Geedubya, thank you for the comment on that knife. It is not the one you had, but I extend the compliment that you too have good taste:). Last fall, I wanted to order a set of Rick’s knives for my son and I. Like you, I am a sucker for nice wood, so I searched far and wide for two sets of scales that were premium. The wood I picked for this a2 Dumpling was originally a crazy gorgeous set of spalted maple. The knives arrived, and damned if the scales on the Dumpling didn’t start cracking all over. I called Rick and he said get the knife down here and he’d look after it. I contacted the wood guy, Mr Terry Dunn of TNT Enterprises in Texas, sent him the pics, and he said it was the first time in over 10 years he’s seen that. By the end of the day, I had a choice of a number of equally nice scales as a replacement. Terry, like Rick, is a class act. After shooting a few texts back and forth, I asked Rick to put on black jigged Micarta, toxic green liners, and to acid etch the blade as dark as he could. Somewhere on this thread, a fellow had that particular knife done, and one of the boys called it “pimp tight.” It had red liners, so I wanted green so as to not have the exact same as he had out of respect. Unfortunately, Rick’s supplier ended up not having green liners at the time. I tried. I do like red also.

All I can say is Rick was stellar to work with.

As to your comment to that fellow who has nothing better to do than be rude to strangers, thanks. I began posting on this forum after years of moderating a different outdoors forum that unfortunately had all too many of those type. I liked that there was a level of self enforced decorum here which encouraged sharing of pics and friendly banter. There will always be a few. No need to add to what you said, as you nailed it.

The steak was Alberta Beef. Top sirloin. Was testing out a new bbq, and giving her the first run around the track. We did have a bit more. Cheddar / jalapeño pork sausage, and mango jalapeño chicken sausage as well (what a great combo).

I teach cooking for a living, exclusively to high school students with cognitive disabilities, and was just experimenting with the mushrooms. I sautéed them in olive oil, salt, Franks Red Hot, lots of sugar and fresh chopped mint, grilled pineapple chunks, and a generous amount of Vietnamese fish sauce. It was a winner! The only thing I would add next time is fresh Thai basil and it would be perfect.

Here was the rest of the grub, so as to know my family aren’t gerbils:)

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Last edited by sns2; 05/31/23.