Ok Guys , Here's " The Plan " . I'm gonna try to show all the moves that need to be made :
1) Aldo sends steel to Dave -Aldo has donated the steel and paid the postage to ship it .
2) Dave cuts out all the blanks and sends them to me . Reason - he shouldn't send them to each person , He's doing enough with the cutting and he's also making a knife . His shipping will be around $20 to get them to me .
3) Boss ships micarta (which he is supplying ) , bolts and lanyard tube ( that I am supplying ) to me .
4) I ship to each maker 1 blank w/ micarta, bolts and lanyard tube . Cost - around $140 - $150 w/tracking .
5) Makers grind their blanks and send them to Brad at Peter's Heat Treating - By The Deadline ( to be announced ) . Yes , we want them ground first , then Professionaly HT'ed .
6) Brad then ships all blades to me . Reason - He's doing enough w/heat treat . I think it cost $1000 just to turn on his equipment . Again , cost to ship to me , aroung $20 .
7) I send HT'ed blades to makers . Again the shipping $140 - $150 .
8) Makers finish blades and send them to ( to be announced ) for Knife Dog stencil , then Dispersal to Lucky Soldier .
Some key things to remember , each person who signed up has to pay his own shipping to Brad and to the final person , around $10 total .
Also , before your blades get sent to Brad , you MUST dremel your name and your # (the list # in this thread) on the tang so I know which one is yours . I can't stress that enough .
There's a couple of reasons to have someone other than Dave and Brad do the shipping . But by far the best is this - I'm a mailman - If I get the stuff shipped to me at work , I can do it all there . No trips to the PO , no hassles with the material , everything is there . It just makes sense .
Having the last person put on the stencil makes sense too . This way we only need 1 stencil as opposed to 1 for every maker .
We just need to raise around $300 to pay for the shipping to each person . I'm soliciting my co-workers on Monday for donations . I can probably get at least $100 , if not a little more from them .
If Big Smitty can get sheaths , I'm gonna ask if he would like to have me pass them out to whoever needs one . It'll save alot again on shipping .
Also , if you have offered material to help in the build , I'll offer the same . You can ship to me , and I'll randomly mix in your stuff . Or you can pick someone on the list and sent it to them . Either way , what you're offering will get used .
At this time , we plan on 1 knife per maker . There are a couple reasons , but the most important is we want to keep this 1st one simple so we can work out the kinks for next time .
Yes , I said next time . Since we now have our own forum for this , ( Thanks again , Boss ) , We plan in some manner , to have this as an ongoing thing . But we have to get through this one first .
I know we're heading to the holiday season , so we'll try to be realistic with all deadlines . But by the same token , please do the same for this Build , be realistic . If you find you need help , or something has happened to keep you from completing your blade , lets us know . We will do all we can , and you will not be left behind ....