Hi All-Some may remember me posting a couple of months back that my almost 16-year old had gotten into custom knife-making, was apprenticing under local maker Ross Tyser, and had made his first blade here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/conve...-show-off.html

Anyway, as this thing is serious, and may in fact turn into a life-long career, my wife and I are in the process of building him a 12'x20' workshop out back (just waiting for the home equity line to clear). Anyway, I got a call out of the blue yesterday from Ross that an elderly knife-maker (Billy "Burt" Metcalf) had died a couple of years ago, and his family really wanted to sell his knife-making tools. So not knowing much about the situation, we drove down in the country a ways to look it all over. I thought that maybe I'd get a good deal on a used grinder.

As they REALLY didn't want to piece all of his equipment out, after going over it all thoroughly with Ross, I made them an offer, and they accepted. I know these pictures aren't great (poor lighting and an Iphone camera is my excuse), but most of what I got is pictured below:



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With Ross's advice to take this crazy good deal, I basically bought everything in the shop: 2 bader grinders with LOTS of belts, several good buffers with bins full of wheels and compound, sanders, the very sturdy workbenches, a table-saw and band-saw (not pictured), a gas forge and anvil with all tools and accessories, lots of steel stock and old saw-blades, drill press, a whole bunch of other knife-making supplies I'm not even sure what they are, all kinds of handle materials (including some very rare and desirable "natural materials," etc., etc. Too much other stuff/tools to even mention. In other words, my son will be ready to forge straight ahead (pardon the pun) with both stock removal bladesmithing, as well as forging-Ross has promised guidance on how to actually use all of this equipment. He is not only a first-rate knifemaker, but a great Southern gentleman and teacher as well.

And as a side benefit, I'll have everything I need to start fooling around with razor restorations beyond my few little hand-sanding and Mother's projects! Time to start watching Undream's videos again! We should have a busy and productive summer-I'll report back with some of the results of this acquisition soon-Now I just have to get the shop built and move all of this stuff up here, hopefully all in the next few weeks. Thanks for looking-Aaron