Odd Projects
Here are some projects that I have completed. Some are old projects that were never documented online. Others have been completed while we travel. As I have been without a workshop and have really only had a couple of knives with me, these are simple projects.
Plan ahead for rainy days
I think my oldest daughter must have taken this photo as she is not pictured. It is not well composed but I like it for two reasons. 1) I laugh at myself for taking a couple of bits of firewood back to my apartment in Astana. 2) I laugh at my boy who follows my example and chooses a great big pole to bring home. He was 4 at the time of this photo.
Making a spatula
Here is a spatula that I carved from one of my firewood pieces. I did not bring my spoon knives to Kazakhstan so I had to hollow the spatula with my regular Mora knife. It was not an easy task but the spatula turned out nicely. I made it for a fellow teacher who had an empathy for my need to be creative.
Somehow it seems sad that this is a hand carved piece photographed on a machine made, imitation wood table. The sad part is that so many people these days don't know the difference.
Somehow it seems sad that this is a hand carved piece photographed on a machine made, imitation wood table. The sad part is that so many people these days don't know the difference.
Jul Tomten
Here are some little Jul Tomten that I carved for some Christmas gifts. One set went to the Finnish Ambasador who hosted a Christmas party. One set was a gift in a Secret Santa. Another set went to some friends that I left behind.
Thats my boy...
All of my kids have become very competent knife users. I am super confident in all of my kids to work safely and often I get a comment or two if they feel that I am working with my knives in a compromising grip.
Carving woody weeds by the light of a head torch is really cool too.
Shrink pots
Shrink pots are fun but are harder work than they look. I have now packed a large drill bit in my travel tool kit as starting the hole through the centre is by far the hardest part. These were only small because I had to do some discrete pruning. They are both about 40mm in diameter.
I made these for my dear friends in Kazakhstan.
I made these for my dear friends in Kazakhstan.
Slingshots
Kids need slingshots. How else will they learn to think ahead and develop a sense of using power with responsibility.
Here are a couple of slingshots that I made; an adult size and a child size. I have since made more and have found that shortening the forks by about 6-8mm makes for a better slingshot. I also now use Theraband Gold rubber.
These particular slingshots were made from Red Ironbark and Canadian Rock Maple laminated together. I have since made many more and given them away. Surprisingly I have not received any complaints from parents, but I did choose the kids carefully.
If you make slingshots for your kids do them a favour and buy ball bearings for ammunition. It is hard to learn to shoot straight with randomly chosen rocks. You can always shoot into a hanging bed sheet and gather most of them for reuse.
If anyone wants the PDF plan for this design, just ask.
Here are a couple of slingshots that I made; an adult size and a child size. I have since made more and have found that shortening the forks by about 6-8mm makes for a better slingshot. I also now use Theraband Gold rubber.
These particular slingshots were made from Red Ironbark and Canadian Rock Maple laminated together. I have since made many more and given them away. Surprisingly I have not received any complaints from parents, but I did choose the kids carefully.
If you make slingshots for your kids do them a favour and buy ball bearings for ammunition. It is hard to learn to shoot straight with randomly chosen rocks. You can always shoot into a hanging bed sheet and gather most of them for reuse.
If anyone wants the PDF plan for this design, just ask.
A simple forge
I don't forge a lot of blades. Great blades can be purchased at a fair cost so I prefer to use these and sell my knives at a more reasonable price.
Still... I like to play at the forge sometimes and built this forge many years ago. It's large surface means that it can hold plenty of fuel or lots of scrapped projects.
The bellows are a Japanese style 'box bellows'. It pumps on both the in and out stroke and is thus quite efficient. With little effort I can go all day. With force I can blow the charcoal out of the firepot if I am not careful. I can easily achieve welding temperatures with this forge, and thus anyone who works at the forge knows, that this also means I loose my fair share of iron to the fire if I am inattentive.
I would love to buy a big anvil, but for the moment I am happy using this scrap piece of 'whatever'. It has a face of 11x11cm and with the tang ends up with a total mass of 12kg. It is not heavy, but when driven into the hardwood block of Yellow Stringybark, it outperforms anvils 4 times its weight. The little bick leaves a lot to be desired, but it was made for forging socket arrow heads and suits that task well.
If someone recognises this type of 'anvil' and knows its real use I would appreciate knowing some more about it.
Still... I like to play at the forge sometimes and built this forge many years ago. It's large surface means that it can hold plenty of fuel or lots of scrapped projects.
The bellows are a Japanese style 'box bellows'. It pumps on both the in and out stroke and is thus quite efficient. With little effort I can go all day. With force I can blow the charcoal out of the firepot if I am not careful. I can easily achieve welding temperatures with this forge, and thus anyone who works at the forge knows, that this also means I loose my fair share of iron to the fire if I am inattentive.
I would love to buy a big anvil, but for the moment I am happy using this scrap piece of 'whatever'. It has a face of 11x11cm and with the tang ends up with a total mass of 12kg. It is not heavy, but when driven into the hardwood block of Yellow Stringybark, it outperforms anvils 4 times its weight. The little bick leaves a lot to be desired, but it was made for forging socket arrow heads and suits that task well.
If someone recognises this type of 'anvil' and knows its real use I would appreciate knowing some more about it.
A drive in hook
My house is built from heavy timbers and strawbales and accommodates any rustic craft well. I have made many drive in hooks for the round timber posts that are used in my house. I hang keys, coats, my quiver and anything else needed by the door. They are exceptionally strong and if I owned an elephant I could probably hang it there too!
A handy bow scraper
This is a scraper that I made to speed the process of making laminated and selfbows. The cutting blade is a piece of Swedish saw steel that is filed to a 45 degree edge. The blade stands at 90º to the sole.
As you can see the blade is clamped in place with some machine screws. The threads for these screws were tapped straight into the Brushbox (Lophostemon confertus) timber that was used and have withstood the test of time.
This scraper works in a similar way to a cabinet scraper but can be used with more muscle behind it. Having a narrow throat, it also works very well on timbers with cranky grain.
As you can see the blade is clamped in place with some machine screws. The threads for these screws were tapped straight into the Brushbox (Lophostemon confertus) timber that was used and have withstood the test of time.
This scraper works in a similar way to a cabinet scraper but can be used with more muscle behind it. Having a narrow throat, it also works very well on timbers with cranky grain.