On the bench: Bushcraft Santoku and American Tanto

 Now to something different: I was wanting to do a Santoku bushcraft design from laminate steel. This is in fact a first test on the design I made from Unimog spring steel, selectively tempered, 120x 3.8 mm to 2 mm. The holes are punched...unfortunately one o´them did go a bit awry. But, it should work well enough for testing. Blade and tang are tapering for balance. The balance point should be on the index finger if all goes well.

 The testing as I did to date shows great capabilities in kitchen applications and while woodcarving can be done, it is less than ideal... I will further refine the design, I think, to make it suited better for the task. And might be I´d even make some to sell... we´ll see.

 Another altogether different matter is this tanto design, which actually is no tanto design, but an American adaptation of a kind of Katana (Japanese long sword) tip for a tactical knife. I love to experiment with knife designs and like to go to limits. This is a tactical knife, and I have not yet much liked this style, and still do not much take to the martial concept of many of them. But there is no denying the fact that the American Tanto tip is near indestructible and offers advantages not only in penetration capabilities, but also in whittling. For instance, I have broken off the tip of some carving knives when trying to carve a spoon or Kuksa without a spoon knife. Also, when working with a mason, I used my utility knife to cut the grooves into dry building boards with the tip and dulled it quite a lot. Obviously you use a chisel normally;-), but when there is no chisel at hand, you use what is at hand. So, there is more to the American Tanto design, and I do not believe it actually makes for a better weapon, but for a better tool. I forged this blade from some steel I found in the woods. When I found it, it showed some pattern, but even after 24 h of hardcore etching it shows no patina whatsoever. It slams through mild steel rods and I aborted the bending test at 25°.

 Not that it bends easily with a thickness of some 9 mm at the handle! It then tapers quite radically, as does the tang, which is drilled out for balance, too (yeah, I know I messed up, but it cost me three
!glass! drill bits to get through this material. And this after I thoroughly annealed and deep-froze and annealed once more and I could work it with a file). Not that it was that hard, it just was so ductile that the bore chips came in one long and several short ones. The grates were looking as if someone punched a pudding. Weird.

Also, it carves mild steel, chops antler and penetrates oil cans. If anything is a tactical tool, this steel is. I plan on fitting another no-go: A Micarta handle with red G-10 liners and making a hardened multipurpose leather sheath for it... or maybe I´d even have a go at a Kydex (TM) sheath... we´ll see how it goes. Maybe it´ll get desert iron wood or ebony.... would fit the bill just as well, and I don´t like that special waste on my knives still.

I look forward to it even if it is so different to my normal line of thought. In fact, I do, BECAUSE it is so different to everything I would normally make, and it might help broaden my view and confirm new perspectives.

A rookie ride with catastrophes and cake and coffee...;-)

 Two weeks ago we met again @Felsengarten in Hagen to get in some technical basics. The smiths and crafties seem to have developed an affinity for fat tires...;-) I claim to be innocent, no really, I am ;-). Nick showed up with his new Stevens Taniwha 29er (Dom, dom, the Taniwha has come...:-)) he really enjoyed.

 It was really, really cool that Kai showed up to help with the tutoring and have some fun. He has got a lot to do at the moment, what with his studies and his eagerness to be the best... ;-). It was good fun to have him around, have a chat and do some sicker lines to impress the folks... ;-)

 We also foraged for some sage and lavender and did some owl-watching... but alas... the owl family was not at home... ;-) and we did some smelling the roses.

 The vicinity is really beautiful and you can do everything, if you do it sensible. Basking in the sun is one thing...

 

 We did some braking practice, and then Henning came to me and asked about some funny noises his bike made. Then it turned out there were some huge chunky tires fitted, and while the stays offered plenty clearance, the front derailleur obviously did not, and the only way was to take the big/big combination...

 Turned out that with a shortcage rear derailleur and a chain that was a bit short and a 100kg body weight that was a combination that was less than ideal.

So Henning tore off his derailleur hanger. #shit, if you ask me. Henning is fighting quite some adversaries taking up the sport, and I am really sorry for this (but cannot help it any). Mountainbiking is a hard sport, and you WILL fall, and you WILL hurt yourself, and you WILL wreck your bike. Mastery comes with controlling the circumstances, so that if you hurt yourself, you do not hurt yourself permanently, and if you wreck your bike, you are prepared to repair it. A torn derailleur hanger, however, is just about SNAFU.

Since it did not work out, Henning packed up and was off for a BBQ, and we continued tutoring Nick and Kathrin. I was really fond of Kathrin, who is making some huge progress at the moment. She has to overcome some mental barriers still (some anxiety and the plain refusal to do some essential things such as getting accustomed to riding with a lowered seat in technical situations, but as is, her composure and body tonus are way good already.

Lowering your seat in technical situations is not only a requirement of style. It often is crucial for survival, and even on some leisurely and casual rides you always encounter steep inclines where a high seat will ultimately send you over the bars. This is often not easy to understand for beginner riders, why you need a high seat for some situations and a low one for others, but it is an essential technical basic to know when to say when. A lower seat, even if you are not accustomed to it, will offer you more control in steep inclines and when climbing over obstacles.

 

 

We did some more braking practice and some first practice on off road terrain. Kai gave some valuable additional input with his background in trials and hardcore freeride mountainbike riding.

 

 Then we rode out to Käse Deele trailside café to do some practice in balancing a cuppa coffee and a piece of cake while having a laughing fit ;-).

Just having a good time and relaxing after a cool day riding!

Folks, it just feels cool to just go out with you, and as I have said on countless occasions - I really look forward to showing you some real rides and to open up the "heart of the wind" for you! But even so, it´s cool to have you around! For this to me is what mountainbike riding is all about: hanging out with some friends at places where it is really cool, pushing your comfort zone and playing around on a bike, and some good foodie afterwards which you can delve into with relish.

Simple. Fun. ;-)

A crossover design... for a Puukko

 This is something I have in the works at the moment with some thoughts on knife design. The lecture on Puukko design by Anssi Ruusuvuori had my mind racing, and having looked at some modern Puukko designs I find they bear a striking resemblance to Japanese Tanto or Aikuchi designs.

These characteristics are mainly the simple handle and the diamond shape of the blade. Differences include the lack of a Habaki and the rarely upswept point of the blade with Puukko designs.

I forged the blade from some Wootz steel I found in the woods... 110mmx5-2mm blade, selective temper, for technical data.

The grind is "hon zukuri", convex to zero, not that clean, to be quite honest, but I lack experience with a belt grinder. Next time I´ll stick to my trusty files! :-)

For the handle I adapted a shape from the Novgorod knife finds with an octagonal shape from bog oak. This has quite an interesting history. A loose acquaintance of mine and the magic troll´s we meet at re-enactment fairs from time to time had the wood for cheap. The corporation he worked for was being restored, and under the foundations of the building they found an old house from medieval times. The wood was conserved in the soil and was salvaged by him-he had made entire stools from bog oak!

The design is a bit dark to my liking, so I guess I´ll do some fittings from silver or bronze for´t. As is, it´s really sharp and well - balanced.




 

Into the twilight on a lunatic´s path

 I tend to have only shitty days these days at work. Politics have always been somewhat psychologically challenged with a huge ego and stuff, but now it is nearing insane. But I know well it´s all my fault... I just cannot say that the wall is green, even if it´s white, just because I am told to. The lunatic therefore is me.

That´s fine and okay with me, for some of my biggest idols were lunatics... say Suibhne Geilt, Lailoken and all those Myrddins and Merlins, and their example shows me the way out. Out to the mountains and the woods, where life still reigns supreme and not that parody that is said to be life - amongst humans. So arrogant has our species become, and thus blind, that it claims that only human society is the measure for life and death... how wrong this is and how ridiculous, anyone who can still feel it, can feel in the thicket. It does not necessarily need to be untamed and wild, and not necessarily a "grave danger with Dave Granger" outing ;-) to feel it. It is just underneath the next holly bush.

There it lies, the "olore malle", the silver chord that leads to the navel of twilight. There it lies, in silence, the place where you can sprout wings and tread in stealth and speak in riddles, giggles and stifled whispers.

And yeah, again, as I did so many times before I followed it, into the twilight and deeper still, along the crags and into the green. With closed mouth and an open heart I walked and climbed the crumbling rock.

Dark and deep lay the crevice, full of unspoken secrets, the nesting place of owls. I talked about it when they asked me. They asked me, and at first I did not want to reply and answered with commonplaces and riddles. And my boss insisted and applied force, and I told the story, for "you can take my past and future / It won´t make you wise" (Lemmy Kilmister). She laughed at me, for there are no owls in her world. Owls are an ornament or something you see in a zoo.

And I laughed with her, against her, with a menacing laughter, that was not entirely human anymore. I laughed with cruel joy. For her ignorance makes her prey to what the owl stands for.

And she rises from her eyrie on planes beyond, rises on stealthy wings, like a whisper in the night. Her claws and beak are eager for the living flesh; she of the mighty wisdom, she of the cruel joy of the hunt, she of the thousand crafts and the mistress of the hunter.

Up rise the mossy crags into the twilight,

 ...up rise the vigorous oaks...

 ...up rise the mushrooms from the mycel in the dark...

 ... and from the embrace of twilight I look into the sun.

 The weird and the wonderful line this path, and eye to eye is mirrored in the sky that is no sky...

 Treetops one can see through the mirror, trees that once were or that might be, but they are not.

 In this cathedral I breathe, freely as in a dream. It may be that all will end eventually due to the haughtiness of man... but it is better to live in truth than in lies. It is better to die for the truth than in a lie. These trees are a truth, an asset that is not rooted in economy, even if economy is the reason they grow there. Maybe all is corrupted, even the order according to which the trees grow, planted by a forest bureau and only for reasons of economical value... but look at this picture and tell me this again! Feel the sun on your skin and tell me money is all there is!

For it is not. They want to keep hope from our lives, they want to rout these happy feelings and replace them with guilt and shame-unto we shall consume what junk and glittering trumpery they place before us in order to satisfy our insane greed. And we run, run at their bidding, to fulfil the new first commandment: Thou shalt buy and trash! But beyond the image of a wood, be it as it may, the silver dream road through the iron wood commences, where fairy tales still live.

I found this totem pole at a camp site some locals had set up and had to smile...

To the hills I wandered, and what is the message of this hike?

This is a signpost reading: "The concept of the Kyrill reforestation program"... but you cannot read it anymore...

 The forest has taken it all back, overgrown it, slowly and steadily...

 ..it reclaims the ground...

...and the silver chord of dreams.

They cannot win.