Put Hammer to Steel

At the last Gathering at Chuck’s, we (the Tribal Edge guys with Buzz and myself) did a trial run for what may become a regular occurrence: Knife Making 101. It was a spontaneous thing for me to do, and I am so glad I did it.
Keep an eye out for the announcement if this becomes an official class.
For the last few years, Chuck, along with Mushtaq Ali Shah, Buddha Weatherby and now, Ian Robbins, have been producing pointy things at Tribal Edge Knifeworks

Along the back half of Chuck’s garage (anyone else think of Joe’s Garage?)are the tools and equipment of Tribal Edge. The forge is propane driven and has a wall of firebrick on the backside to prevent the flames from igniting the building. The ignition process sounds like an F-4 Phantom at full afterburner.

Fire in the hole!

The group works with a variety of steels and in the case of the knives that Buzz and I decided to make, it was a former coil spring from a vehicle. It is 5160 high carbon steel, which, according to Chuck, makes great blades.

The first step was to pound it into a billet to work with and then we began the shaping process. Buzz was going for a custom fit kerambit. I like the retention ring from the kerambit I carry and decided to see how that would function as a straight blade with edge on the “inside.”





Ian did a lot of the initial work and some shaping. He let us hammer enough to make us feel like we were doing something, however. Just as I was getting the rhythm of the swing down, it was done. I hadn’t noticed that I had blistered until near the end of the hammering. There is definitely something therapeutic in the swinging. We then let the metal cool in the forge overnight.











Following the forging, we did what Chuck referred to as “stock removal.” We smoothed out a lot of the hammer marks, trued the lines of the overall profile a little as well as dressed up the geometry of the blade that would save us time on draw filing. All of which I think was a result of my novice hammer strokes. We did this fixing up using a belt sander. Chuck was apt to point out to be very aware of the grip as the sander could snatch the blade-in-waiting and pull in a finger to smooth.

The next step was to bust out the lube. We used Oil Stones to smooth out the appearance of the blade’s texture and move toward a good shape and look. The first run was with 120 grit stone to get the groove going. That was followed up with 320 grit to get a little deeper. We also located and drilled the holes for the pins using the drill press.





Then we moved the blade slowly in and out of the forge repeatedly to normalize the metal. In other words, we just heated and manipulated the heck out of it and this process to will help the metal align its chakras. It’s Tantric.

The blade was then heated to a non-magnetic state and I found this rather interesting. Using a magnetic bullet, I pressed it against red hot metal to see if it would still pull. When it was no longer attractive, we quenched it in oil. This hardened the metal to a state of brittleness such that it would have shattered if dropped. Needless to say, after all the work that went into the knife so far, that would have sucked. Chuck was rather nonchalant about it, so I didn’t let it worry me.

In order to get the metal back to a state that if would not become a pile of shards, we applied what Chuck referred to as the “drawing process.”
This involved a high tech piece of equipment: the toaster oven, which happened to be the only piece of equipment not in the garage. We heated the metal for an hour at 375 degrees and then let it cool to room temperature. Chuck had buffed an area of the tang so we could watch for a color change. The process was repeated until we saw a distinct golden straw color. This indicated the brittleness of the metal had lessened enough to allow it to hold and edge and not shatter when dropped.

We again used the Oil Stones to polish the blade further. This process was actually a little challenging due to the taper from the original thickness of the metal down to the eventual edge of the knife. It took a skilled hand and I definitely let Chuck smooth out my rough edges on that.







At this step, we also cut out and rough shaped the wood that will become the handle. Tribal Edge offers a number of cool woods to fit the mood. I chose Gabon Ebony for this knife, as the lighter grain really looks great on the overall black. We aligned and drilled the holes for the pins in the wood. Using a band saw we rough shaped the handle and fit it with homemade pins. The pins are varying sizes of metal tubing with epoxy holding them together. They are surprisingly simple things that add a tremendous amount to the aesthetics of the finished product.

Now is the moment when it all comes together. The wood is affixed to the tang with a binary epoxy and the pins get a layer of super glue and are slid into place. The piece is clamped and allowed to set overnight.





The main thing left to do is sand down the pins and shape the wood using a combination of belt sander and hand sanding. Once the correct and ergonomic feel of the handle has been found, it is slathered in Danish Oil. The oil soaks into the pores and crystallizes. This helps protect the wood from moisture. Chuck applies oil to the wood multiple times to assure it is deeply penetrated.









Chuck kept the blade to make a leather sheath similar to the one he fabricated for my kerambit. I also asked him to make a trainer version for me and am sure that will be nice. That is one of the coolest benefits about working with the guys; they made the live blade and can easily replicate a trainer with the feel and weight of the original. This is highly advisable investment, particularly so if the blade you have made can be your everyday carry.

Chuck is fairly demanding about all the custom blades made at Tribal Edge having a name. The first thing that came to mind was, “Call it Terry Trahan,” because it was his fondness for the pikal grip that led me to the design I chose. The next thing just rolled off the tongue and everyone liked it, so it stuck:

Reversal of Fortune

2008 Spring Gathering of the Tribes

The biannual event at Chuck Pippin's was held over the Memorial Day Weekend. New experiences at this gathering were sobering and not so sobering. The non-sobering aspect was me: margaritas and Chimay. Needless to say, I was falling down by the end of the evening on Friday and dinner (which was take-n-bake and should have been a warning to me to eat the curry) reemerged around 2 AM. The morning brought no relief and neither did the afternoon. So here is what I recall for the most part with interpretation based upon photos given to me.

Buzz started Saturday off discussing the finer points of elbows and moved on to cover some of the locks of his system.



I slept, oh, and dry heaved.

Looks like Bobbe covered aspects of Hubud-lubud and other things with a stick.

Poor, poor Sterling

I slept.

Cody went over the government conspiracy to control every American by forcing them to not only watch but also participate in gladiator-esque reality programs.





Cody recently had an article posted here: Organic MMA
I think I may have been near consciousness at this point, but movement caused waves of dizziness as well as nausea, but the retching did not return.

Sterling and Dan presented a solo-training device suspiciously looking like some sort of "hookah…"



I slept some more.

After the day’s session (and me feeling well enough to venture out and take my verbal medicine), we took time to recognize the dedication of some of our fellow martial artists.
First we called out Norm Basile and his wife, Marcia, and congratulated them on their respective rankings that are well earned.



Next, we wanted to show respect to someone that is generous with his knowledge and gracious with his friends. This guy has been doing his art since just after I was born (sorry dude) and has dedicated his life to it. Those in The League of Non-Aligned Martial Artists decided that it would be a good idea to give some props where they were due. Therefore, we recognized Brian “Buzz” Smith as Maha Guru in Maharlika Kuntaw. It was well deserved and I think well received.






The evening commenced with the traditional Potluck and was a good variety as usual. It was a good time and people orbited the house discussing everything from the food to martial arts or just hanging out by the fire. Buddha brought some fireworks and the kids all enjoyed that treat. Another late night as usual and it is all good.







Sunday was started off by Mushtaq Ali Shah and we did knife worked based upon the basics derived from the Kujang.



I applied them with my kerambit trainer as that is closer to what I carry and was trying to modify the movements to its vastly different form compared to the kujang. The principles were there regardless of weapon. I was working out with Anton, a student of Buzz’s, and he can bowl you over in a blink. Very good! My shoulder took a hit while I was with him and James Kohlenberg came and stole me to try and work out some kinks.

Conveniently, James was next up. He did some myofascial release and that was a good thing and I will be doing that to help with some of the things that ail me. James’ session consisted of the active release using a tennis ball or harder and we hit various points on our bodies starting with our feet and moving up to our head with a couple of detours to the arms along the way. Good stuff!

The rest of the post lunch afternoon was made up of various breakout sessions.







Later in the day, Buzz and I had a little private session in the yard and we discussed and practiced two of his principles, “can I have my allowance?” and “what time is it?” I have mentioned this on many times but I need to reiterate that you should go where Buzz is and train with him or bring him to you! Hmmmm…




On Monday, Sterling and I were able to get together and shoot our level 4 tests for Pencak Silat Pertempuran and are looking forward to Keluarga at the end of July. There were more breakout sessions this day as well, albeit fewer people, but that’s cool.

I also had some fun getting tossed by Mariah the Eskrimadiva shooting some spots of a promo video for her.



All in all, I go to hang with a lot of people I admire and genuinely love to be around, so it was a good time. I believe Mushtaq said it best at one point, “this is the most fun I have had at one of these.”


Next time, no booze for me though…

You! You stick with Guinness!

The Thing on the Doorstep

This most recent seminar had a distinct sucking sound: me. Somewhere (I blame an office lunch buffet); I was infected with bad food that was not sitting well from Thursday on. I couldn’t finish my Guinness…that’s bad. Suffice to say, for me it was a slow weekend, especially after my orifices opened up during the small hours Saturday to release the contents of an Old One into plastic and porcelain.
That being said (for Bobbē’s benefit), the rest of the time was a chance for him to share his knowledge of arts Silat and for us to hang.

Rikessssan

On Friday evening, we covered some aspects of Rikesan. I was really digging the joint manipulation, especially the fingers. I think a whole weekend of this system may be in order.
Visitors included several KSMA members from near and far. I was happy to pull Chuck Pippin away from his normal environs in Michigan and he brought a student of his named Ian who gave me a new kerambit (from Tribal Edge Knifeworks) as payment for staying at the house. Too many people know the way to my heart is with sharp objects…. Chuck was digging the leg deflections which were covered on Saturday morning. I was still feeling really crappy at this point so I did a lot of watching and videotaping. I know there was some other entry type things covered, but in my stupor, I just can’t recall them. I will have to review some videos. Somewhere in there we did some stuff from hubud…

Jinking

Another Michigander to make the trek was Buzz, aka Brian Smith and his girlfriend (Michigoose?) Deb (she's TSA and likes to rumage through passenger's undies). I know I have said this before: you need to train with this guy! He has a way of showing you how to do this stuff that makes it effortless as it should be. He snuck a little of that in, as we all do, but Buzz walked away with a few answers to questions he had for himself and that is a good thing indeed!
Chris, Bao and Jason made it from Omaha and all had a good time, especially Chris I think as he has a “thing” for kerambits and we touched a little of that on Sunday morning before they had to bolt.
It was just Tony and I after that, so we touched on some pangamot which I wanted to cover more, but the aftereffects were lingering and my body just wasn’t in for it.
Overall, I think that we all had a good time. Really this was an opportunity for Bobbē to get to know KSMA a little better and I think that was accomplished.

lots of laughs and a little blurry

Disclaimer – As I was a little drained and out of it, my memory of the weekend is a little fuzzy.

take back the mic

then



the band

http://www.soulfege.com/

time off

scary

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/30/sarcos-to-produce-us-armys-exoskeltons-in-2008/
&

be ready

I tend to be rather low-key about things, but have slowly started to be more vocal about issues that concern me and my friends and family. Everyone needs to take a hard look at the society that we have developed and assess where it is headed.
Listen to Naomi and research things for yourself. Nothing should be taken as gospel until you understand it to be true. However, once you establish it as such, actions may need to be taken that others may see as intense but they will be needed.
Good luck.

Thanks to Mushtaq for sharing this one.

Guess who's coming to dinner

If you would like a printable PDF version of the flier, please contact me.
This will be a very good weekend.
Jay

Rest In Peace Sifu

I will carry the knowledge you shared with me and give it to others.
Thank you so very much Sifu.

Larry Benjamin Hartsell
August 15, 1942 - August 20, 2007

Masukan Dagu?

The weekend of August 3-5 I hosted Guru Sean Stark for the Pencak Silat Pertempuran Keluarga. This was the fourth year for the gathering and the first here in Des Moines.
The first day was spent looking closely at levels one through seven in the system.
To warm up on the dewy grass, Guru Stark introduced us to Power Ales-ales. By applying an exaggerated slowed version of the evasions and continuously flowing through the movements, one gets a great stretch and focused breathing, not unlike some of the more fluid versions of yoga. This is in line with something Guru Stark has been incorporating and I experienced at the first Keluarga I attended in Kansas City two years ago.
We then worked a drill starting with sliwa and going through a set of positions leading to the ground and back. We then looked the applications of those movements.
We then started to run through the PSP curriculum from the top. This was great because no matter where you are in the curriculum you can really look at the movements and refine them.


I am learning the level three material at the moment so it was good for me to look at that as well as review what I have under my belt and to look forward to the next few levels as a subliminal planting.


I will not rehash the entire day, but it was by far the longest day of nearly continuous working out that I have ever experienced. It was awesome.
A few of us met up for dinner and the staff fed us and brought us beverages past closing.
Rain met us in the morning so we worked on garak with Pelatih Bill Dwyer who it was a pleasure to finally meet. He is a great guy and presented the material very well.
Then we started going through the juru-jurus for each of the levels with Monyet aspects added for the benefit of Bill and those who wanted to try them out. We looked at the juru-jurus as a complete form and then looked at buah and pechuhan. I am an echo here when I say that this was good for anyone (myself included) to really look at the movements, how they flow together and what you can do with them. Even though I am focusing on jurus-jurus tiga and empat, it was great to get a feel for other jurus-jurus coming up in the near future as well as fix a couple of minor issues from satu and dua. Another long day from roughly 8:30 to 7:30 and we were all pretty sore and upset that the local junkies had broken into one of the cars and made off with cash and various items. sorry christine!
Dinner was a good time with lots of great stories (which is how the title of this entry came to be).


Day three began by looking at a couple of jurus-jurus with weapons such as golok or stick and how the jurus-jurus alter to fit the tool without deviating too far from the base movements. Surprisingly the energy level was still pretty high considering everything we had done thus far, but the humidity was pretty high and that slowed us done a bit. There was definitely some seminar fatigue happening.


After lunch we worked on some breathing aspects and explosive entries as well as using the ikat (bandana). That essentially round out the day and we broke sometime around 6:30 or so.
All in all I think we were training for about 30 hours or more. I am looking forward to the next time we can all get together and am hopeful that more people will join us. This event has proven to better each year and I am excited to see how it evolves.

Innovative Martial Arts Spring Gathering 2007 (at last)

I have been visiting Chuck Pippin Sensei at Innovative Martial Arts for several years and always come away with memories of good times and new friends. After some sort of crew shortage at Midwest Connect, I arrived around 9:30 pm missing the bulk of the “Meet-n-Greet” I was wanting to attend. Way to go Midwest….
Anyway, the primary focus of this gathering was to evaluate Chuck Pippin and Don Young for their 4th Dan Black Belts.

Hetero Life Partners Chuck and Don

Chuck had requested this torture a few years ago. However, a bout with cancer sidelined that until now. Don only got a clue he was testing near the end of the event, but that was part of his test.
Guru Mushtaq Ali Shah led the formal aspects of the testing but was assisted by myself, Guru Bobbe Edmonds, Guru Brian ‘Buzz’ Smith and Terry Trahan directly. One cool aspect of the test was input and questioning by visitors and students of Innovative Martial Arts. The test was a very insightful look into the teaching styles of Chuck and Don as well as a good chance to run them through the paces.

Using the cane

Chuck and Don also had to present a curriculum based on a cane. I found this challenging, but they had delved into various aspects of it with a strong emphasis on using the cane when you really need to use a cane. They also were asked to break down the aspects of their first form and show practical application.
Aside from the formal aspect of the test, Don and Chuck were watched throughout the day while they interacted with guests and guest instructors. We were looking for various things such as adaptation to material and the ability to assist those trying to learn it.
It may not sound like a grueling test, but it was quite demanding, mentally as well as physically.
The test was not the only thing going on.

Saturday morning was started off with Cody Fielding doing some RMAX material from Scott Sonnon. That was a great thing to get the joints lubed up and I took away some good stuff to help with staying loose. I would love to explore more of this as I usually only pick it up here.

After that was Guru Mushtaq Ali Shah with Silat Zulfikari, and we went over the idea of bringing a friend along by using the rear hand wisely using a dasar from Silat Zulfikari called the “dragon’s tail.”

Guru Mushtaq discussing the dragon's tail dasar

This was tied in with the ability to flow with not only the technique, but the opponent. The morning showed the flexibility of Silat Zulfikari as well its effectiveness. Guru Mushtaq is always a pleasure to work out with.

Following a short break, Guru Brian "Buzz" Smith picked up on the idea of bringing a friend along, but not letting the other guy know your friend’s name is Treachery. Buzz had anecdotes about how thieves and thugs would use deception to relieve you of your valuables or life and translated that into ideas within Maharlika Kuntaw.

Guru Buzz introducing his friend Treachery to Bill Bednarick

(Bill has some good products by the way)
Once again, Guro Buzz conveyed his art with a combination of skill and humor that is greatly appreciated by me. If Buzz comes within 200 miles of your town, go, it’s a no-brainer. You will come away with great information and life lessons. I look forward to seeing Buzz in the future, you should too. Did I mention you should train with Buzz?
Don and Chuck shared some Scientific Fighting Congress knife aspects to round out the morning.

Lunch break

With bellies full from lunch we were treated with a last-minute addition to the gathering, Grand Master Bobby Taboada of Balintawak Arnis Cuentada with Guro Robert Klampfer. They presented some of the basics of the system and I had not met them or seen the art before this weekend, but was impressed with it and the way it was presented. Grand Master Taboada is a genial man with a great sense of humor. I would recommend the system to anyone with access to it.
We rounded out the day with the aforementioned cane curriculum and testing of Chuck and Don.

After this was the Pot Luck and it was a good time as usual. The only downer was it was raining so we were unable to have a bonfire. It is a tradition that will have to wait until next time. We were up until 2 AM and that’s pretty normal too!
Chillin' on the porch listening to the rain

Sunday began (late: that’s usual as well. Hey we were up until 2!) with a more in depth warm up from Cody. Everything I have seen from RMAX has been good information. We did some interesting squatting things and some breathing things. Look, they are difficult to explain. I suggest you buy the DVDs or hook up with someone who may be a qualified instructor near you. Your body will appreciate it. If you are in the Bay Area, look up Cody. We also looked at some thresholds of pain and rolling with a hit in order to be a better trainer as well as one who trains.

Following Cody, was Guru Bobbe Edmonds whom I have been wanting hang out with for a while and this once finally the opportunity. His teaching approach may stun the average seminar attendee, but I was digging it. I highly recommend you tap his brain at some point too.

I took away a better understanding of silat in general and will be hosting Guru Edmonds at some point in Des Moines once we agree on a date and can arrange for a keg of Guinness to be drop shipped from the factory. Did you know it takes 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint? (That’s a double pour Bobbe, not the heavenly three pour version.)
Time was slipping by us now and Terry Trahan presented an abridged version of WeaselCraft.


Take the time and get a hold of him. He has a lot of real world experience and I am looking forward to seeing him again. For more information on him check out the following: TPI Forum, he is a moderator.

Lunch was brief and followed by another round with Grand Master Taboada. He focused on some empty hand drills that worked up a good lather. They were quick and gave a heightened awareness to both parties. They reinforced the trainer/trainee relationship as touch on by Cody Fielding earlier in the day.
The main aspects of the seminar rapped up at that time, so I showered and sat down with Sterling Heibeck to record a Podcast for his site. That was an interesting experience. I used my best “radio voice” for that one. He also interviewed Grand Master Taboada and Guro Robert Klampfer, Cody Fielding and Guro Buzz.
After a quick lively dinner with Guru Edmonds and Terry Trahan, it was time for me to return home. To read what went on after I left see Guru Mushtaq’s blog and Guru Edmonds blog.
Overall, I am impressed more and more with the caliber of instructors and participants that come to this gathering each time. The Fall Gathering is just around the corner, so as soon as I have a date I will post it here.
And he bought me dinner