CORRUGATION

Take a look at this!!!!!

A blade before being corrugated on the new Wolff Corru-Gator! (click on picture)






A blade after being corrugated on the new Wolff Corru-Gator! (click on picture)






This machine is awesome!!!! I can't wait to show it to you next week! Keep your eyes on my Blog! You'll be seeing the Corru-Gator soon!

THE FLAT HONE DVD

Just a heads up that the Hira-To Flat Hone DVD sale ends September 30th! Everyone that has bought one has said that the additional info, not just the flat honing, was more than worth the price! Order your's today!

Also, I still haven't sent out the felt discs I mentioned in my Flat Hone and Flat Honing Post September 12th. I still haven't received the diamond compound to go with them. As soon as it hits my door they will go out!

The next two days I will be pretty busy! I have a Web Design Class tomorrow and on Thursday I will be shooting video for the new Wolff Corrugating Machine. I will send you some pictures and give you the run down on this new piece of equipment soon!

A DEAL THAT IS BLISSFUL

Kenchii is running a sale on their 8" Bliss Grooming Shears through the end of October! These shears retail for $298.00 and it's one of Kenchii's hottest sellers at the Grooming Shows! You know your regular wholesale price on this shear, call and find out how much more you'll save during this sale!!!

This is a beautiful shear, and a great seller! Take advantage of this while it lasts! To order, call Wolff at 1-800-888-3832. The part number for this shear is KEBL8. Let me know if you have any questions.

DRESSING YOUR WATER STONE

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to keep your water stone flat!!! It is simple to do! Here are the steps and tools I use...

This is an 8000 Grit Shapton Professional Stone I've been using for some time. You can see that it's pretty worn on both sides of the stone! Next to the stone is an 3" X 8" Eze-Lap 600/1200 diamond plate. I use this to dress in my stones. I'm using the 600 side.





I spray both the stone and the diamond plate with water, and I work the stone back and forth along the length of the plate.







After a few strokes, you can see how this stone is worn more in the middle than on the outsides edges. I check my progress every few strokes, adding water to the stone and plate each time until I've flattened my water stone.





This picture shows the stone after it's been flattened.








This last picture shows the machinist straight edge I use to test my diamond plate and water stone to see if they are flat. You can purchase the straight edge from Huff's Wholesale.






If you're in the market for any of the Wolff  sharpening machines, be sure to give me a call before you buy. I know all the best places to buy at the best price! Call 864-381-8697 or email me at otenews@gmail.com.

WOLFF/ HUFF SHOW SCHEDULE

Here is the Wolff/ Huff Show Schedule:

Friday
6:00pm - 7:00pm Registration and Welcome
7:00pm - 8:00pm Nipper Sharpening by Mike Borsch
8:00pm - 9:00pm Hands on Time

Saturday
9:00am - 10:00am Ookami, TAS & Hira-To by Jim O’Donnell
10:00am - 10:15am Break
10:15am - 11:00am Ookami, TAS & Hira-To by Jim O’Donnell
11:00am - 1:00pm Lunch (On Your Own)
1:00pm - 3:00pm Clipper Repair by the Huffmans
3:00pm - 3:15pm Break
3:15pm - 4:00pm Clipper Blade Sharpening by the Huffmans
4:00pm - 6:00pm Marketing Brainstorming Session
6:00pm - 7:00pm Dinner (On Your Own)
7:00pm - 9:00pm Hands on Time
(Come to the Room & Play with Machines, Products & Visit)

Sunday
9:00am - 10:00am Question & Answer Session w/ Speakers
10:00am - 10:15am Break
10:15am - 11:00pm Question & Answer Session w/ Speakers
11:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch (On Your Own)
1:00pm - 3:00pm Hands on Time

I've been training for the past couple of days. That's why things have been a little quiet. Tomorrow I'll be doing a post about flattening your water stone. Talk to you then!

FIGURING WATTAGE

I often get asked how much wattage is needed to run different pieces of sharpening equipment because many sharpeners are mobile, and want to set up an inverter. The basic formula for figuring wattage is Amps times Volts equals Wattage. Start up is a little trickier though. To figure start up, you may have to multiply your amps times two or three before you multiply them by the volts. Here is an example:

Figuring Wattage:
Amps: 3.5
Volts: 120

3.5 x 120= 420 watts

Figuring Start Up Wattage:
Amps: 3.5 x 2= 7 Amps
Volts: 120

7 x 120= 840 watts

So you can see that to start this machine, you'll need at least a 1200 or 1500 watt inverter. You may be able to get away with an 800 watt with a serge, but you need to consider lights and other things you'll be running in your unit.

If you're running something like a clipper blade sharpener, depending on the size of the wheel, you may have to multiply your amps by three. Just remember, you're always better off with too much wattage than too little!

To make things a little easier, here is a link to a great website that lets you figure wattage, amps, ohms or voltage.

BUDGETING DAY-BY-DAY

Money! Need more of it? Fall short with it from time-to-time? We all do because building a budget as a sharpener can be a pain! After all, it's not like we know what we'll be making from day-to-day! I often tell my students that you can't count your money every day in this business, you have to count it every week.

What does this mean? It means we have an irregular income! Some months are lean, some are fat! We love the fat!!!! So that means you need to plan ahead!

While plowing around on the internet, I found this article I think you might find helpful. It's a simple plan to help build a budget with an irregular income. I'm all about budgeting, in fact my accountant might even suggest I'm obsessed with it, but I'm a single income family and I need to track every dollar. You should too! Having a solid budget will help you get through those lean months in this business! Take a look! The budget in this article may be a little too simple for your liking if you're into this sort of thing, but if you have NO budget, READ IT! It can help!

Picture care of farm4.static

WOLFF/ HUFF SHOW IS FULL

We just hit number fifty for the Wolff/Huff Show, so we are officially sold out! We are starting a waiting list, so if you'd still like to come, call and we'll add you name to it.

David and I are working on the next show and will be announcing its location soon. If you have any questions, please call me at 1-800-888-3832.

This is going to be a great show! I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there!

THE FLAT HONE AND FLAT HONING

Great day yesterday! Jason and I did a bunch of brainstorming and testing on the Hira-To Flat Hone! I'm looking forward to the outcome!

Two things we looked at in particular were the New Hira-To Felt Disc (the white one on the left) and the Ookami Gold Polishing Disc (the one under the Ookami Gold Polishing Compound). We experimented with both for a few hours yesterday and liked the finishes we were able to produce. To use the Felt Disc, you simply apply a 3 Micron Diamond Paste and it will polish and sharpen at the same time. The Paste we've chosen produces a mirror finish on the blade! The Ookami Gold Polishing Disc uses the same compound as the Ookami Gold Polishing Wheel. It creates a super sharp edge with great bite!

The Felt Disc will be added to the Hira-To Package soon (I have some in stock) and everyone that has already purchased the Hira-To will receive one when the Diamond Paste comes in (should be in by the end of this week). The Ookami Gold Discs are on order and they will ship out once I receive them. I'm not sure yet how much longer they will be.

The Hira-To has been a great success so far! Everyone that owns one has been raving about it and it's fast becoming the industry leader in single head flat hones! If you'd like to find out more about this Flat Hone, order the Hira-To DVD. It is still on sale and only costs $9.94.

If you have any questions, give me a call at 800-888-3832. I appreciate Jason coming out to help test some of our new discs! With 30 years under his belt, he's a great source of knowledge!

A BUSY DAY AHEAD!

Today has been busy enough! I just finished editing the new Andis Repair videos for Huff's Wholesale. The last of the three is burning right now. After I'm done with that, I need to burn a copy of each and send them to the Huffman's for approval.

The three DVD's are:

How to Repair Andis AGC Clippers
How to Repair Andis AG Clippers
How to Repair Andis AGP Clippers

To view these clippers online, click here and enter the model in the search box on the Andis Site. Next in line is Huff's Video for their 16 Inch Extreme Kut Clipper Blade Sharpener. I will be working on that later today and Wednesday.

Tomorrow, more fun starts! We are flying Jason Pintel in to do some more brainstorming on the Hira-To. Jason has some ideas to improve the head and he's thinking about some attachments. We're going to go through some more training and look at some new discs I've been working on here at Wolff.

For those that have already ordered the Hira-To, you will be getting a new felt disc to try with some diamond compound. The Hira-To comes standard with the 3 Micron Polishing Disc, but I want to offer other options for polishing as well. Once the new discs are out and tested by our Hira-To owners, I'll let you know the results.

I will also have this new felt disc and hopefully a version of the Ookami Gold Polishing Wheel in Disc Form at the Wolff/Huff Show in Harrisburg. There's only three seats left at the show as I write this post, so if you want to come, sign up right away!!!

I will be busy in Wolff's Training Center with Jason tomorrow, so I won't be online. I will post about the visit on Wednesday.

THE VIRTUES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

When I train sharpeners to start their businesses, I tell them one of the best ways to market their business is to go over their competition. They shouldn't go through them, and they certainly shouldn't go through them!

Unfortunately, the sharpening business comes with a shady element! Too often I hear about sharpeners bad-mouthing other sharpeners in their area! I also hear some sharpeners don't have the best business practices! So a sharpeners virtues in this business can play a great roll in his or her success!

Jeff Cornwall wrote about virtues recently in his Blog, The Entrepreneurial Mind. In the post titled, The Good Entrepreneur, he said,

"Traditional entrepreneurial virtues have been thought of in terms like ambition, ingenuity, diligence, perseverance, tenacity, and self-discipline. While these virtues are necessary for building a financially healthy and successful venture, they ignore the fundamental purpose that leads many people to become entrepreneurs."

While this fits the model of the everyday, go getter small business type, in a post Enron society, we also need to prove we have other virtues as well! Later in his post, Jeff said,

"We choose to look at entrepreneurship in our book from the classic cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, courage and temperance.

Prudence refers to being good stewards of the resources we pull together from others to build the business. We understand the obligation we have to those who give us their money, their labor, their business, and ultimately their trust. The good entrepreneur does not take that trust lightly.

Justice refers to treating people fairly. For example, if our employees help us create profits and wealth, it is just to find ways to share that with them be it through compensation, profit sharing, phantom stock, stock options and so forth.

Courage is doing what is right in spite of the added risks and challenges that this path in life creates.

Temperance is understanding that we are more than entrepreneurs. We are spouses, parents, friends and citizens. We need to take actions that lead us to be good in all that we do. That may mean that we temper our ambitions to make sure we have time for family and friends.

So who is the good entrepreneur?

The good entrepreneur is intelligent and technically competent. She is a good steward of the resources and gifts she has available. She is prudent.

The good entrepreneur builds strong relationships in his family, with employees in his business, and in the broader society. He does this by being just.

The good entrepreneur overcomes obstacles in building her company, but does so without ever compromising what she knows to be truly right. She does this with courage.

The good entrepreneur moderates his work ethic with rest. He does this through temperance."

As you work this week, think of how you can improve your business practices and make yourself more valuable to your customers!

Photo by Willingness Works

GET MORE HITS FROM LOCAL SEARCHES

This is an excellent post about setting your website up to drive more local traffic your way. As sharpeners, unless you are mail order, driving local customers to your website is a must! Look over this post and let me know what you think.

BUSINESS CREATIVITY

Business creativity. Is it important? YOU BET! Is it learned or just inherent? It can be both! While it's true that some people are more creative than others, it is also a learned skill that can be honed over time.

Why is business creativity important? It will help you differentiate yourself from everyone else! A study of it will teach you how you can improve your marketing, sharpening techniques or service!

Without a doubt, my favorite book on business creativity is Michael Michalko's Thinkertoys. The problem is, it reads like a text book. If you're into that, great! Get it and read it! If you're not, start slow. Tony Clark just finished a 4 part series on creativity that is worth a look. This is a great place to start, so hop over and take a look. This link will take you to the first part and links to parts 2 - 4 are at the bottom of the post. Once you read them all, if you find you want more; buy Thinkertoys or pick up a copy from your local library.

The best way to create security for your sharpening business is to set yourself apart! A study of creativity is one of the most important things you can do for your business. Take this post to heart and look into this!! If you have any questions, or you just want to bounce some ideas off someone, call me.

THE CLASSROOM IS FINISHED

Well, it's finally done!! It took me a couple of days to sort through ten years of clutter, but it's done!

The carpets have been cleaned, the cabinets, ceiling, walls and trim have been painted! The butcher block counter tops are sanded and refinished! It looks great! The only thing it's waiting for is you!

Classes start back up tomorrow and we're booked for a number of days straight. All classes are one-on-one and tailored to each student. If you have any questions, just give me a call at Wolff 1-800-888-3832.

Also, just as a note about the Wolff/ Huff Show in Harrisburg, PA! At last count there were only 6 seats left! So if you want to come, you need to sign up quick!! Most likely, the show will be sold out by the end of the week!

Sorry for the lack of posts. Between my vacation and setting up the classroom, most of my time has been taken. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.