Another mythological knife-from junk

This is a knife I forged quite some time ago at a really lovely friend's place. It is exclusively made from material I found in the woods.  The blade is made from a three-layer laminate from a really old file and 150 year old leaf spring. The leaf spring had a carbon content of about 0.7 %. 

That file, though...

With the first blows from the hammer, it crumbled like old cake, so I had it checked. It has a carbon content of about 1,5% and a weird dendritic structure.  So, grinding away all the rust marks and structure, and gently tapping at a relatively low temperature with a really small temperature window it was. Used a wooden mallet for that. It took me two days to get it to move at all, and a break of three month to recover from the inflammation in my elbow to weld it in between the leaf spring sandwich construction. And at first it didn't want to weld. Drove me fecking mad.  But it eventually worked out, after I messed up the first piece. Forged some kind of animal head to the handle. 

The handle is wrapped with some rawhide of a rotting fox cadaver I took with permission and which was salted and smoked and wet-wrapped after soaking in a concoction of soda and denatured alcohol, then heat-treated with resin, beeswax, mastix, mistle berries, dragon's blood resin in denatured alcohol. 

  

The grind is a high convex bevel to almost zero. Almost flat, to be precise, and polished in the edge. The blade is really resilient, and selectively triple-tempered. The edge is really hard, I estimate it at some 62HRC, the middle is soft, the spine is also tempered to an estimated 52HRC. It throws sparks off a flint and a ferrocerium rod.  It is rather thin at 2.8 mm, but can be bent to almost 50 degrees. 

Length is some 102mm, the CoB is on the index finger. 

The fascinating thing is that I learned a lot in the process (and as I said, I failed first), and that it is a bit of a playing with undereutectoid and eutectoid steels. It does look like any old ren fair knife, but it is not.  

There actually was a huge learning curve involved. Also, the knife is a part of my own story. I intimately knew that fox relative, I found the steel in nocturnal woods under a sickle moon, and I bled and suffered for the knife. I made my sacrifices for it.  

It is the sharpest knife I ever made, and you guys know that I am my own worst critic normally.  I am almost a bit scared of it, even though one can always do better.  That is not my point.  It is not perfect, it is not better than my Casström.  Well, maybe it is far more slicey. 

But it is a myth in itself. A piece of magic, maybe.  

As a kid, I wanted to find the magic sword, as a lot of kids do. And as an adult, I asked the forest.  I have shown you some of its answers on the blog over the years. It has been a weird, but interesting journey, and about some of its answers I would not talk.  No offence meant, but most people simply could not understand.  

Thing is, the magic sword will no longer smite the dragon.  The symbol of the time is not a symbol of chivalry or heroism.  The symbols of our time are the tank, the whip, the Credit Card- and the extermination robot.  All introduced by the dragons of our world, cursing mankind every single day. 

The forests are dwindling. Wildfires rage. 

But deep below, from the mycelium, magic sprouts.  It lingers eternal. It is patient and alien. It sometimes looks really profane.  Like a harsh, hard truth, sometimes. 

But never forget: It is invincible, because it is infathomeable, because it is indomiteable.  

I will die sooner or later. I will rot.  But I am a part of the magic.  

I am indomiteable.  

Become magic.  

Another simple carving project: Carving a comfort bird

Recently I stumbled across a really great tutorial on YouTube, by The Maker Experience (Awesome guy, go check him out!) 

And of course I tried it out! It worked a cinch, although I did some of the steps in a different order.  

I made some in hazel and some in cherry, hoping to add a bit of my own flavour to the idea. 

Projects like this are really awesome.  You can accomplish them with a simple Swiss Army knife. 

Have a cuppa, sit in the woods, listen to the birds and whittle away.  

It doesn't need a lot of your time, just a half of an hour is enough for some nice results. 

 You can always do better, as you can see in the picture, and you will make some good progress relatively fast.  

And there is a punchline, of course.  Because, while not on a primary level, making pretty and good things is political. 

Why that, you ask? 

Woodcarving and greenwood work is scientifically proven to be beneficial for your mental health (https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/project/to-investigate-the-mental-health-benefits-of-green-woodworking-in-therapeutic-settings-for-veterans et al). It offers a sense of calm, of self-empowerment, and of achievement.  In a world that floods the zone with horror and bullshit in order to keep you in a state of learned helplessness in order to steal your sovereignity, your dignity and human rights from you, everything that enables your resilience is resistance.  Add to that the soothing effect of being in nature, and it can really help you heal. Try it, you won't regret it. It certainly helps me keep what little sanity I still have, and it never fails to soothe my soul.  

Maybe it can help you, too.  

Take good care, and thanks for dropping by, as always! 😊

Crafted a possibles pouch from woolen rags

On a recent bimble I came across some woolen rags hanging in the creek. Now the water had felted the wool already to a good degree, and after rinsing them a bit, I decided I wanted to make something from it. Taking care not to put them anywhere near any food, I took them home, put them into detergent overnight, washed them, boiled them with Chaga, Mugwort, decon tablets, Iron(III)chloride, more detergent, rinsed with Sagrotan and washed with Lanoline soap, thoroughly rinsed, and was left with some material for a pouch.  

Sewed it together with some twine. 

Then I quickly carved a button from boxwood someone disposed of, sewed it on, and, hey presto, possibles pouch.  

I really enjoy projects like that. It really feels empowering to be able to create something from utter crap, with next to no provisions. Actually I find, that this is a political thing.  There is a wealth for the poor, if we own our poverty. We should not, but this is a way to reclaim sovereignity. To reclaim life.  

There is hope, after all. 

Thanks for dropping in, and take good care. 

 

Making pitch glue

I was looking for an alternative to e.g. fixing knife handles, and it is a bit of a recurring question over the years: How would people have set handles to their knives? As for the iron age, and even in early 20th century Finland still, knife handles might have been set into fresh wood, with as good a fitting as would possibly go, and let the wood shrink around the tang and sometimes peen or bend the protruding tang over.  But handles had been fixed with glue since the Palaeolitic age.  One method for sure is using birch tar glue with a bit of animal fat and something fibrous, such as plant fibres, or fur fibres from animal hide.  This here is a recipe inspired by a mentioning by T. Sirelius: Ethnographia Laponia. I used some fur I found in the woods and cut them short. 

I added 1 pt beeswax for 9 pts spruce resin and about two spoonfuls of wood ashes. 

Boiling the pitch is something you take good care of.  Use a small tuna can and a small amount. Most probably your concoction will catch fire. That is not desireable, but don't panic, and for chrissakes don't try to extinguish the flames with water, for it would explode. Best do it outside, keep some sort of lid handy (a small dish will work). Most of the time, you can simply blow out the flames.  It is crucial that you actually do boil the resin.  

The glue will cool to a really hard surface. You will need to heat it in order to use it.  

I hope that was helpful 😉. 

Take good care, thanks for dropping in, and until next time!