it and the produce at the Amish market is good.

  You mean sort of in the style of a Monk's Cafe Sour Flemish Ale?  That stuff is delicious.  Expensive so you want to just 'sip' it but tastes so good it is hard not to just gulp it down.   I have one of the kits I got at Fermentations (aka Fermentation Station) in Knoxville last year.  I've had my buddies saving up 'pry-off' bottles for me and finally have just about enough.  Now I just need to get off my butt and actually brew my first batch.  I have made home-made wine off and on since well before I was old enough to legally drink my final product (I think I was around nine when my dad first let me help him and maybe 14 when I made my first batch on my own.)  We always used just the old 'country' method, though.  In the intervening years, I began using different wine-makers yeasts and using a hydrometer for more specific alcohol content control as well as devising different ways to limit exposure to O2 (thereby increasing alcohol content) but I have not used a carboy or a bucket with airlock, before (the kit I have has the bucket/airlock.)    The first one I plan to make is a wheat beer, sort of a hefe weizen style.  I love darks (especially porters) but I also really like hefes.  I don't care much for IPAs or Nut Brown Ales but I really like that Monk's Cafe I was talking about, above.   Some friends used to say that the wine I made was 'dangerous' because I was getting pretty high alcohol contents (one batch was 15% or 30 proof according to the hydrometer I was using.)  They said it was smooth and sweet going down and tasted about like grape juice.  It somehow managed to not have much of an alcohol taste or burn so you'd drink it fast and then the next thing you knew it hit you like a sledgehammer.  I haven't made much wine in the last, few years though.

Good shootin'. Both of you. I used my S&W 22A and a box of Winchester Wildcat ammo to qualify. In the qualification portion of the class I took, the instructor told us that anything in the black counts. We shot six shots at a time at each distance (meaning that we shot some distances twice, but not back to back.) For one of the 'instructor's choice' distances, he told us to put the target anywhere we wanted. At that point, I realized that I could miss all five of those shots and still pass so while everyone else brought their targets in close, I ran mine all the way out to 25 yards (max distance at that shooting range.) When we finished, the instructor told us to count up all of our 'hits' that were in the black. He then walked by me and said, "Don't bother counting. You obvously passed." I used the 22A because I didn't really know what to expect or how difficult the range qualification would be (I took the class before finding this site and didn't really have anyone I could ask about how difficult it was, at the time.) I used the Wildcat ammo because it was just about the most inexpensive thing I could get ahold of at the time. I now almost wish I had used a larger caliber gun because - while there were a bunch of nice, little holes in the target - a bigger gun (9mm, etc.) would probably have left one, big, ragged hole. I almost managed to achieve that effect in the X ring, anyhow, before deciding I had better start shooting a bigger group so my shots could be counted easier (didn't know at the time that the instructor was just going to look at it and say, "You passed." I am glad to see that I am not the only 'gun nerd' who took a pic of his target. I don't consider myself to be all that great a shot. Decent, yeah. Sometimes maybe even 'pretty good' if I am having a particularly good day. If I had needed some humbling in my opinion of my shooting skills there was something that would have done that real quick like. Our instructor had a couple of targets he had shot in competition tacked up on the wall of the room where we took the classroom portion. IIRC, they were from one of his competition matches (can't remember which organization/competition it was.) The same type of target as we used for qualifying but all his shots were from 25 yards with a .45 and there was just one, big hole where the two, inner rings (X ring and the one right outside of it) should have been. Anyhow, fwiw, here's a pic of mine:

  That was actually the first thing I thought of, too.  CCI shotshells have that little, plastic 'pill' that is filled with the shot but some, other brands simply put the shot in the casing and criimp it closed.   Oh, and the 'snakes at long range' comment was funny.

Well, talking about old ammo...   A year or two back, I bought a Mannlicher carbine at the LGS.  For those who don't know, that rifle was originally designed when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was still around.  Most of them were later re-chambered and kept in service by the Austrians, Hungarians and other 'splinter' nations after the Empire dissolved.  Many were re-chambered to fire the 8X56R round, which is what mine is chambered to fire.  Well, when the Nazis took Austria, rather than issue all new rifles, etc. they told their newly gained Austrian troops to continue using the Mannlicher and they (Germany) would provide ammo.   Mannlicher was the first to utilize an en bloc clip such as is used in the M1 Garand - he pretty much invented that setup.  That means the M95 won't work without one except as more or less a single shot.  Fortunately, the LGS had some loaded clips that were packed in thin cardboard boxes, two to a box.  The labels on the boxes had Nazi markings and were dated 1938.  I kept one box intact but opened a couple of others so I could actually use the rifle.  The ones I have tried fired just fine - as in both the ammo and the clips - even though the ammo was loaded into those clips and boxed up almost eighty years ago.  As far as the recoil, etc. is about like firing one of the Mosin-Nagant carbines and is probably comparable in power level.

I have talked in another thread about the tiny 'Bearcat' lock blade knife that my dad gave me as my first carry knife.  One of my early 'serious' carry knives, however, was a Case Sodbuster, Jr. that a neighbor gave me when I was in middle school.  I loved the style, then and am still a fan of the Sodbuster style, now.  If I am not mistaken, Rough Rider makes a version of the Sodbuster style that is a lock blade.  I kinda want one of those, myself, and think it would be a good 'starter' knife.   I also think the idea of a real SAK is a good one.  My current EDC is a 'Tinker' and it has been my main carry knife for a couple of years, now.  I personally think that an SAK - because of the screwdrivers and so on - not only increases usefulness but also helps bolster the idea of 'knife as a tool just like a screwdriver' rather than the idea of 'knife as weapon'.   Victorinox is now even making SAK models that offer a locking blade that has a large, Spyderco style thumb hole - see link below for one example.   http://www.victorinox.com/us/product/Swiss-Army-Knives/Category/Hunting/One-Hand-Trekker-NS/54875

  You know, I am not sure the '30 hour' clause is as big a deal as it is being made out to be.  When I started college, I had been working full time at a grocery store.  I wanted to cut my hours but they kept scheduling me for more hours than I could work while carrying a full class load.  When we discussed it, I was told that I had to maintain a schedule of at least 36 (or maybe it was 32 - I can't remember for certain) hours a week to be considered full time and keep my benefits (to which I responded that it had been my intention all along to go part time.)   Another place I worked (a factory) had a weekend shift where the folks on that shift worked 12 hour shifts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  That is 36 hours but they were considered full time.  So it sounds like the whole '40 hour work week as the definition of full time' is a red herring, to me.  There are plenty of other problems with Obamacare (some of which we probably won't even know about until it is fully implemented) but I am not sure that this is one of them.

Yeah, that French trade knife is one of the models that really caught my eye, too. I don't think those are Russell Green River but still carbon steel so that sounds good.

  I also like the idea of some type of break action, single shot shotgun.  Simple, inexpensive but effective, solid, dependable and works for folks ranging from 'coon hunters to rabbit hunters to squirrel hunters to bird hunters to deer hunters to the aforementioned granny if she hears a bump in the night.  I think that even many members of Tennessee's version of the 'anti-gun' crowd probably have one or two of these around their home to use for HD, etc.  Not everyone can own a Barrett - pretty much anyone who wants one and isn't a felon could probably own a single barrel shotgun.

  Heck, with the crap that has happened on some of the greenways, etc. lately there should be a policy in place that they can only be open to the public if one out of every three persons on the greenway is legally carrying.

This morning while getting ready for work I was listening to The Black Keys album El Camino (just bought it the other night - first time I've listened to it.)   In the car on the way to work, I was listening to a Blue Moon Rising CD.   Both good stuff.   Oh, and the first thing I listened to this morning - I have Slayer's "Seasons in the Abyss" set as the alarm tone on my cell phone alarm clock.

  Is it?  From what I can find, Modesto Junior College is a Community College and part of the California Community Colleges system.  As far as I can tell, it is a public/state school, not a private school so would it still be considered 'private property'?   That said, I can certainly see that there would need to be procedures in place to prevent everybody and their brother who wants to hand out materials from interfering with their main goal of education and a smoothly operating campus/classes.       You mean they politely asked him to stop - while holding a shotgun? :pleased:

As promised, here are a few more detailed pictures of the Dadley blade: As you can see, the other side of the blade is completely smooth: The way the indentations are set up, while they don't create sharp 'teeth' along the ridge of the spine, they do create what feel to be pretty serviceable 'teeth' at the left edge of the spine. Feeling of them again yesterday evening, I still think they really might work as a simple, small saw. I'd hate to have to tackle a big job with them, though. Here is the Dadley with the Mora Companion and a .357 round for a better indication of size/scale: