New En-Nep by Jonas

 Jonas, our "apprentice" is making huge progress these days. Here he proudly presents a HUGE BSTD of an En-Nep made from steel of unknown provenience. The knife is forged into shape almost 100%, selectively tempered and hot-punched for scales.

 Jonas being righteously proud!

I especially like the fact that he also does sensible spine thicknesses. I look forward to seeing it made!

Highland Games 2017: Blood, sweat, no tears ;-)

 Last weekend was a busy and painful one for me. Highland Games 2017 in Wuppertal took place, and Jogi of www.clanmaclarenfriends.org invited us along to forge with kids and have a good time. bad things first: It was a financial and personal desaster. Good things second: It was fun no less.

 We arrived early on saturday. A big fat Thanks goes to our master, Ewald, who drove us to the site in spite of not being exactly lightfooted, so to say...

 Then we set up the booth, which kept collapsing...

 Nick having fun with a bucket...

 We taped the tent and fixed it with zip-ties and gaffa tape...

 Then there was time for a leisurely stroll around the site.

 This was my first sword ever... not exactly a beauty, but CoB and CoP not that far off the mark, keeping in mind it was forged with a bunch of drunken Scots... ;-)

 Ouch... I am NOT proud of THAT! ... ;-)

 Anyway, they seem to like it. It was right heart-warming to experience the warm welcome by all of the folks after two years absence from the games...

 I really like them.

 Not the least because it´s absolutely normal for them to have their kids with them and everyone having a ball WITH the kids, not in spite of them.

There were alot of quality booths again on site offering Scottish and British goods, from beer to boots.... ;-)

The smithy set up...

 We had a cuppa coffee. Thanks to Nick for bringing the java!

 At first there were few people coming, so I entertained myself by grinding my current project, a conceptual knife with an owl topic. Steel is some Tungsten-alloyed steel from the woods, handle is brass, reindeer and stag antler, which will get an owl carving with garnets and quartz crystal inlet....

 Athletes were fighting in the contents from all over Germany.

 Nick had some of his crappy stuff for sale... ;-) and apparently had some success. ;-)

 Then kids were trickling in...

There was a really good reenactment troupe on site.  

 They showed a real living demo of how it might have been back then and did it didactically and historically sound.

 ...and had way too much fun, apparently... ;-P

 Elayne Dannsa Clairseach really put a very nice and atmospheric counterweight to the blaring of not-always-tuned-bagpipes music....

 Nick at the forge.

 Ulrike gave this puppet to us. I could not resist... ;-)

 One of the kids forged this skull with me... and I must admit, I had never thought about doing so  before. Thanks, Jonas, for the inspiration! Jonas now is one of our junior members, and we have already done more good together. I look forward to seeing him as a full-fledged amateur!

 Jürgen, our trademark beeskeeper and all-over-good person sold his honey, legendary honey whisky and mead... and the best thing is: Ahlhauser Hammer honey, whisky and mead will be available in the 2018 beeskeeping season. We will have beehives at the ironforge, build a herbal garden and a bee meadow. This is how you fuck Monsanto!

 Jürgen also had his candles and soaps and sweets on display...

 Marion of the lovely beeskeeper´s family, keeping a watch over everything.

 And Jürgen himself.

 This is Jogi... he looks as if he had his fill of mead already, but my utmost respect goes out to him for organiszing an event that really keeps balance between a family event and some highly professional highland games.

Packing up with an injured finger (severed fingertip, permanent neural damage), I hit my other hand with the point of my knife badly, bleeding all over the place. Asking for a medic, I was quickly surrounded by Katja and three other girls... (ummm, I should try that more... ;-)) who calmly and professionally took care of the wound and quickly staunched my bleeding. Thanks, ladies, I would say it was a pleasure, but it was not;-P, at least I would not want to repeat the experience. One drive to the hospital later I was all glued together again. And have a knifemaking course scheduled with the doctor who glued it all together again and was raving about the exceptionally clean wound edges... weird. ;-) Bad luck and bad co-workers really, but nice company no less... I´ll be back 2018 in hope for a better outcome... ;-).

Business as usual...but: Santa Volker;-) makes some kids happy again!

 It´s Friday, and it has been somewhat stressy those days, but, funny enough, working at the Bethaus smithy somehow let all the Chrismas stress subside... Those kids were all there to celebrate the birthday of ?Max?, and they obviously had some fun.

 Waiting for the fun to start. Volker explained how the forgework would be done, and the kids were fascinated by the heat, the smoke, the smell of the coal, and the atmosphere.

 "Now this is the forge", says Volker;-).

Thanks, bro, it is always a pleasure to work with you!

He makes it look easy for the kids and really loves to work with them, and it shows. Even if it´s a bit stressy at times, I have never seen him lose his temper, yelling or cursing.

 Here he forges the preform of a decorative horseshoe. First the bend is forged.

 Then it´s being flattened. This is a good practice for the kids or even any smith looking for some practicing his surface skills.

 Back into the fire...

 Some cleaning up work...

 And then it´s cut on the hardy chisel.

 Like this, see;-)?

 Some more cleaning up later, this is the finished product. Oh, and top is a small knife we made like hotcakes from rebar. Selectively tempered. I guess it were some 15 knives we made in total, all in about three hours, tempered, annealed, sharpened and serviceable. We handed them to the adults who were fascinated and seemed at least a tiny bit content. It was a very satisfying experience, and fun to work for customers like these!

 Leon trying to coax me into making him a third knife;-)after he had made two himself and a third for his friend:-). Joking aside, this little fellow forged a BIG knife from BIG rebar (with a little help from the adult at the sledge) and even had a go at working the 10 kg sledge hammer. He also tempered and annealed with but a tiny bit of help by myself. Great job! Plus, he did not go through this ordeal for himself, but to give it to his friend.

 Filing the grates...

 I also made this blade from an ancient piece of spring steel with a carbon content of approximately 0,75%, 100 mm, spine thickness 3 mm, scandi grind, no worries;-).... Merry Chrismas to me;-).