Hobbies other than knives

[Rookie]

I was curious what some of you guys like to do besides the obvious one, collecting knives.

Other than various outdoor activities (hunting, fishing, firewood) and keeping my 2yo daughter entertained, I would say my main hobby is making maple syrup. I am the 5th generation in my family to tap the maple trees around my family's property. It is just my father and I, and we tap around 700 maple taps. We average around 100 gallons of syrup per year, which we sell to family and friends. It definitely makes for a busy 6 weeks from mid Feb thru end of March. I look forward to my daughter getting a little bigger so she can help out, and be the 6th generation in the family to make syrup.

Some of my most fond memories that I have are sitting in our sugar shack with my grandfather, smelling the sweet steam, and watching him throw wood into the evaporator. My dad has the same memories of his grandfather. And my grandfather had the same memories of his grandfather. It's a pretty neat family tradition.

Carl

[big monk]

That's a ""KOOL"" story,Carl thanks for sharin'__just don't get much better than that how about some photos of the Maple Taps and stuff ????

When not chasin' knives, I'm on the lake or river !!!!!! chasin' largemouth bass

[knife7knut]

I have WAY too many hobbies other than knives.I collect wrist watches;vintage spray guns and striping tools;vintage tool boxes;model cars(mostly station wagons) and various artist's works.I used to collect guns but sold off most of them before my divorce.I'll try and post some pics later

[jerryd6818]

I love making sawdust. Before I retired and sold my house, I had a 26'x36' building out back which I used as a shop. It was insulated, heated and painted Home Depot orange inside. I spent a lot of time out there making both small and large projects. Nothing fancy or complicated but it was all made of wood. I sold almost all my floor standing tools before I sold the house. I bought my table saw back when I moved in here where it has room in the garage for shop tools. I don't do much these days. Standing on that concrete floor kills my back.

[rangerbluedog]

Been doing a lot of THIS lately...

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This keeps the price down on my shooting/hunting hobbies. Also like hiking, old cars, gun collecting, sailing, camping, and collecting all kinds of other "stuff" in addition to knives.
Here's a pic of some cast iron foundry advertising paperweights I collect. There are little bits of iron all over my house.

piglet

[TripleF]

Smoking cigars.
Fishing - freshwater only.
Grandparenting!

[Rookie]

Cool, I like to see what other people are interested in. Upon request, here are some pictures of making maple syrup.

Pic 1: Dad and I drilling holes in the trees, so we can hammer in the spile and hang the buckets. About 700 total per year. They need dumped every time they fill up, or if it is going to freeze the sap in the bucket. Good days they will fill up the bucket and flow right over the top in about 6-8 hours. If the sap sits in the buckets for more than 3 days, it begins to ferment and cannot be used.

Pic 2: My sister driving the tractor through the woods. We collect all the sap in hauling tanks, and then pump it into the sugar shack. Myself and my wife, myself and my daughter, and myself with my dad and his brothers.

Pic 3: Shot of the steam coming out of the sugar shack. It gets pretty warm inside and you can't see very far through all the steam. That's me feeding the fire. We use roughly 20 cord of wood per season, average about 2 cord per night of boiling sap.

Pic 4: The bigger evaporator is shown. The smaller one is not being used at the moment. It takes 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, so it makes 49 gallons of evaporated water steam away. Good days we can get over 1000 gallons of sap, and we can boil about 110 gallons per hour on our big evaporator. Nice amber syrup coming off. Then we filter it, and hot seal it. And taste it, you need to taste it all the time. My dad probably tastes about 500 calories of syrup each day we're in there boiling, it's our candy and our coffee when we are burning late into the night.

[rangerbluedog]

That looks like FUN! (and a lot of hard work)

[jmh58]

Hot Rodding around with my 1939 Ford!!
Collecting Pa hunting licenses and Pa fishing license buttons.. John

[xstuntman]

Used to make sawdust too but i recently popped for a plasma cutter. Scrap metal is becoming smaller scrap metal as i try my hand at art projects.

First rule is never cut anything leaning against a chainlink fence.

[coffeecup]

I'm sort of getting out of knives now--just don't need the headaches--so I'm returning to some of the other interests.

When I was in my early 30's I went back in college; I spent an average of about 500 hours a year tutoring and mentoring kids with various developmental disabilities. My planned program of studies lead me through a couple-three undergrad degrees with the ultimate goal of a master's degree in special ed. I've moved away from that since getting injured in 2010, and don't know if I'll ever be able to return to it. The coursework for the master's is done, but I'm not sure if I'll be recovered enough in time to do comps, and I probably won't ever be able to student-teach and go on to teaching. I'm still working with one kid, and do some consulting with families and some teachers.

I've been a competitive marksman, and a woodworker, for most of my life. This will be the first year I've really been able to get out and hunt since getting injured, and I'm gradually getting back to working in the shop. My woodworking interests have changed, less directly-related to recreations and more towards some seeking an aesthetic that appeals to me. It isn't the same, but I'm beginning to enjoy it again. I did some blacksmithing and bladesmithing when I was younger, and still make a lot of my own hardware for various projects.

My other hobbies largely center around history. I've always been strongly interested in US history and North American prehistory. One of my long-term projects has been trying to establish the times and places of the deaths of around 200 family members the Nazis sent to the camps during WWII. In the course of that, I've picked up the rudiments of a couple languages, traveled through parts of Europe, and interviewed hundreds of veterans and civilians on both sides of the European conflict.

I spend a lot of time with my dogs. We work on training, but play a lot too. They think they are people and I've not bothered to correct them on that. Both are trained as service animals for things I sometimes need help with.

I need to look into getting a plasma cutter. While the local fire department requested I not be allowed to weld, they didn't say anything about plasma tools!

[Bacon Lover]

Well, driving my'63 Vette around, but is put away for the winter for some TLC. Any outdoor sport, hiking, skiing, cycling, roller blades or just hanging out.

[Bret888]

Great pictures Carl! That is quite an operation you have. My family and friends make a little, but nothing on that scale!
Kathy and I both think you look familiar, maybe we have seen you at gunshows? We are only about 40 miles south of you.
Bret

[Rookie]

Hi Bret,

I was at the Case show with my grandfather this past summer. He had the small pearl Tuna Valley knife that he showed to a lot of people there, perhaps you met me there.

[glennbad]

There's other things to do besides knives?

Honestly, knife modding is taking up alot of my spare time lately.

However, I am an occasional woodworker, I also tinker around with computers. I have also been stockpiling a handful of old machinist tool chests. I'm going to clean them up and use them for knife storage.

Sadly, I have too many interests, and not enough time to devote to them all...

[jerryd6818]

Well, you know which one I think you should devote the lion's share of your time to.

[glennbad]

Well, you know which one I think you should devote the lion's share of your time to.

Hmmm, I wonder what that would be...

[Bret888]

Hi Bret,

I was at the Case show with my grandfather this past summer. He had the small pearl Tuna Valley knife that he showed to a lot of people there, perhaps you met me there.

That would be it! Kathy and I looked at his Tuna Valley, and would have loved to have been able to buy it. I recall that he was a very nice guy, and I bet you were there too.

Bret

[Don Luis]

Oh yes I have hobbies. I'm retired so I have the time. Unfortunately a small pension, so only inexpensive things.

Some simple crafts can be seen in my website.

Lately I have been making and playing nose flutes, they can be seen in my blog, or in my Youtube channel.

Luis

[muskrat man]

tinkering with most anything. knives, guns, woodworking, metalworking, spending time in the outdoors, hunting, fishing, trapping, canoeing, camping ect.

[Jigslinger]

So many hobbies, so little time. Besides knives, I fish (mostly smallmouth bass in rivers), canoe, camp, hike, play acoustic guitar, listen to music, play around with hi-fi, read (history, fiction, non-fiction), collect and build model aircraft, shoot (mostly pistols), play various sports (tennis, basketball, darts), follow both pro and college football, fly flight/combat sims on my computer, photography, astronomy (constellations and meteor showers mostly), and trying to get my grandkids (ages 11, 7, and 3) interested in any of the above! At least I'm never bored.

[Shearer]

My big hobby is farming,if you don't make any money it must be a hobby.All I can say is that I have some cattle so I eat well.To take my mind of the farm I do some wood turning.All the wood I use come from the farm.My wife like candles so I made a few candle holders.

[vieu101]

Them are very cool

[Cutty]

hunting, FISHING, camping, hiking, whittling, playing disc Golf, uga and atl.falcons football, tinkering with old cars, general tinkering, growing a garden........... This site has also become a favorite hobby

[Rookie]

Wow, everyone sounds very busy. I know what you mean about having a lot more to do than time allows. Other than spring syrup season, my 2 year old daughter takes up a majority of my time when I'm not working and sleeping. In the fall I used to archery hunt, but the last few years I've went ginseng hunting instead since I only have time for 1 or the other. My cousin has went her whole life and she was looking for a willing candidate to pass her knowledge on to. I try to fix up the property and house when time allows, and I have a hunting camp up in the mountains that always needs repaired. And there is always the never-ending task of firewood to make it through winter.

I used to play bass guitar in a band, but when time was short, that was the first thing to go. Same thing for computer and Nintendo games with my buddies.