Yahoo I am back in up and running. Cranking bullets out again!

Reloading/ Man Cave of Death (my brother named it) is officially done!
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I think I am going to end up adding some more directional lighting and something to hang items from over the side of the bench with the press. I really like the arrangement of things so far. It is very easy to go through the different stages of loading. The 2x4 Butcher block style decking is very sturdy while using the bench.

Very nice!

Nice! Looks good! Looks like you're setup rather nicely 😆👍
Scooter

Very nice. I'm just going to be setting up my new arrangement in the upcoming weeks. Looking at how everyone else has theirs set up since I'm going to have a great place to make it all happen.

Very well done sir. I love how you did your bench tops. But take it from an old timer, you didn't build it big enough. But then, neither did I and most others here can likely say the same thing. Things just get added in the room like gun safe (s) and book shelfs and next thing you know, you don't have any room to put your powder, dies or bullets. But what you have will darn sure do until you run outta room. I'm stuck in a 10 X 12 room with no way to expand and have to store a lot of things in another room. BUMMER!!

All the best.

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Originally Posted by SavageShooter

Very well done sir. I love how you did your bench tops. But take it from an old timer, you didn't build it big enough. But then, neither did I and most others here can likely say the same thing. Things just get added in the room like gun safe (s) and book shelfs and next thing you know, you don't have any room to put your powder, dies or bullets. But what you have will darn sure do until you run outta room. I'm stuck in a 10 X 12 room with no way to expand and have to store a lot of things in another room. BUMMER!!

All the best.

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LOL! Yeah I hear you the room is 9X13 but I could expand it pretty easily if I needed. I have already found myself saying nope that doesn't belong in there and take it to the shed!

Sweet Jesus.

Dean

That title "Man Cave of Death" seems approprite. My wife calls mine the "The Dungeon" because it is downstairs in the basement. I would show you a photo of it, but after 30 years of stuff being put it there, it would hurt your eyes. But it'll be a warning to ya of what's gonna happen to yours afer that long and why ya didn't build it big enough. I don't know where some of that stuff came from, but I know if you build it, it will come, so be prepared to expand as needed and all the best to you. Looking forward to seeing some of your reloading projects in that new room. Please post'em here on the reloading forum. I'll bet I am not the only one interested in them.

BTW, you need ANOTHER sheath knife. ;) I don't know how a man can function with only 13 of'em and I betcha you have a good, sharp pocket knife in your pocket rat now.

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Originally Posted by SavageShooter

That title "Man Cave of Death" seems approprite. My wife calls mine the "The Dungeon" because it is downstairs in the basement. I would show you a photo of it, but after 30 years of stuff being put it there, it would hurt your eyes. But it'll be a warning to ya of what's gonna happen to yours afer that long and why ya didn't build it big enough. I don't know where some of that stuff came from, but I know if you build it, it will come, so be prepared to expand as needed and all the best to you. Looking forward to seeing some of your reloading projects in that new room. Please post'em here on the reloading forum. I'll bet I am not the only one interested in them.

BTW, you need ANOTHER sheath knife. ;) I don't know how a man can function with only 13 of'em and I betcha you have a good, sharp pocket knife in your pocket rat now.

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Hahaha I'm busted I do have a Kershaw in my pocket. You found my weakness I absolutely love old or nice fixed blade knives. Maybe 4 of those on the wall will get used during hunting season. The rest are wall hangers. I usually find at least one a year that just needs to come home with me. The bad thing is that is not all of them. I do give them away from time to time especially if a young person is getting serious about hunting.

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I do give them away from time to time especially if a young person is getting serious about hunting.

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If your age is correct on your info, you are a young person. But I used to do the same thing and for the same reason. I still do.

Since you are the OP and you brought it up, I share your addiction to fixed blade knives, which is likely why my eye was drawn to those in your photo. My addiction got so bad, I started making them and made a half dozen or so every year for about 30 years. There is no telling how many I made and gave away, but it was a lot. Last year I hunted at three different camps I had never been to before and at each one of them, one or more of those guys had knives I made and gave them. They'd say, dontcha remember? You made this for me back in 1982? I would lie and say, sure. How is it working for you, but I didn't remember giving it to them. I remember making the knife though.

As a consequence of your thread, I saw the thread up above "Loading Bench Plans" and read the whole thing. It is obvious to me after seeing all of that, I am out of my socio-economic class just being here and those guys are waaaay above my pay grade. I may know somebody who works for one of the big dogs of the world, but those guys up above ARE THE BIG DOGS!!! I thought I had done pretty good in life for an ole redneck out of south Mississippi and that I had a decent loading room, but after seeing that thread, I'm going to crawl back under my pick up truck and stay there.

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Originally Posted by SavageShooter

If your age is correct on your info, you are a young person. But I used to do the same thing and for the same reason. I still do.

Since you are the OP and you brought it up, I share your addiction to fixed blade knives, which is likely why my eye was drawn to those in your photo. My addiction got so bad, I started making them and made a half dozen or so every year for about 30 years. There is no telling how many I made and gave away, but it was a lot. Last year I hunted at three different camps I had never been to before and at each one of them, one or more of those guys had knives I made and gave them. They'd say, dontcha remember? You made this for me back in 1982? I would lie and say, sure. How is it working for you, but I didn't remember giving it to them. I remember making the knife though.

As a consequence of your thread, I saw the thread up above "Loading Bench Plans" and read the whole thing. It is obvious to me after seeing all of that, I am out of my socio-economic class just being here and those guys are waaaay above my pay grade. I may know somebody who works for one of the big dogs of the world, but those guys up above ARE THE BIG DOGS!!! I thought I had done pretty good in life for an ole redneck out of south Mississippi and that I had a decent loading room, but after seeing that thread, I'm going to crawl back under my pick up truck and stay there.

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Yep age is correct. I've not got into forging my own blade although it has crossed my mind. I'd love to see some of the blades you have made. You are correct there are some seriously sweet loading room/mancaves in that thread. I scoured that thread when I was deciding how I wanted to do mine. One thing I will say is I am remounting my press with a plate. After sizing 300 shells it is starting to stress the top of the decking. I'm pretty sure if I spread the stress over a mounting plate it will be just fine.

If you will take some advice from an old codger who has accumulated enough scar tissue from doing things wrong to be fairly well grounded in what he believes, I believe you will be much better served making knives using the stock removal method than forging. The results are much more predictable and consistent using it. That said, I'm done with trying to influence how you do it. Every man worth his salt has to do those things in life that he considers to be important and he will find a way to do those things he considers to be important to him.

I used mounting plates on my benches, but I put them under my bench top so they wouldn't be in the way. As well as I braced those benches, I probably didn't need them anyway. As good as your bench tops look, it would be a shame to put a steel plate on top of them for press mounting. But that's just me. You will get the same effect by mounting the plate under your bench top and still be able to maintain those nice finished tops you have.

I'll go take a photo of the few knives I made and kept. I have a series of photo's on how I made a knife and scabbard, but I don't see any place on this forum for that kind of thing and they seem to be very picky about where you post things around here. Most people are not interested in it anyway because there are a lot of good knives available from commercial and custom makers without going to the trouble and expense of making your own. If you value your time even at minimum wage, you can't make a good knife for any less than you can buy one even from a custom maker, and that's the truth. I say you can't, what I meant to say is that I can not. You may be able to do it because you are still 10 feet tall and bullet proof. Time will change that.

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I gave this one above away three or four years ago. It was a forged blade from 52100 stock that got too hot and was brittle, but I didn't know that until I had finished it. If I had known it, I would have trashed the blade to start with. I have a series of photo's of making this knife. It does not have my star burst nickel pattern around the pin because I discovered that it was too brittle.

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These are the only three I kept, but they are not the only ones I have around here. The one in the middle was the first knife I ever made and that was about 1979. I tried, unsuccessfully, to copy a Loveless Crooked Skinner, but I only had a small photo to go by and it didn't turn out to be a Crooked Skinner. The one on the right is the last one I am ever going to make. I also made the scabbards.

Those are some beautiful pieces. I know nothing about making knives except what i've seen on shows like forged by fire and such, so the only thing I can guarantee is that my blades would not come out as nice as those in your pics. I suffer from that thing called to many hobbies, which in my opinion there could be worse things to suffer from. Just to pick your brain as I'm sure I could youtube the hell out of knife making, but I like to hear from guys that I can actually interact with. What is your process for removing material do you remove a major portion with a bench grinder and then file to fine tune the blade and then heat treat? i had an uncle that past when I was young kid that would pound knives out of railroad spikes. I wish I had one of his in my collection.

I use a metal cutting band saw with a cooling spray directed to the cut to cut out the blade profile pattern out of a piece of annealed steel of known quality and carbon content. I normally work with 0-1 tool steel because I have pieces of a big saw mill blade broken up into useable pieces. It makes a dandy knife hardened and tempered to about 57 on the Rockwell scale and it is easy to work with. Not difficult to work with at all. I can cut it very close using the band saw and you don't crystalize the carbon near the blade edges by getting it too hot. If necessary, then I touch up the pattern with a bench belt sander. Then I lay out the blade bevel and use the belt sander to grind it in. You must becareful doing that and not get the blade too hot. It gets real dicy once the blade gets thin at the edge. I keep a big bucket of water next to the belt sander and dip the blade in it to keep it cool. I use my bare hands to do that so I can feel the heat building up and know when to dip it.

As I was typing this, two black bear cubs almost came in here with me. I heard a noise out on the screen porch and looked out there and they were standing there like they owned the place. This usually happens every couple of years. Normally, they stay out in the yard and play in the gold fish fountain and pool. Today, they came inside right through the screen wire. Soon as I can, I'll post photo's of that. The good news is that momma bear stayed outside because she can be bad news if she get's inside. I've seen many houses up here that have been messed up when bears get inside.

That is crazy I've seen a handful of black bears in Florida. I've just in the last year discovered how much better of an edge I can put on a blade with a leather strop and some polishing compound. Haven't used my diamond block since I tried it the first time except for seriously jacked blades.

Erase double post

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This is my little "home office" with the Frenchdoors open to the screened front porch. It is nice today, so I had them open because we don't need the AC today. Those are two of the office computers on the left. I don't own a TV. I had just been typing a message to you.

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I heard a noise out there, so I quit typing on the keyboard and stepped up to look out there. Then Iquickly stepped back and grabbed my camera because it was sitting right there because I had just used it to take those knife photo's for you.
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I took this photo of a bear cub on the porch about 6 feet away from me. It ain't smart to get within 6 feet of a bear cub when momma is out on the deck like she was thismorning, but whatcha gonna do when they come inside?
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Actually, there were TWO bear cubs on the porch and here is one of them crawling back out onto the deck because it saw me and didn't like my looks. But it didn't do a frightened bawl which would have brought momma quickly and I was thankful for that.
Hang on. More photo's to follow.

Hahaha check them two out. Where's the grub? Momma said there was plenty of grub in here! It's funny but glad your good to go with momma out there. You got me beat I had a black come out of the brush while I wass salmon fishing on the Kenai river in Alaska and he was about 35 - 40ft from me and that was to close for comfort i'm glad he just wanted a fish stick to go!

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One of the cubs is out there on the deck eating the flowers in the pots.

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This one has had enough of me and he is leaving.

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Here are three (one in the shadow at right) cubs going down driveway. Momma is out there grunting.

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Here is momma and two of the cubs. The other one is off the side of the drive. That is a Scarecrow on the left that is going off. It is triggered by motion and it is there to keep the critters from coming up the drive way. There is a 7 foot, black wire fence around this 5 acres except for this one opening at the driveway.

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They had been playing in the gold fish fountain in the front yard and cooling off after coming across the mountain.

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They left their tracks out of the pond to the steps to the deck

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They left their calling card here.

I went out and walked the fence and found where they had come in down below where I have peach, plumb and persimmon trees. But there is no fruit left on them, which is good because bears will break down the trees and ruin them. Ask me how I know. I've been here on the mountain for 28 years and they do it about every other year.

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BTW, here is a photo of one of those saw blades I told you I used to make knives out of. This is the only one I have left and at one time, I had six of them.

I don't know how the double post above happened, but this forum will not let me delete it and it will not save any changes to it, so you have two of them.

Well today (Monday) it FINALLY let me edit the double post and erase one of'em.