I have a job in local government and am considered essential services, so I'm still working. It's been very stressful and everyone is on edge to a higher degree than normal. I used to work in City Hall but about 2 years ago moved to a satellite location. It's a shared services facility with four small buildings and workers from 5 different departments. Yesterday, someone in one of the other departments announced that one of their staff has tested positive. The facility is now in lockdown while the cleaning gets done. I can mostly work remotely, as I am a team supervisor, but I am worried about my staff that has to work F2F with the public everyday. We have very limited PPE for staff and one of my crew has been in quarantine for 3 weeks. It's nothing compared to one of my high school chums that is a pulmonary physician in NYC. He is totally in the trenches.

It's been difficult to concentrate on shop time, but I am making progress on some projects. One of the things I started doing is working on a group of 5 or 6 knives at a time. It has made me streamline the process and become much faster at certain parts of it. Repetition has that effect it seems. I have also made more templates. Speaking of that, I wanted to suggest the idea to Dean for his sheaths. I have a few sheath templates that work well for a variety of knife shapes. They are also reversible in case I need to make a lefthanded one.

I'm there with you Josh and Jason. I'm an essential worker at a power plant, and the company has decided to continue on with our spring maintenance shutdown. This means 200+ contractors from various parts of the country are coming and going daily for 5-6 weeks starting about a week ago. Fun times, so much so that I've not been able to darken the door of my shop for 2 weeks now from stress and tiredness of 7x12 hour shifts. I hope to get in soon to just look at the place let alone work in it.

I'm participating at a steel fabrication contest called "best apprentice of france", the nice thing for me is that the pandemic made the contest impossible to continue for every participants, so they gave us a lot more time to finish the piece, wich is a steel chest. i aslo cleaned my shop and made some knives.. hope everyone is going well in these hard times

I spent a pretty day just concentrating on my shed for the support equipment. The vacuum, the generator, and the air compressor. I have to pick up some metal corner and I can sew it up completely. I stuck a light in it even though it may not help if the electricity goes out. Might need it otherwise.

A side note: The power is off at home as I write this. A storm came through last night before bed time. Kay is braving the home front while I keep an eye on the work place today. I still have to make up the plug in connection that will feed the shop or home with power from the generator. So, while I may look prepared, there is still things to do. A second generator may be in order.

This dry run emphasizes that there will be preparation left undone if we don't actually use the equipment and work through the hook up entirely. Gas for generator, carburetor cleaner, extra gas filters, plug ins, etc. Also, a generator is limited in what appliances and lighting it will serve. So, must I have a check list ready (number one being kill the Main Breaker), but know which circuits contain the necessary items to be run such as refrigerator, etc.

Like a few of you my day job is considered essential, but even that is starting to feel the effects. I am a Project Manager by day, but the construction industry is really starting to take a hit from all of this - in fact the company i work for is starting to do lay-offs and announced that they were cutting all salaried employees pay by 10%... So i really hope that this turns around very soon.

In the Shop I have been working on a few orders and then doing some organizing and maintenance like Lin. Trying to get a better overall layout in the shop and i also put some better dust collection in my grinder room.

My work is considered essential so thankfully I'm still employed. But with Montana being on full lock down, getting side tracked with weekend fun is out of the question. This has allowed me to have more time in the shop working much over due projects.

Removed photo's. On my end the pictures are resized but when upload them they are to large. Sorry

I suppose my job is "essential" here at the museum but a lot of the time I am here just in case a water line breaks ( it happens more then you might think), or contractors need inside or on the grounds. At this moment we have roof people here and carpet people. So just unlocking doors and installing RPZ valves, etc.

Our electricity will be out for a few days since the damage was wide spread and we just cant know when it'll be back on so its a good time to take stock of my emergency preparedness. Right now I'm about 50% prepared. Need to do better and will.

But all is good. The generator is running and priorities are being cared for. Maybe it's time to draw some new designs.

Ty, that's a pretty knife you got underway.

Side note: Power is still out but I am learning a lot about small engine carburetors. I'll be more prepared for the next big one.

|quoted:

Ty, that's a pretty knife you got underway.

Side note: Power is still out but I am learning a lot about small engine carburetors. I'll be more prepared for the next big one.

that made me chuckle a bit.. kind of like saying I slipped on the grinder, but I am learning more about hand sanding!

MP

Thanks Lin I appreciate the compliment. I'm crazy slow at making but enjoy it a lot. Here's the same handle with its first coat of oil. It's currently on coat 7. When my ferric comes in I'll etch the blade, heat color the titanium spacer, and Corby bolt that holds the handle on.

That really look nice. It reminds me of John Doyle's work. That is a compliment.

Side note: Our power came back on last night. One step toward normality.

The knife is heavily based off of John's style. I started this one over a year ago in his shop. So he knows the direction that its heading. His work is one of the reasons why I got into knife making.

|quoted:

The knife is heavily based off of John's style. I started this one over a year ago in his shop. So he knows the direction that its heading. His work is one of the reasons why I got into knife making.

John is doing some nice stuff these days. He stops by the shop now and then to have me critique some of his work and there is very little for me to pick on him about.

Lin - thanks for starting this thread - it's nice to hear how folks are weathering all this as well as their knives.

I've been so busy with trying to keep myself and family sane that I didn't do much shop work during the beginning of the lock-down.

Wednesday, I did get out to the shop and forge one Xhrea-like knife:

I think I need to jump on the cleaning and organizing around the shop bandwagon - that never hurts right?

I've taken a little extra time off but still working. I had put this Bowie away, I messed up the spacer and wasn't happy with some choices I made.I feel better now I'm going to rust blue the fittings.

And to continue challenging myself and after attending a carving class by Larry Fuegen, (what a nice and talented man) I'm going to try carving he made it look easy ha ha. Also second multi bar twist attempt I think it's twist n stop. Next time I try it I'll do somethings differently.