John & I just arrived home from the NCCKG meeting at the home of Bill & Brenda Pate in Castle Hayne NC. For a while I wondered if we were going to make it there. In Columbia there was some very hard piece of trash in the road that I hit. Immediately the "check engine light" came on and my speedometer dropped to 0. I thought I had lost all forward motion. I got pulled over and John checked the van for any leaking fluid and the like. All seemed well so we ventured on, though without a speedometer. It is a strange thing to travel with no idea how fast you are going. You just plug in behind someone and hope they aren't running 90. But we figured we stood a better chance of finding a garage in Wilmington than in Swainsboro that is open on Saturday that could fix it.

Saturday was cool and overcast. A perfect fall day!! Bill's shop was a great location with room for everyone to be inside and enjoy the demos. He fired up his coal forge and everything got rolling.

Phillip Jones did a really interesting demo on making Mokume. He and Bill both showed different ways on how to do this.
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The above is Phillip's Mokume. Part we etched and part was just polished up to see the layers.

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This is Bill's forging showing a different technique.

The ladies once again put on quite the spread for everyone who attended and there were folks there from all over. All areas were represented by those of us who attended. We had folks from the eastern section of NC, the central section, and as far west as Hendersonville, NC.

After attending their first custom knife show (the SouthEastern Custom Knife Show in Winston-Salem), Mr. & Mrs. Bob Ham joined the NCCKG. They came all the way from Hendersonville for this meeting. He fell in love with the Guild at the Show and I do think he shall become one of our "main-stay" members after this meeting.

Later in the day Dave Vail did a demo on tempering using a propane torch. It did not take long for the blade to come up to temperature.
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And to round out the day, John did a demo on Basic Engraving Techniques. He learned these from Howard Peacock at one of the NCCKG sponsored classes at the Montgomery Community College this past summer.
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MEMBERS TAKE NOTE!!!!
At the meeting, the Directors decided to have a 10th Anniversary Collaboration Knife to raffle for the SouthEastern Custom Knife Show. They decided that this would be a Sheffield Bowie stye knife. We are asking all NCCKG members who would like to, to submit a design for this knife. The directors will select the winning design and put the knife out among the membership for construction. This should be a really distinctive piece for this hallmark occassion.

We will also take donations of knives, as in the past, for door prizes.

You can submit your designs to John by e-mail (john@poythresscustomknives.com) or by snail mail (625 Freedom Street, Swainsboro Ga 30401). We will need them in time for the January 24 meeting (which will be in Troy NC at MCC).

Also, keep a watch on the forum and the newsletter for information on a special event coming up in April. It will be one you will not won't to miss!!

Thanks for all the great pictures and details Joan!!! I had a great time at the meeting. The demonstrators did a fine job. I'm looking forward to seeing what Phillip and Bill end up using their mokume on.

I was down looking at the old engravers ball I recently picked up and I'm going to clean it up in the hope that I may put some metal in it and try my hand. Tell John I said thanks for taking the time to show his newly acquired skills. It sounds like the engraving class the two of you took at Montgomery Community College was a real winner. I'll have to see if I can get the time off for the one being taught this coming year.

I'm excited about the video lending library the Guild plans to start. There are so many good videos and it will be nice not to spend all the money just for the one or two times of viewing it. The videos will be available for checkout at Guild meetings by standing members for a two-week period. They will need to be sent back after that time, but a few dollars postage sure beats to cover price.

If anyone wants to donate videos to the library, just get in contact with Barry Jones. I know that this will benefit all of our members. The guild plans to purchase videos of interest. If there is a real good one you want us to own let Barry know.

Looking forward to April!