We left a new Partner out of our last post and our apologies for that oversight.

                                                

Had one of those "aha" moments recently. Some of you know already that one of our distinguished Exchange members posts in other forums (or at least did so at one time) under the  moniker "Wootz". I've been in contact with some individuals in India recently (Hyderabad, Telejanga specifically) and learned that they claim that their region is the birthplace of Damascus Steel - except they call it "Wootz". Isn't that interesting?

This months new BESS Partners. Bess Partners from all over the world continue to gain a "leg-up" on the competition by providing before and after BESS sharpness numbers to their customers. BESS Partners enjoy an advantage in both their service to their customers and their advertising. Best thing is - assuming that you are an edge sharpness testing instrumentation owner and a small commercial knife sharpener - BESS Partnerships are free!

Just email us at mikeb@edgeonup.com and tell us who you are - where you're at - a little about your business - what type of edge testing instrument you own and how you intend to use your BESS Partnership in your business. Make certain that you indicate in your email how your certificate should be titled.


                                                                                                                         

So here was a head scratcher for me. The following came off of a windmill I was restoring. The old platform, from which the windmill head was serviced, was long ago shot being constructed of 1" thick pine boards nailed to angle iron. Here's a picture of the replacement platform:

                                                    

The riddle concerns the original construction - nails were driven through holes in the angle iron and then through the 1" board - then clenched. The nails were old square nails. So how do you clinch a nail like this?

                                                    

If you're old enough to appreciate the attempt at word play that is represented in the title of this thread then you, like me, probably sport a few gray hairs on your noggin. 

When I first discovered the growths on the trunk of my majestic American Elm, I didn't know what they were. A year later the 50 foot tall massive old elm was clearly suffering and the following year it had expired.  We cut the tree about 12 feet up from the ground to keep the dead branches from crushing the adjacent shed. 

                                              



I also trimmed one of the bumps off the trunk with my chain saw and took note of the strange grain at the saw line. That's when someone more familiar with wood than me told me that "that's burl". 

That's when I decided to turn the trimmed piece into a serving platter.

                                              


And here is a closer look at the grain:

                                               

Pleased with the results, I lopped off several more growths of various size and shape and produced various bowls and serving pieces from them.  This was all three years ago. The event that prompted this post occurred when I inspected my old burl trunk this year. I discovered that the old trunk has gone back into burl production again  and some of the new growths are quite massive:

                                               

Anyhow, seems like this stuff would make some pretty nice tool and knife handles as well.

Recently I purchased an electric chain saw and would like to ask you if you have some recommendations concerning chain sharpening.

For the time being I have Oregon sharpener file kit, but I have read that there exists Granberg Bar-Mount Chain Saw Sharpener made in California. Amazon delivers it to Europe, shipping’s and import fees are some 20 USD, so the total price for me would be some 55 USD.

Company Stihl offers similar device, but the price is several times higher.

Jan

Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/Granberg-Bar-Moun...QC672JJQSJ

Well Mark R. I told you that I was going to take a few of your throwing tomahawks to Kansas for a good workout.  I presented two of them to my nephews here,  Josh and Jake,  with tomahawks and they went right to work. These are really nice creations Mark and extremely well made! They got the Tomahawks and I kept the ax. Here's a picture of both styles for the member's edification:


                   


Apparently they lack only one feature Mark - altitude control. I received this picture from Josh with the message "OOPs" along with it:

                                                 

When I was a kid Mark, I flung every hatchet I could find at every tree on the place and spent hours and hours doing it. These axes and tomahawks are four or five leagues above those old projectiles. I understand that there is now a resurgence of tomahawk and ax throwing going on and it's easy to see why. It's just a ton of cheap fun!

Hey guys, 
Summer is pretty much said and done around here these days.
And it is time to get back to the shop, but first, I have a ton of cleaning to do.

Just wondering what everyone's favorite de-greaser is for metal machines?
I sort of ended up with an extra Bridgeport mill, WF Wells horiz band saw and a Cincinnati lathe.

They need a good scrub, and I want to cut as much as that swarf as I can chemically before getting to the manual scrubbing.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Wade.

I think that every street in Phoenix must be under construction right now. I take about six miles of the 101 freeway to and from work every day and they are in the process, this summer,  of turning 8 lanes into twelve there.  The key to living successfully with the 101 each day is to make certain that you're traveling the right direction at the right time of day. It's west in the morning and east in the afternoon for me. Things flow pretty smoothly if the relationship of your home to your office allows this and I'm one of the lucky ones that it does. 

Anyway - this is all just background for something that happened this morning. Due to the construction, the speed limit is now reduced to 55 mph. Phoenix drivers have always been eager to make the conversion to metric so mentally convert all posted speed limits to kilometers per hour while still using the miles per hour arc of their speedometers. A Corvette sailed past me this morning at nearly twice my speed. Force of habit caused me to mutter the word "Idiot". Not thirty seconds later I'm standing on the brake because a mini-van  up  front  is doing half my speed (clearly a newcomer to town). I began to mutter a descriptive term for his driving habits as well but caught myself before I did. I had begun to mutter "Moron" but then remembered the "Idiot". Logically, if the guy doing twice my speed was an idiot then why isn't the guy doing half my speed  a "Genius"? I didn't resolve all this until I pulled into the parking lot here at work and here's how I arrived at the correct answer:

If the fast driver was an idiot and the slow driver was a genius then that would make me a "C" student and we have no C students on the BESS Exchange. Only the best and brightest express themselves here on these pages. So, therefore, idiot and moron must be the correct terms. Now, please don't ask me what lies at the midpoint between moron and idiot. I'm still working on that part of the equation.

We had a meeting of the BESSU board this weekend and they asked us to pass along this message:

"Hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe holiday weekend and thank you for your support of BESS and the BESS Exchange!"