Ocean Jasper on USA Schrade

[Redrummd]

Here is a custom order I finished last night. Ocean Jasper was found on Madegascar. It has been completely mined out so it is no longer easily bought as all of the really good stone is in the hands of collectors. (like me )

[philco]

I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that Ocean Jasper.

Very unique and beautiful.

Mike, I think you may be developing a fan club here.

[gringo]

WOW....
please excuse the drooling.
living in arizona we see quite a number of beautiful stones...
BUT that is fantastic.

thank you

[Redrummd]

It is a very long story on how I got so much rare stone but to make it short.... I started collecting stone back in the 1960's when I was a teenager and actually kept a lot of the best until I retired last year. I cut stone a lot when I was a teenager and did so until I married my high school sweetheart, my wife, and when we had our daughters I couldn't afford to continue so I sold all of my equipment.

Fast forward 37.5 years and I retired. I now could afford to build a very top end lapidary and I got into knives and stonework art.

So, here we are as of today. Heck look at the stone the knife is sitting on. It is also no longer around and I have a very nice batch of it too....... I actually look forward to getting up every day and down to my shop and that is a real change after all the years I spent earning this retirement at the Post Office.

[johnnierotten]

BEAUTIFUL scales!!

[philco]

Mike,
If you pulled 37.5 years at the post office, you did EARN your retirement. Glad you are enjoying it.

Don't the days fly by now when you're doing something you truly love to do?

[Redrummd]

philco - Yes the days just fly by. I really look forward to getting out to the shop every day too. I have a Italian Greyhound that tags along and sits in front of the heater on cold days like we are having now. My shop is on the 2nd floor of my "hot rod" garage (69 Chevelle SS with 45 K miles and a 97 Z-28 with 16 K miles) and the main work bench looks out a big window into some large trees. I have red and grey squirrels and a bunch of blue jays that pretty much wait for me to go take a break as I buy 30 pounds of peanuts about once a month for their treats.... The squirrels are brazen rascals and sneak up behind or above my dog as she just loves to chase them. She thinks they just disappear when they run up a tree as they always seem to get around to the far side of the tree so that she never see's them "disappear"... It really is funny to see and the squirrels seem to be doing it intentionally now.... I really do love my new life now doing what I "earned' the right to do....

[BIGHEAD]

Suweeet SS REDDRUM

[jonet143]

ahhhhhh! the good life!

[Redrummd]

BIGHEAD - I pretty much built the car from the ground up. I even did the bodywork and paint.

It runs in the 11's on street tires at about 118.5 MPH and got me booted from the track for being too fast.... (no rollcage).

[gringo]

normally i do not approve of steroids.
sure didn't hurt that chevy though.
that is a dry sump i see lurking in there?
not many cars can pull off black.
beautiful.
about those squirrels...
i rented a cabin behind a house in prescott once, the people up front constantly complained about my dog, a shelty, chasing the squirrels. they screamed at me they had been 'taming the squirrels for years', and my doggin was ruining the entire plan.

one lazy day i am sitting in the kitchen reading, doggin sleeping in the open doorway.
i keep hearing little thumps as things periodicly hit the sidewalk?
this goes on for about 45 minutes....thunk....thunk...like chinese water torture...

i quietly go to the door looking for whatever is making this anoying little noise.
no one in sight, peanuts all over the front porch.???
the 'tame' little squirrel from up front is sitting on the phone line that ran from the front house to a point directly above the door of my cabin...
fat little cheeks filled with peanuts...dropping them down at the sleeping dog.
i saw the little beast do this.
clever little animals.

[Redrummd]

gringo -

No dry sump just a big tranny cooler up front and a huge electric gas pump and sump at the rear.

I think some squirrels think it is "fun" to torment dog and cats. At my daughter's home there is a huge grey squirrel that runs up to cats on porches and runs around in a circle around them and then right up onto a wall to stare at them spinning...