Just Received Beautiful Knives From White River Knife & Tool

I received a shipment of knives from White River Knife & Tool.

White River Knife Filet Knives

Here are two (of three) filet knives. The one on the bottom of the picture is their 8" knife, cork handle, leather sheath. The knife above is their offset style filet knife. The 8" White River Filet Knife will float if it dropped into the drink.

Both of these filet knives have a strap and snap that holds the knife in the sheath so that it won't slip out while a tackle box.

All White River knives are heirloom quality knives. All are made in the USA using materials made here in the USA.

Sendero Classic Fixed Blade Knives Designed By Jerry Fisk

These two beauties are Sendero Classics. A fixed blade sporting knife, complete with a leather sheath, micarta handle.

Sendero Classic Fixed Blade Knife

I see my pictures are not the best, as they don't appear to accurately depict the colors of the knives. Here is a Sendero with dark micarta handle. This is the bottom knife in the picture of the knives with their sheaths.

The Sendero is all USA Made, has S30V steel, micarta handle scales, and leather sheath. The finger guard is large and nice, and is also called upon to hold the knife securely in its sheath.

Sendero Classic Fixed Blade Knife

This is a Sendero Classic sporting the lighter color micarta handle scales.

Just Received Some New Deejo Knives

UPS brought me some Deejo knives today. Deejo are very lightweight, compact folding pocket knives.

Deejo Folding Pocket Knives

Pictured above are the Deejo knives. There are two sizes pictured here. Deejo sizes their knives by the knife's weight — so what we have here is the large at 37 grams weight, and the small at 15 grams.

The two big knives with the black have tattoo inspired skull images silkscreened on the blade and handle, and a strip of grenadilla wood insert. The blade is double bevel because of the wood strip. The two knives without the wood insert has the blade exposed and the knife is single bevel.

The brown wood insert seen on two of the knives is juniper wood.

The small knife in the center is barely a half ounce! Opened it is 5" long. No pocket clip on these small sizes.

Skull Version Deejo Folding Knife

Here is a picture featuring just the skull version of the Deejo knives.

I have Just Received an Embarrassing Amount of Knives!

I have received a whole heck of a lot of knives!

My goal is the so called 'Just in Time' inventory management method, planning on receiving knives as I need them. In theory my supply would arrive at my door just when needed — just when I have sold my last piece that needs replacing.

That is the theory — not real life.

New Shipment of Knives

Controlling inventory in real life is a bit more complicated, there are always things that go wrong. This picture for example shows two boxes (an opened small box of knives sitting on top of a large box of knives). My intent was for the two boxes to arrive days apart, but somehow the smaller box arrived much quicker than expected.

Other complications include knives out of stock, ordering the wrong knife by mistake — and a biggie — getting all caught up in it — and ordered too much of stuff!

Box of Microtech, SOG, Spyderco, Kershaw, Buck Knives

Anyway — enough of the whining — here are the knives that I got yesterday. I see two Microtech boxes, one is a Ultratech D/E Tri-Grip, I see a Spyderco Paramilitary, A Kershaw Launch. The bix white boxes are Condor Tool & Knife machetes.

Today the job before me is to unpack and organize these guys, tomorrow I sharpen knives at Lunardi's San Jose Bascom and Zanotto's Rose Garden in San Jose.

Added Vintage Knives to My Mobile Knife Sharpening Booth's 'Knives For Sale' Table

I have finally found some nice vintage knives during my tour of estate sales and thrift shops.

Vintage Carbon Steel Case XX Chef's Knife

Here is a vintage carbon steel chef's knife made by Case XX. Carbon steel will rust and stain, so Case XX chrome plated these knives to protect the metal. This is a big 10" chef's knife, and it still has the original chipboard sheath.

There are a lot of collectors of vintage carbon steel knives — but I don't think that the chrome plated ones are as desired. Time will tell.

Vintage Case XX Steak Knife Set

Here is a six piece set of steak knives, Case XX brand. I sharpened them, cleaned and oiled the wood — and listed them on eBay.

Vintage Forged Mundial Knive Set

Here is a beautiful set of kitchen knives. They are made by Mundial, they are forged stainless steel with wood handles.

I sharpened them, oiled the handles and sold them at my Lunardi's San Bruno mobile knife sharpening stop.

Gerber Touché Belt Buckle Knife

I came across this vintage Gerber belt buckle knife, Gerber Touché. The metal knife locks into the plastic belt buckle. This picture shows the knife blade inserted into the cavity of the belt buckle. Once the blade is in place you swing the blade around past that metal pin that is visible to lock and hold the knife in place.

Gerber Touché Belt Buckle Knife

Here the handle has been swung closed and in the normal wear position.

Gerber Touché Belt Buckle Knife

This is the opened knife and the belt buckle. There is a half moon stud on the back of the knife that fits in the opening of the belt buckle, and when the knife is rotated the stud locks the blade in place.

Gerber Touché Belt Buckle Knife

Here is the back side view of both pieces.

I tried to sell this little guy on eBay, but eBay had a really hissy fit and took the posting off. I now have it on my used knife table.

The Fancy Cars Visible from a Mobile Knife Sharpening Booth

Being that my mobile knife sharpening business is outside — mostly in Supermarket parking lots — I often see some nice cars. These cars might be vintage, unique and expensive, or just fun. I decided to take pictures of some of them and post them up on this blog.

Yellow Hot Rod at Gene's Fine Foods Pleasanton

I am not the best at identifying cars, and I am usually too busy to take notes — so let me call this car a yellow hot rod.

I was sharpening knives at Gene's Fine Foods in Pleasanton when this car parked. Gene's is near the fairgrounds in Pleasanton, and the Good Guys car show was the same Sunday so a lot of cars drove by.

Yellow Sports Car at Lunardi's San Bruno

I'm sharpening knives at Lunardi's San Bruno when this little number parked. The owner asked me, "Do you know what a barn find is?" I said I did. He said that this was a 'garage find,' that his girlfriend had it stored in her garage for years, just sitting, very low miles. He finally convinced her to sell, so he is now driving it around and restoring it bit by bit.

Two Cars at Gene's Fine Foods Pleasanton

Here are two cars at Gene's. A bug behind the little red number.

Gene's Fine Foods Pleasanton Hot Rod

Another fast little number seen at Gene's.

2015 Ford F150 Pickup at Lunardi's Bascom San Jose

I know the make and model of this beauty — because it's mine! This is my new Ford F150 Pickup. It is the Super Cab model (so it has the back suicide doors), and I have a Diamondback tonneau cover on the bed. This picture is at Lunardi's San Jose/Bascom and shows the beginning of me setting up for knife sharpening.

Old Jaguar Visiting my Knife Sharpening Booth

This is a 60s ear Jaguar. All I remember from our discussion is that it is a six cylinder and has three carbs. The hood latches need adjustment and so the car's owner was in buying a 12 pack of beer to bring as a bribe. This was at my Lunardi's Bascom in San Jose knife sharpening location.

Nice White Corvette

This sweet ride pulled up next to my knife sharpening booth at Lunardi's Walnut Creek. I am surprised at how nice white looks on sports cars, I always thought of white as a working truck or van color.

Message Board Car at Piazza's Fine Foods Palo Alto

I see this car rather often at Piazza's Fine Foods in Palo Alto. It's a car with a message for sure!

A Row of All-The-Same SUVs at Lunardi's Bascom

I looked up while sharpening knives are Lunardi's Bascom San Jose, and I had to take this picture because — even though they are different makes, models and colors — they are all pretty much all exactly alike! The compact jelly bean shaped SUV is definitely the sales leader now-a-days!

Caterham Superlight R Car

This bad boy pulled up next to my knife sharpening booth last Saturday at Lunardi's Walnut Creek. It's a Caterham Superlight R.

Caterham Superlight R 

Here is the cockpit view of the car.

Classic Pontiac Catalina Convertible

Right before the Caterham this Pontiac parked just behind my booth. I am always surprised at how incredibly long these vintage cars are!

A Gaggle of New White Ford F150 Pickup Trucks 

OK, since I have one of the new style Ford F150 pickups, I just had to take this picture. All of these white F150s are the new body style, which makes them either model year 2015 or 2016. Of the the three is my 2015. This was also at Lunardi's Walnut Creek.

  

New Knives Have Hit the Door

I finally got back to documenting some of my fixed blade and folding knives that I have been selling.

Today I got a box chock full of way cool knives! Condor, Microtech, SOG, Kershaw and a few other brands must be rattling around in the box.

SOG, Microtech, Kershaw and Buck Knife Shipment

Here is an overall picture of what came in. The knife across the top is a Condor machete. There are two Bucks (in the yellow boxes), then two Kershaws, the Microtech. Just below the Microtech are two small black boxes with Gen2 knives. The SOG Snarl fills in the bottom of the group.

Kershaw Launch 3, Microtech Ultratech DE

Here are two nice knives. The top is the Kershaw Launch 3, the bottom is a Microtech Ultratech DE.

I think that the Kershaw Launch is a beautiful knife — and most everybody would agree that the Microtech Ultratech DE is an expensive bad-ass knife!

Kershaw Link, Buck Nano Bantam,  Buck Rush

The Kewshaw Link is an assisted opening knife, This one has a plain edge blade (no serrations) and the blade has their Blackwash finish.

Condor Warlock Machete and Leather Sheath

This pretty boy is a Condor brand machete, called the Warlock. It has a Micarta handle, carbon steel blade and a leather sheath.

Rebuilt my Mobile Knife Sharpener's Solar Power Storage Box

For those of you who are paying attention, I have had to change my solar power system's storage box.  My first storage system used a tool box or cart made by Stanley. Below is a picture of it in use:

Solar Storage System Using Stanley Tool Box

I really liked this Stanley tool box. The bottom compartment held the AGM battery, I had a shelf built to hold the power inverter just above the battery, and the top box held extension cords and other tools and parts related to storing and distributing the DC and AC juice.

The other nice aspect of the Stanley tool box was the flush mounted wheels, and the folding handle. 

Since my business is mobile — mobile knife sharpening — I need everything that I use to work in this mobile environment. I drive to where I will set up, pull everything out of my truck and set up my sharpening booth.

The Stanley tool box, with the wheels made it easier to set up. The AGM battery that I use is made of lead, and lead is heavy. The wheels on the  tool box made it a lot easier. The wheels being flush mounted (and the folding handle) made it a lot easier to pack away.

The tool box — unfortunately — was not robust enough to hold up to day to day business, especially with an obscenely heavy 56amp hour lead acid AGM battery. In the photo above I can see the half circle of air where the right wheel of the box used to be. The wheels were the first to fail. The metal axle was held in place with plastic tabs, and they let loose after some time. Once that happened I started to drag the tool box around. Dragging the tool box on asphalt did not help matters!

My Poor Battery Storage Cart Abandoned in a Recycling Cart

My Stanley Tool cart spent its life helping me sharpen knives by holding the battery and the power inverter that I needed for my solar power system. This is how I reward my loyal tool — abandoned in a recycling bin. So sad...

Plywood Battery Storage Box

I could not find an off the shelf tool box that seemed to fit my needs, so I decided to go the custom built route. 

The picture above shows the beginning of the box. Visible in the bottom are the cleats that will hold the battery secure. After this picture was taken the wood was sealed, and a couple of wood pieces that are placed above the battery were cut.

Solar Battery and Power Inverter Storage Box

Here is a picture of the completed box. This view shows the entire box, the power inverter, and the Anderson connectors that runs to the solar panels.

The AGM battery is visible at the bottom, the power inverter is the large black chassis mounted up on top, the power inverter sits on the rails that hold the battery down. The box is as open as it can be so that all the parts and pieces can be easily accessed for inspection and maintenance.

Solar Powered Knife Sharpening

Here is a picture of the whole setup. The box is in back, the folding solar panels are in front. The box — with the heavy lead acid battery and other gear — makes a great anchor for my popup canopy. In this picture you can see a bungie cord running from the metal handle of the box up to the popup.

Everybody asks if the this solar setup can operate my knife sharpening system. I say 'yes.' I explain 'duty cycle,' in that the machines are off when I am awaiting customers, and also mostly off when I am actually doing knife sharpening. Other that the actual sharpening when the machine is running — other work steps include inspecting the knife, adjusting the machine, cleaning the knife, wrapping the knife and such. All of these steps are done with the machine off, and during all this time the solar system is charging the battery.

With most any sunny summer day the battery sits full, and the charge controller has the voltage to the battery turned off.