The noise outside was driving me mad, and I was in desperate need for some green, so I packed my gear and my supper and made for a place in the woods behind my "home" sheltered from the noise of the highway, the plane traffic, the road and the railway station, the yelping, shrieking, yelling and crying of Ritalin-drugged kids and drunks waiting for the bus. Funny, how calm this wood actually is, even if the highway runs through it. I took a deep breath, poured myself a cuppa and took my snack board and one of my favourite knives. Had some leftover steak from BBQing and some real bread, and just relished in great food and tea and silence.
In case you ask, the blade is 90 mm x 3mm of my own San- Mai damascus (60 layers of 1.2842 toolsteel and rebar with a cutting core of 1.2842, brass fittings, tang peened over amd a chunky, comfy stag antler handle. It´s one of my favourite snack and kitchen and carving knives. I had a sheath for it, which I had bought, but it did not fit too well, so I finally got to business the other day and made a sheath for it, nothing fancy, really, but tanned and tempered with dragon´s blood (daemonoropos draco) concoction, wet-formed and then hot-dragonblooded and beeswaxed;-).
On my way home I got myself some spruce sprouts for schnapps,tea and syrup. I like to use it as a concoction against the flu and the like, the schnapps is also good for the digestion;-). To make the syrup you need:
3 handful of spruce sprouts
1 cup wood honey
1 natural lemon
sugar if you are so inclined, or more honey
Put one layer of spruce sprouts in a jar. Thoroughly wash the lemon. Make thin lemon slices and put them atop the spruce sprouts. Cover with honey. Add another layer of spruce, and lemon slices, cover with honey, and so forth. Add a thick layer of sugar to keep off the air. Put on the lid. Let it rest for a week in the sun. Pass through a sieve. Carefully heat the syrup to at least 75° Celcius and pour it in a vaccum lid, put the lid on and set it upside down for aan hour. Heat in a bain-marie again. Done;-).
Schnapps:
1 handful of spruce sprouts
1 cup wood honey
1 l Vodka
Cover the sprouts with honey, let it rest for a week. Cover with Vodka, let it rest for 6 weeks. Pass through a sieve. Nasdarowje!;-)
For tea, take 5-10 spruce sprouts, pour with 0,3 l of boiling water. Sweeten with honey if you feel so inclined. It´s also delicious with a twig of sage and hederacea glechoma.
Those are the adventures of Mr. Fimbulmyrk, in bushcraft and blacksmithing, mountainbiking and hiking, reenactment, writing, singing, dancing, stargazing and having a piece of cake and a coffee. Pray have a seat and look around you, but be warned - the forest´s twilight is ferocious at times.
Beliebte Posts
-
Maybe you know this feeling: The woods call you, call you out into their solemn embrace. They call you in your everyday business, in work ...
-
On Solingen knife expo I had the privilege to meet with Lukas Mästle - Goer, a tutor in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), workin...
-
This is the common birch polypore, fomitopsis betulina, also known as birch bracket or razor strop. For a bushcrafter, it is a treasure ...
-
Kai has done it again! When I was on a visit at his place recently, he presented me his newest project. 1.2842 steel, blade 76 mm long,...
-
On Sunday, Kai, his girlfriend Marie and myself met to have a cuppa and a cake at the various smithies and museums in the Muttental. We f...
-
Cool thing about the Vic is that it is totally inspiring arsing around carving. Just occurred to me- sometimes you maybe want a gift for the...
-
Today I have reached another milestone in my learning. Just started my first fire with flint and steel. The striker I forged myself ages a...
-
On Friday I decided it was time to get in some endurance riding... Oh, yes, it´s that time of year again, miles of boring road riding to ke...
-
This my latest conceptual work. I found another chisel in the woods, and on the detour, I met a fox in the moonlight... so I came up with...
-
Last weekend Martin from Ireland came visiting to do some forging and general horsing around;-), and yeah, here´s the story;-). Martin a...