Burns night celebration at the smithy

 Yap, I know, it has been some time ago, but then I have never claimed to be the New York times;-). Burns night, that is. Craig had called and asked if he could use the smithy for his alternative Burns night celebration, and we really welcomed that. We all are fond of food and drink and plain ol# fun and poetry and strange people alike;-). Willy arrived early to helpme with forging 18 Sgian Dhús as our part of the fun. Craig had ordered them made for his friends. So we lit up forge, and I took the sledge and did some pounding. Volker contributed with a steady flow of strong coffee, cake, good humour and good-natured encouragement, as usual. Thanks, bro, good to know you!

 And, Willy, great to have you around. Don´t know of the many fixes you helped me out! It was great fun to forge with you, as usual!
Willy made some angels he is currently practicing, and they are just cute!

 We started with forging out round material to a flat billet. Then we forged the tangs. Time went by, and the sun was sinking, and the first guests arrived, amongst them René. Readers of my blog might know him as having forged a bit himself and being groom ;-) to Pam, the goldsmith, but he is one of my oldest and best friends, and I was right delighted to be able to meet him!

 As usual I had little time, what with 18 sgians needing forging. I just thought I´d show you how you can forge a bevel with a bit more shape control:

 As with any of my knives, I had started forging the tang (see above). Then I forged a tip. I then set the would-be bevel to about one third of the full width. I used the anvil´s edge for that. Some like to use the hardy chisel, but I find this can go awry too easily, and using the edge of the anvil is faster, too.

 Then, using the anvil´s horn, you give the would-be bevel a preshape. The blade now resembles somewhat of a sickle. By the way, if you actually want to forge a sickle blade, you´d have to preshape the bevel side almost full-circle. For when you start driving out the material in the edge area, you also compress it towards the spine of the blade, and that makes this happen:

 That´s how the blade looks like with the bevel forged. No grinding whatsoever needed. By driving out the material from the edge area you straighten up the blade. To the kids I sometimes compare it with working cookie dough, only at a slightly *ggg* higher temperature.

 Craig and Nigel provided us with some great music, and it was funny how the rythm of our smithing fell in line with their songs. That was fun, folks!

 Just a few of the sgians I forged that day... I can tell you, I was absolutely fluffy, but had to keep going. Then suddenly it was dinner time. Craig and Nigel again played some great folk music, there was a mad poet reciting Burns´poems, and suddenly the haggis came in, complete with tatties and potato mash. I was hungry like a wolf, and delved into the dishes with relish, amusing myself by telling René what Haggis actually was. ;-) But he surprised me by not only nibbling daintily at it, but taking three full servings! I just managed two, and I was not even able to finish the dessert, which was a delicious apple crumble by Craig´s Lovely wife Silke. We had some real nice chats, traded some jokes, had a beer, and then...

 It was back to the smithy... I managed to forge 12 sgians total, one was made by Willy, but I simply collapsed and called it a day.

We had some chats, and I had some more beers, and some more apple crumble, and some real good whiskey. I got to know some quality people again,listened to great music, and when I was riding home, I was humming and whistling conetntly to myself all the way.

I look forward to next year´s Burns night celebration!

Craig´s Sgian Dhú is finally done;-)

 This project has cost me quite some nerves... and it has been on the bench for a long time. The handle failed several times. Now it´s finally done, and I like it. I sincerely hope Craig likes it, too, for I value him a lot. No clan crest yet, and a simple rustic finish. The handle is made from extremely rare iron-ore - impregnated bog oak, which lay submerged in an ancient coalmine in the Muttental for some 150 years or so. The ferrules are handforged from copper, and the tang is peened over the buttcap.

 The knife in its sheath and outside of it. The blade is not rusty, but waxed against the moisture of the simple sock-sheath I made. It will get another sheath to go on a belt, that will see some carving. Either sheath is / will be wet-formed and hotwaxed around the knife. The blade is spring steel, selectively tempered with an approximate hardness of 59-61 HRC. 

 The spine is just some 3 mm thick and has some filework on it. The blade measures in at some 100 mm give or take. The fullers are first forged, then ground out.

I already tested it, and although it is no prybar, it can take a beating, and I hope it will serve him well! My apologies to Craig for the long time, but I hope the finished product will make up for it!

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!

Check out this folk singer;-)

It has been some time that I met Craig at the Bethaus smithy. It was on the Muttental spring fair that I met some Scottish madman and we talked some about forging and making music. Was a great meeting, and I promised I´d link him, but as is, all my fault, I messed up his address.

But now I found him, and here comes the link:

www.craigherbertson.com

He also plays abroad (from here*ggg*) and tries to make a living from winning awards;-), so check out his site.

Coming to think of it, I will include a music category in my linklist.