Sharpening services

Sharpening:


Almonte's only sharpening shop.
Hand sharpened using Japanese whetstones and alignment jigs to ensure a perfect edge.
House calls available.

Various levels of sharpness.


Sharp (1000 grit) -$5
Really sharp (4000 grit) $10   $5

Sharp enough to shave with-warn your friends before they use them kind of sharp.
$15    $10 - only available for high quality knives.

Lawnmower blade sharpening - $5
On lawnmower - $10

I will also sharpen woodworking tools, garden tools and anything else that's dull.
Contact me for pricing.

Sneak peak - the Hammertone brass guitar

Here`s a sneak peak of the guitar I'm building.

 

It`s a wood and hammered brass body with bolt on neck.

It`s playable, but far from done.
In the end it will have some sort of wooden pick guard, a sunburst patina like the uke and proper edge binding.

How does it sound?

I've got a custom pre-amp in it built by my friend Vlad that blends between the magnetic pickups and an internal microphone.  On the magnetic (standard electric guitar) setting it sounds great, just like a standard electric should.  The microphone pickup needs some work however.  It's really prone to feeding back at the resonant frequencies of the top and back and it sounds rather brassy, like a cookie tin with strings.  Needs work.  I'll probably end up having to dampen the top and back with some sort of something.
Suggestions welcome. 

Melted CD collection

These are fun to make, although very smelly during the process.

Railroad spike bird

Here's a photo of my latest project, a bird made from welded railroad spikes.

 

And another!  His name is spike.  He now lives in a nice house in Nepean.

They've been sold, but I'm looking forward to making more like this.  Perhaps a dinosaur, one with a bunch of back spikes, like a Dacentrurus.  Or a hedgehog, or a porcupine.  Suggestions welcome.

"Oscar! No running near the impaling lawn sculptures!"

You can see how I made one at Zone 12 projects

From the forge...

Here's a collection of things from the forge.

What better way to hang a cast iron pot than with a wrought iron hook.
Finished in natural beeswax.
Made to order, installation and matching hardware included.

Greatest garden cultivator ever made.
It excels at breaking up compacted dirt. The long pointed twin tines easily cut down deep to the roots for easy weed removal.  Well as easy as weed removing can be.
Sadly does not replace getting down on your knees and pulling.

Wood-burned mono-graphed handle for gift giving.

Various copper sculptures

Various designs in copper available.

Any shape, made to order!

Unusual Instruments

I've been working with hammered metal lately on a few of my art projects.  I really like the curves that you can get out of it and the hammering is quite therapeutic.  I'm not sure exactly where I got the idea, but one day it dawned on me that I could make a really nice  archtop guitar out of metal.  But a guitar is big and the parts are expensive, especially if you don't know if it's actually going to work.  Then I remembered that I had an old Ukulele that I made from a kit hanging around...

It's even electric!  I installed a piezo pickup in the body.  Plugged in it sounds like a really grungy electric guitar.

                                             You can see how I made it at Zone 12 projects

Music - shaken, not stirred.

I made this a few years ago and recently discovered it as I was doing some cleaning.

The guts are a M+S Paia stereo microphone kit, and the result of a trip to the liquor cabinet and plumbing section.

It can be yours for $50.

You can see how I made it at Zone 12 projects