The Shed March/April 2023 issue 107, on sale now
In New Zealand, knife-making is increasing in popularity year by year. If the recent Auckland Blade Show was anything to go by, this pastime is now a full-time career for a large number of sheddies and of enormous interest to the general public. The hundreds who came through the doors over the two-day event are evidence of knife-making’s huge growth over these past few years.
Who are these knife-makers; what separates and what inspires them? Where are they, and what knives and blades do they create?
We’ll soon know more because in this issue of The Shed we profile 36 of NZ’s finest. Read our Who’s Who and Where’s Where in this issue in an extensive rundown of our 36 best Kiwi knife-makers.
Rescue those versatile stepper motors
Magnetism is wonderful stuff.
As a way of moving things it has no peer. It has no friction, excessive heat or other unwanted effects, and is easily harnessed in the shed in the guise of stepper motors. These versatile devices have an astonishing range of rotational speeds, from zero to tens of thousands of rpm.
Thanks to the precision of digital control, they can accelerate, decelerate, turn a specific number of times or even minute fractions of a single rotation – all repeatedly and reliably.
This offroader project is a beaut
Over the last couple of years, my son Kurt and I have built a few basic go-karts which not only gave him a taste of very basic engineering, but also allowed us to pile up valuable hours of quality time working together in the shed. This new project had a bit of a twist to it as, this time, my son was the chief designer and engineer and I was relegated to labourer. Like all the previous projects, he let me fund it.
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