Hey JJ

Just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by. You guys make it through the weather the last few days? We got about 5 inches and schools are still closed. I got out today for the first time (had to bout to go crazy :)

Did you notice we passed 2500 members today? That's a good thing. I decline probably 4 a week that are spammers but this system seems to be working good, provided it doesn't turn some folks off that they have to be "approved" to join.

Anyway, just thought I'd say "hello" and hope all is well!

Hey J.J.,

I'm just checking in..have been away for a while..looks as if the Seahorse topic has died!  I've been buying knife collections and selling on eBay and other sites, so I haven't been doing many re-dos.  I did finally use some Mammoth Ivory on a Seahorse, and am now making grips for my handguns from Mammoth. Also, I had Oupa in Australia work his magic on a couple of Seahorses..one with old copper, and another with kangaroo bone.

Hope all is well with you and your family. I'll try to get back here more often.

I can't wait for peach season to come around....

Regards,

Frank Plant

NW GA

Yeah .. I miss the personal touch of the "quote" .. I used your's a few times ..

.. had a kid come in the other day .. just a reekin a pot .. leaned across the counter .. eye's were freakn slits .. "what do I gotta do ta git a job here" .. I just looked @ him & replied "well first off .. don't come in here reeking of POT !!!" .. he got upset .. "OK .. you were in the yard burning leaves .. learn to stand up-wind" .. he left .. I quoted you ..

Life's tough !!

O0oops .. lost me train of thought .. profile = { marker/maker <> user/collector } thingie came out of the YellowBook discussion .. a possible way to sort / catagorize / catalog / look up ????????

Sorry you've been under the weather. I know you don't want to do a broadcast here when you're not well, but didn't know :)

Yeah, there'd been a fair amount of talk..over in the Huddle...about ID'ing knifemakers and the Yellow Page index for them, that I looked around and changed the Quote profile question to a drop down (user/collector or Knifemaker). Then I moved that question up to the top...so folks can see when they view a member's page which one that member is. Really that was it.

Most folks could tell anyway but reading down the profile, but this feature might allow a quick search anyway. 

You know what they say about whiskey and the flu don't you? :) ..at least you don't know you don't feel bad :)

Well .. did you folks escape the worst of it ???

We got another couple inches last night .. just enough to fill in the old dog tracks .. am anticipating March / April .

J.J.,

Sorry you've been under the weather. Hope you're back up to snuff now. Won't be long before you can sit on your porch in the sun and whittle them purty monkeys outta South Carolina peach seeds.

I sold that durn mammoth ivory seahorse. Haven't gotten around to making a keeper.  I'll look thru my pictures to see if I saved a pic.

Regards,

frankp 

Regards,

frankp

Me too on the Like. It'll take a while to get that system back up to where the old ratings and favorites has some of our stuff in terms of popularity....but it'll be fine :)

Working on building out a survey right now and was looking for the Huddle to see what we put there as ideas

Interesting wood working tools. Since you have so many of them I will throw this out. Jap carving tools are -very- reliable. Might be overkill for a hobby project, but if you are a woodworker they will be your dream.

Hmm, looking even more at your carvings. Maybe you should skip shelling out $1400 for 20 high-end carving tools in different sizes and shapes. Sorry, I thought you were a full-on woodworker starting to get into carvings. Apologies!

Dang that I saw your "New Zealand sword" after I made the post.

In any case, you need a serious upgrade to your woodworking tools my friend. Yours are way too big, not at all suitable for detail carvings which is what I see you doing on knives and other stuff.

Since my way of working wood is so different from the western way I want you to know that I'm not a hardcore Jap tool enthusiast.

I suggest that you start acquiring some good western chisels in various sizes and that you try out a finer stone more suitable stone for woodworking (that convex edge isn't too great for carving or paring).

I'm assuming you are using Arkansas or something along that. There is an oil stone in Europe which is fine enough to use as a finisher on razors. This stone with some slurry on top will easily bring the edge out as far as possible granted that your technique is right (it looks like it).

Pardon myself for making two posts after eachother J.J. If you're happy with your way then don't bother with what I wrote, I only wanted to extend my knowledge-base to you in case anything of it interests you.

By the way, do you use stones only? If so you will LOVE this stone. It takes forever just like an Arkansas but that's because it also consists of novaculite, you should easily be able to move from a proper Arkansas polish to this stone and get a really keen edge.

Apologies are also in order, I'm sorry to hear that you suffer from arthritis. My mother also has it in both her hand, only had surgery on one but I was with her all the time so I know the harships that comes with that illness.

Regarding that I actually have some information. Nothing backed up, I simply used my own mother as a research subject and gave her handle after handle and edge after edge to see which allows her to use it best with as little pressure as possible.

Edge-wise I haven't concluded anything concrete yet except that a convex edge seems to help since there is more room for angles due to the way arthritis hinders the detail movement of the pincher grip (thumb and index finger).

If I may ask, how does your arthritis show itself? Is it focused around the fingers or in the joints of the hand leading up to the wrist?

If you go and check the Red Hawk from HHH you will see a pinky groove with jimping. I got that on a kitchen knife for my mother and polished it out as far as I could and she has -never- stopped using it since the day I gave it to her lol.

She refuses to use any other knife and the design for the pinky helps her lock the grip up compared to before when the knife basically just hung freely in her palm.

Well, I'm quite sure you know the type of knives you need already but in any case a keener edge will make it easier on you - that I can tell you with a certificate and a notary ;)

There is a stone I know of  that is slightly coarser than the "razor quality" stones, it would probably work very well for woodworking, I'm afraid that you will have to import it though

Well I figured non-narcotic. But me brother soaks his shine in Door County Cherry's for at least 6 mo ~ a yr before even touching it. I thought perhaps .... peaches down your way ????

One of my brothers co-workers has his G'pas still .. carries on an old family tradition .. legally runs off something less than a 50 gal batch per year .. OUCH !!!  My brother will take a gal glass jar & loosely fill it with fresh cherries .. then top it off w/ those fine corn squeezins .. & put it into storage.

A funny story .. his mother-n-law doesn't approve of drinken' .. but the cherries weren't tooo bad, Soooooo me brother .. fed her about a half cup of em .. over a period of time .. he paid for it the following morning .. I understand they both did ... and this was like the week before his wedding .. hehehe.

  "If things get any better, I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy it."

J.J.

You could be right (making me wrong, which is not unusual :-) I just posted pictures of my EXA and it's not the same camera shown on the table. That picture is 4 or 5 years old and I can't remember if it was an EXACTA or EXA. Regardless, it's an Ihagee.

When I was young it was women and now that I'm "older", it's my treasures - I can't remember the women either so I guess I shouldn't be surprised I forget cameras.

Starting with the VAREX (EXACTA V in US), the camera had both an eye level & waist level finder that just pops in and out. The later EXA would also accept both. If you'll look at the EXA pictures I just posted, the waist level finder shown is in it's original box and is maked "EXACTA" not EXA. I suspect it saved a bunch in retooling cost.

They were pretty neat cameras for the time.

J.J. 

No idea what VX stood for, only that it was a "second generation" VAREX, the first being the VAREX V. The VAREX V was introduced in 1950 and the VX a short while later. 

From what I've read, some early VAREX V models were shipped to the US before the (I said copyright but's it's trademark) violation was "discovered" and Ihagee simply painted over the VAREX with silver paint to match the body. The U.S. model of your camera looks identical except the VAREX name is missing. 

They are nice, very collectible cameras. A bit of trivia - Jimmy Stewart used a Ihagee VX in the Hitchcock thriller "Rear Window". Here's a link you might be interested in: http://basepath.com/Photography/ExaktaVarexVX.php

Have you seen this page?

http://captjack.exaktaphile.com/Schneider%20page.htm

Just guessing but I think the XENON was an automatic and captjack sorta bears that out.

It was late & I was tired.

After you set the aperture, does the diaphragm stay completely open until you press the shutter button half-way down? As I recall, that was done on some high end pre light meter coupled SLR's to keep a bright viewfinder until you took the shot and the correct term as you stated was preset automatic or perhaps semiautomatic.

A little more trivia you might like:

Back in 1951, the VAREX was sold as a professional camera & costs around $350 (wow).

The annualized inflation rate since then is 3.72% so the cost in today's dollar was $3,023.29! (double wow)