Summer Fair in the Bethaus smithy-Crappy weather, but good fun!

On Saturday and Sunday we had organized the Summer Fair at the Bethaus smithy. We were privileged to have Craig Herbertson unplugged and live on Saturday. Craig is a Folk, Rock and Blues musician, and a very, very good one, if you ask me. Enjoy!

There was an abundance of delicious cakes, coffee and quality food as usual, provided by Jochen, our ex - submarine cook. You know what happens if you´re cooking bad food on a submarine? You have to scrub the deck*ggg*... So great food galore!;-)

 Craig played his fingers sore, but he had fun at that-or so he said;-).

 Willi dropped by also, and sat down at Craig´s table, and we had some singing and clapping and coffee and woodspirit-lookalike-contest*ggg*and enjoyed the music.

 Don´t you think we did not work that day!*ggg* I made this Sgian Dhú blade as  a gift for Craig. Spring steel, selective temper, and stands the test. 3mm spine thickness, 95 mm long, and it will get a plain stag antler handle, maybe with a clan crest, but we´re still designing. Guess Craig enjoyed it...

 Willi made some mini axes, too. Here he´s working with his Dremel mini power tool.

 Then Olaf dropped by to have me make a knife for and together with his little one. Olaf is head chairman of an archery club in Wuppertal and a real knife afficionado. I am not always agreed with his stance on knife collecting, but it simply feels good to have other people around that do not think knives are the essence of Evil!

 Mind you, for some brief moments, even the sun came out!

 This is Willy doing the finishing grind on... what...?!

This one-the knife I made for Olaf´s son. Spring steel, selective temper, spine thickness 3 mm, length roundabout 11 cm. I actually liked it a lot and would have kept it myself.... but as is, they got it at a bargain, nothing at al, to be precise *grml*.

 I also started a drinking horn stand for my sweetheart... This is the head.

 This is the tail...

 ...and the thing overall... has to get a bit longer still.

 Two mini axes / hatchets by Willi, a snake he made for his wife,

 And the "dwarf knife" he started at the industrial museum.

 I also made a dragon head knife. This is a detail of the work in progress, no blade yet.

 The handle is partly bush knife style.

 Willi at the forge.

 I then started an integral En - Nep from a railroad screw. Here the tang is being formed.

 ...and a hardy chisel out of the same material.

 The blade taking shape. The knife will see less than 1 % stock removal.

 The dragon head knife with blade formed.

 Topmost is a barbecue fork Willi made. I really like this a lot, cleanly made!

 Willi apparently does, too;-).

And my hardy chisel ready to rumble!;-) I like the stained and spotted surface, it was rusted deep, and the structure I find interesting.

So, to sum it all up, it was a very busy weekend, with a very wet Sunday. We made the best out of the lack of visitors, and had fun playing around and having good food. It was all less than ideal, but what could we do? Nothing but having fun as it was and planning for the next event. And fun we DID have, met a lot of nice people we hope to meet again.

And, if you look closely, the fair wasn´t even going so bad, for some visitors that actually mattered found the way into the smithy and will come again. We are now planning for the autumn fair which has yet to be scheduled. Watch this place!