Making a sheath from birch polypore

This is the common birch polypore,  fomitopsis betulina,  also known as birch bracket or razor strop. 

For a bushcrafter,  it is a treasure trove. Not only useful,  as the latter term suggests,  a valuable asset,  if you want to strop your razor or knife,  it is of high medicinal value. Rich with polysaccharides,  Betulin acid,  triterpenes and potassium,  it is reputed to be anti-inflammatory,  immunestimulant, beneficial for the cardiovadcular system,  reputed to be anticarcinogenous. It is also antiseptic and antiviral. You can use it for wound treatment if you cut plaster strips from it. It can also be used to transport a spark and as a fire starter. 

And,  as it turns out,  if you cut a suitable piece from it,  as a great leather substitute.  Cut off the brown skin and the pores.  Your material to start with should be quite thick,  about 3-5 mm. Gently whack it with a clean and relatively smooth stick or your knife handle,  then work it with your hands,  gently stretching it. 

This is how it looks after the process. 

You can then use it to make small pouches and knife sheaths with it. Apologies for the lousy stitching,  it was getting dark and I am abit clumsy, as you guys know ;-). I used some strong sewing twine,  but you could also use bramble or nettle cordage in a pinch. I put a wooden model of the Mora inside and let it dry around the model to get it to the desired shape. 

Have fun! 
 

A spoon and a pouch

 I have been doing a lot of small bushcrafty projects lately. I find it is soothing to my mind to know how to create things out of nothing. 

Do not get me wrong - I know perfectly well all of the stuff I know is not relevant. I am just biding my time. I am waiting for death, nothing less, nothing more. No so - called "Survival skills" will save us. There are a lot of people knowing a lot more than myself. But all of us are inevitably doomed. The lunatics ruling us will make sure of that. Nuff said.

But how I spend the time until they finally pull the trigger, is none of their business, not yet.

Making things in the woods makes me happy. Of course they do not want anyone to be happy, so I try to be as happy as possible. Maybe this is childish, but I do not care. I do not do this against anyone, but for my soul. Just because I have the custom not to soil it with their swamp, if not because I believe in something greater. Something good. Who knows? It is not fashionable to believe in anything anymore, but I am an old fart, so I am entitled not to be fashionable. 

I made myself a spoon from elm wood. Actually I have fallen in love with this wood. I love the colours and the oxidation. I also tried my hand at some Kólrosing, which did not yet turn out too well, but could be much worse, so actually I really like the outcome.

The little pouch I just made to practice the technique. It is made from bramble splittings weaved together. After plaiting, I gave it a quick oiling to keep it flexible. I still have to learn a lot, and that is a very good thing, because it keeps my mind off things. 

The "Nessmuk" I made some years ago. It is made from spring steel with a selective quench and temper. Scales are desert iron wood with mosaic pins. It is a bit of a controversial knife, having a spine thickness of almost 9mm at the handle (albeit with a distal taper towards the tip). For the length it is a very able chopper, but it is also a very heavy knife. Having fallen in love with Moras again I find it stays at home more often than not. Actually it also cuts quite nicely, but it needs to get some getting accustomed to it, mainly when carrying is concerned, but still. It is a monster, and actually overbuilt for what I do these days.

Anyway, it still is a very good feeling to make things out of nothing, to be even able to do so, in these times, and doing it with tools you yourself made from junk noone cares a runny shit about. 

Message. ☺️ 

Mora Garberg review

 I got myself a Garberg Carbon, courtesy of www.westfalia.de, who offered me a deal I could not resist. And actually I was a bit shocked by its performance.

Do not get me wrong. I am a knifemaker myself, and while I do not do beautiful, and am my own worst critic, over the years I have learned to make some pretty decent blades for myself. I also do quite a bit of bushcrafty things, nothing fancy, and I am living that way, not doing it, if you get my meaning. I do a fair bit of woodworking and whittling, too. I own a great many knives, and the Garberg always reminded me of the Fjällkniven F 1, and I have next to no funds, so I always was a bit reluctant to buy a knife with a similar concept to that knife.

I was wrong. How wrong I was. ☺️

The first shock I was in for was when I was first given the package. Now I own quite a few Moras, and maybe that sounds nuts, but all of them have that special Mora feeling. You all know what I mean. While they still feel rock solid, they have that light "carry all day without noticing" feeling and the a very nimble balance. When I first took up the Garberg, I nearly dropped it, it was far heavier than I expected. This is not a criticism, by the way, I was just taken unawares. Balance point is a bit behind the index finger. Mora could better this by machining out the hind part of the tang a wee bit more to bring it a bit further towards the index finger to make it even more dexterous, but this is complaining on a very high level. 

The package, by the way, comes with a sustainability certificate. That is Mora for you. Gotta love them.

Straight out of the box, sharpness left something to be desired, but just three strokes on a strop fixed that. After that it was scary sharp. Not just shaving, hair popping away in every direction. Awesome.

I harvested Chaga with it and rammed the tip into a piece of aged birchwood and levered it out sideways. It was not even warmed up by that kind of abuse.

I chopped antler with it. Now keep in mind that this is a Scandi grind with just a tiny micro bevel. You don't do this to that kind of grind. You simply don't. It came out with no dents or cracks or anything at all. It lost some sharpness, and that was all. You could still do these beautiful wood lock shavings with it afterwards, and in aged boxwood, which is very hard.

Actually I carved some twenty spoons with it, processed tinder conk, harvested Chaga and used it in the kitchen, used it as a chisel and a prybar. Of course it is not a kitchen laser, but it is still possible to make see - through onion rings and make short terms of taters, veggies and meat. Of course, due to the thickness of the blade, carrots and celary are split rather than cut, but if you adapt a bit, it also is an awesome knife for field cooking. The black coating is as good as new after all this abuse. 

To date, I did not have to put anything abrasive near it. Edge retention is very, very good. 

The handle to me is a really comfortable outright treat. Due to the almost symmetrical shape it also excels at in-reverse power cuts when whittling, which hints of an extraordinary performance when skinning. The blade shape would also excel at that.

The sheath comes with a rather coarse diamond hone and a fire steel. Both the spine and the protruding piece of tang are ground to 90°, allowing to use the firesteel with great efficiency. The firesteel snaps into a thermoplastic holder, with an awesome fit.

If I need to find anything not so good, it is the retention of the sheath. The knife can fall out when upside down. Given that this is a very, very good knife also in a tactical or military setting, I would suggest Mora could add some kind of mechanical retention device to secure it in these settings.

Actually this is the one knife. You can throw a lot of abuse at it and it is not even warmed up. But it is not a sharpened prybar, either. You can still - with some compromise, of course-use it for cooking tasks.

I am not impressed easily. But I am impressed.

I know some of you might ponder whether to get one. Do (If you can afford it). You will not regret it. I am aware that there are other knives on the market, like the Condor Terrasaur or several Finnish products. They might be good in their own right, maybe better and with a better value for money. I have not yet had the chance to handle them. But this here is not a comparison test, just a review. I do not get paid for it. All I can do is offer you my thoughts on this here knife. And given I have spent a lot of dough on knives, had I had a chance to get my hands on this, maybe it would have saved me some money. Actually, of course, there is a huge gap between, say, a perfectly able Mora companion when pricing is concerned. I, for one, understood the moment I first handled this. While a companion is really tough, too, the Garberg is neigh on indestructable, at least you get the impression. Even to have that feeling in the woods is reassuring and, at least for me, worth one or the other Euro more.

As I said, I can really stand behind this product. 

No. Just no .

Still alive, but just so. Still alive. I am well and healthy and I still got a home. Not much to eat, no heating, no electricity. 

And just recently, I have to admit, I gave up. Gave in to despair. I mean, I have no perspective and there is no such thing as a future. After the pandemic a worlwide economical crisis will take place, and climate change will take care of what is left. 

Yes, I gave in to despair. Just refused to get out of bed for some days. 

But then it occurred to me, not exactly all of a sudden. 

On the one hand, we are all fucked. I have to pay taxes on money I do not have and will never get. It is a criminal system of corruption, where the rich prey on the poor and if you are rich, you get richer still, and if you are poor, that little money you have is taken from you. 

On the other hand there are the Plebejans shouting revolution, the raving mob wanting to turn things upside down, the intellectuals, too, wasting time and energy on futile and idle discussions. 

And, do not get me wrong. Not technology will save us now. We are faced with a cataclysm. You cannot argue with a virus, and you cannot argue with climate change. 

I have fought for 30 years now to prevent this time from becoming. I lost. I would do everything just the same as I did, could I do it all all over again. I have no regrets, and I am prepared to die. For most of us will die, and soon. Do not get me wrong, I love to live. It is just not very probable that I or the next guy or my loved ones will. 

That said, I am faced with but a really tiny shred of life left. And so I say no. 

I say no to your society, your petty dreams and your blahblah. I wear my mask and disinfect my hands and stay away from people. I care for my loved ones, but everyone else is a potential danger. I also say no to the raving mob and your Nazi paroles, your politics and stoopid endeavours. I say no to your consumerism. You only deserve my utter contempt, because you are not capable of making things with your hands. 

Oh, I still do not wish anyone anything bad. I just do not care anymore. People are, for the most part, toxic and contagious in more than one sense. 

There are things I care for, however. Knowing things can make you rich. 

Now, it was winter, and I collected some Chaga. I seldom drink coffee these days, because I do not get the point why I should bother if I can find something better in the woods. 

When collecting the fungus, I thought "well, isn't it a shame that you have to still drink your tea from a Kuksa you bought? Now do not get me wrong, I bought my Kuksa from a very nice young Finnish lady who dated me for a cuppa afterwards on the expo, and ever since I heaped fond memory upon fond memory into the notion of it, so nothing wrong with it really. I will keep using it, too, it is nothing at all like being dogmatic. But still, I somehow never made myself one, and I feel a bit like it is an apprentice piece for any bushcrafter. I just wanted to know, too. 

So I just fired away and made myself one. I made it in the woods, deep in the woods, in fact, and was at it well into the night, while the foxes were yelping and tawny owls were hooting and I think an odd eagle owl, too. I took this as a sign, somehow. I made the cup from nothing special, just some humble birch wood. Made some mistakes, too, but it still worked out. I also got the whittling bug bad again. There is a kind of beauty to the simplicity of sitting in the woods making things with simple implements. If you get into that zone, if you get into the flow, everything just falls into place and suddenly you realize that life is meant to be this way, not.... whatever the sorry mess is that we created. Life is meant to take place under trees. Do not get me wrong, that does not mean to be idle, in the contrary. It just means doing something that actually even makes sense for a change, hard work or no. 

The other day I went to the woods again, and my despair was nowhere to be found. I prepared some scales out of broom, made myself another baton.... 

... And worked on the kuksa. Now I carved a triquetta in, and oiled it some. 

But, as I said, I got that bug bad again. My laid father did an awful lot of woodworking, even more than smithing, and I grew up with it, and it is a bit like shaking hands with an old friend. And I am really stoked on it at the moment. Also it is a bit of a stinky finger into the face of the world, since most of the tools I also made myself. 

The Kuksa being in good order I also started a small bowl and a dish, and it felt really good... 

To have tea while carving from the cup I just had made. 

Actually I know that these things are not the best there are, but they must not be in the first place. It was all made from scraps. Even my tools were, for the most part, made from junk, as you well know. 

Society has proven through time that it does not want me. A long time I thought this was because I was inferior. 

But the people that kept judging and ostracizing and spiting and mobbing me just now are showing that they are utterly inkompetent at living. They stacked up big time, so much in fact, that the ship is sinking. 

If the ship is sinking, jump. 

Jump and swim, swim as far away from the ship as you possibly can, in order not to be drowned in the downward draft. 

I suggest you ask people who never belonged. Learn from indigenous people, with respect. They have, if anyone has, one key to a possible survival of our species. 

Run from capitalism and communism alike. 

Ask the woods. Help them, for we owe them dearly, and come humbly. 

And do not forget that some things even now do not change. Make something good with your hands. Build a garden, a homestead or a farm, plant a tree, carve, forge or build a house, tile a roof. 

But get a life. Switch off the Phone or Computer. 

 The cranes return. 

Spring is on its way. ☺️ ❤️ 

Take care, care for the elderly, the weak, and for those who had bad luck. Thank you. 

Piémontais friction folder

 

This is one of my favourite knives these days. Modelled after a regional knife of the Piémontais in France, aptly dubbed Piémontais or couteau de montagne, I made it from red deer antler, and a simple blade forged from 1.2842 (O2). Selective temper, of course, including the rivet hole, obviously.

The blade has a steel axle that is peened over brass washers. It is a bit tricky to make them right, because you do not have much room for mistakes. But you need very few tools... this one was made with a Victorinox locksmith SAK period. (Apart from the forge, hammer, tongs an angle grinder (before tempering) and a water-based grinding stone. Nothing else. ) 

The friction of the antler keeps the blade in surprisingly well, so good in fact that it actually rides in my pocket every day with not so much of a worry of hurting myself. I like that the design is simple and rugged. it makes it not only reliable, but with but a little practice you could make a handle in the woods with just a SAK. Practice makes perfect, and I love to make those at the moment, so I will keep you posted! Promise! ;-P 

Friction folder with a titanium handle

Long time, no writ, so to say. In the meantime, the world has gone utterly, completely and absolutely mad. M-A-D. Off the rocker. Lost its marbles. Yap. 

Most of you know that, and I could not possibly add to anything that has already been said about that. We will be facing autocrats all over the world, maybe WWIV. Yes, IV. And climate change. And poverty and sickness and decay. Yes. 

Of course I am fucked. Being an artist, as I finally have acknowledged to myself, I will suffer from starvation, neglect or even be manhunted. And time was, I panicked. Been through one or the other ordeal. 

You know what? You know what saved me?

Oh, I think you guessed.... ;-). There are lovely people having me and my smithy, and I could start to forge again. On private ground, with my own tools and my own forge, and for the most part, solitarily, meaning, I can actually concentrate on real progress for myself. Forging outside, in a lovely orchard. Not perfect, and not permanently, and I still have to look for a smithy, but oh so good. It reminds me of the time when I took up smithing, way back then in the garden of my old home by the lake, which is no more. But this is new. 

And when I am forging stuff, there are few things to keep me from focusing on the good work. Meaning, I can make some actual progress, and, focussing helps to keep out all the negative stuff. Just the fire, hammer and anvil. A green orchard, a bit of silence otherwise. Perfect.

This is something I am a bit proud of, even if I still have a lot to learn still. I owe a lot to Fabrice Julien Cognot and master Nobuya Hayashi simply for inspiring me. Same goes for my old friend Joel Delorme, who got me started in the first on wanting to make these folders. I have grown increasingly fond of these. They offer almost the strength of a fixed blade knife, are good to carry around, and they do not scream "combat knife" on top of their lungs... ;-) And it is a dead simple design, which, if made carefully, offer a lot of safety, a surprising amount of it, in fact. 

The all-metal design also is sturdy and resilient to boot. Three parts, no frills.

This is a WIP, of course, not peened over yet, and I have to adjust the handle a bit still. Actually, the handle design is inspired by a knife from the viking age. There are several finds from Novgorod and Birka. As an example, this one might do:(http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/NovgorodMetalp.html)

In Birka, there are finds that have the metal handle protrude in front towards the blade, keeping it spring-loaded and thusly in the handle. This works surprisingly well. The knife I am currently making has a titanium handle, which I forged from a round stock of Ti6Al4,5V, which I got on a Marburgian flea market. as I said, the protrusions towards the blade will be adjusted some and will do the job to keep the blade in. If you opened it, the friction in the handle and your hand will serve the purpose to keep it safe. No lock required, and thusly perfectly legal in Germany.

The blade, however, is another novelty for me. I used 1.2842 (O2). I am just beginning to learn the ins and outs of this steel, but as is, it makes for a good compromise between hardness, edge retetntion and flexibility. Of course I gave it a selective temper, including the rivet hole, of course.

Actually, I see this as a beginning of a journey. It feels good to experience a progress, and while I know that this is in no way perfect, I know that another journey just started. And it gives my hands something productive to do and relieves me from code black.

And this , as I hope, is a positive message for my faithful readers around the world. At least, it is for me. The internet is full of the latest bad news and catastrophes, served hot from a press that is meaning no ill but serves its purpose. And there is little we can do. 

What we can, however, is giving our hands something to do. Of course some of you might be confined to your homes, some of you might not be able to get outside or into a shop. But a pencil and some paper, knitting or naalbindning needles, some leather, twine, awl and needles will serve you well, and this is something you can even do in your kitchen or living room. Whatever you do, take your break from the everyday rapidfire of bad news. Give your hands something to do, They are better connected to your heart than your mind can ever be. Don´t try to change things you cannot change. Keep it simple, and put one foot firmly planted upon the earth after the other. One step at a time. And new trails will open. 

Take good care, all of you, and stay healthy!

Knifemaking tutorial with a bunch of very nice people (yes, I am still alive)

 So, folks, it has been quite some time since you have read anything on this blog, and chance is, you already lost patience with me. I had been meaning to write for quite a long time now, but alas, life got the upper hand on me. I lost my day job earlier this year and am still more or less unemployed. A brief hope of working for a sustainability project in Schwelm failed due to... well... let me put it that way... HUMANS! Then my beloved mother got severely ill with liver cancer and died on December, the 8th, after 85 years of making this world a better place. So you can bet I had other things on my mind than writing, and I had to orienteer myself and put a load of things into perspective. For instance, I had to learn the hard way that friends are foes who attack from behind. At least some are. Others simply pop up and help you out when you least expect it. Still others might not yet be called friends, but help you out anyway.

Anke, Marcus and their kids are of the latter stamp. So, we did a knifemaking tutorial for them on their little estate in the countryside.




We forged some semi- integral hunting / bushcraft knives with a rattail tang with the adults.



Willy gladly agreed to come along and did as great a job as usual, also forging with kids.



We forged in pairs and I let the folks do a bit of work, too. 



Here you can see we burned the tang in. While it can be done without pre-drilling a hole, we drilled a tiny hole in first. This helps to center the red-hot-tang and minimizes the chance of the wood splitting or the tang bending. You might need several heats to get the tang through. The advantage of burning the tang into the handle is that you get a very good fit, which is important if you use rozzil (cutler´s cement) or natural resin. We used yew wood for the handles. If using yew, make sure, the workplace is well vented; it might not be very good for your health to inhale the fumes! If the wood starts to burn, you can simply blow off the flames or quench it in the bucket. The wood must be completely dried out for the procedure to minimize cracking!



If you forge in pairs, make sure you stay in rhythm. It might be best you make appointments concerning the "smithing language", or else there might be some dangers involved. When doing this with kids, you also might want to keep your stroke somewhat lower than that, also to minimize danger.



Anke had provided us with some delicious pulled pork from the dutch oven and some quality beverages. When we called it a day to commence again come January, we had a hearty and outright delicious meal and a beer... and a chat with really great people. It was not just a tutorial, but a ball and a party to us, and real good fun. In a shitty time of my life, I really look forward to part II of the tutorial, where we will to the quenching and tempering and grinding stuff and mount the handles.

And I promise not to keep you waiting THAT long again. ;-)

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!

Collaboration through the times - WIP

 This is a knife I made quite some time ago in 2015 (http://fimbulmyrk.blogspot.de/2015/09/a-collaboration-through-times.html)... boy, time´s flying. The blade is forged from a blade blank I found in the woods and that might date back to the 18th or 19th century. It is refined steel or crucible steel with a carbon content of roundabout 0,6-0,7%. The handle is reindeer antler with bronze fittings.

 I have to elaborate the carving somwhat still and tan it in something else than dragon´s blood varnish, and then it´ll be ready for a sheath.

 I really like this project. I take this really slow, because the process means a lot to me, and I take it to be a huge responsibility.

Adventure and magic and the joy of knifemaking from foraged steel.

 Where to begin? How to write about something that is not commonly accepted? What is adventure and magic in the first...? I went on a bimble yesterday... and this beetle occured to me.

Why did I say that? Did the blossoms and flowers also occur to me? Did they happen to be along my path?

No, my stroll was  a leisurely one. It was nothing special, really. Just a short venture around the hills behind my home.

Did I just say "nothing special"? Yes, we tend to forget that: The woods ARE special. Not only are they the place where wild animals and plants live, where we can find peace and solitude. But since the dawn of time it was there that the fairy tale and the adventure took place. In courtly romance of the medieval ages, it was almost a ritual of investition into chivalry, and one of the most enigmatic aspects of knighthood was part of the "aventiure".

What now, you ask, is this "aventiure"? Is it adventure? And what IS adventure?

Medieval High German "aventiure" as well as the modern word "adventure" derive from Latin "ad venire", that which comes (to one). It is what happens to one, what occurs to you. It is the Holy Grail that "happens" to Parzival in the book of Wolfram von Eschenbach. It is the sword in the stone that "happens" to Arthur and makes him king.

Thus I wandered on, waiting what would happen to me. You need a special mindset for something like that. You have to be open and relaxed. If you tense up and wlk around looking for wonders, chance is, nothing will happen.

...because then you will not be able to see the wonders beside the trail, which are way more simple. Oh, maybe the crags will not open to let you inside, into the dwarven kingdom of yore. But elderflower blossom is a wonder that can be easily reproduced. It is the base level of wondering. You have to be open to see this jewel of beauty still to be able to see what is on the next "plane" of wondering...

Yes, on I went, and did I find adventure on this walk that was not special? Did something happen to me?

...

...

...

Spot the deer....

...

Or the ladybug...

Take home some ground ivy for tea and syrup and spice for stews...

I found some wild garlic along the way... and in the trail I spotted some steel. Now the trails are made from crap. They are literally made from junk steel, and a lot of it is... well, junk steel for my application. But over the years I have developed a feeling for the steel. It is very hard to describe. Of course I do sound tests, spark analysis and all that stuff, but more often than not I just feel the steel. I know I am sounding a bit esoteric now, but that is due to the fact that what I am saying IS esoteric, or better yet, esotelic (from Greek: Telos, arrow, missile). Meaning it is directed to my inner self, not aimed at you. The steel happens to me because I allow it to happen.

Also this squirrel happened to meet up with me...

Yes, and I wandered on. On through woods that grew ever so much more murky.

And I contemplated: Look at this knife. I made it recently from foraged steel I found along this exact trail. I have a truckload of spring steel, silver steel, ball bearing and tool steel at my disposal. I make other people´s knives from that, and for other people that´s just fine. Few people could understand why I "need another knife". Of course, the answer is, I do not "need" another knife. I have many of them. Most of those I have made recently, however, are more than just that, and I do not "need" them, but I need to make them.

There is more to that than just the function, and these knives have a soul.

And when I sit down in the woods and sip my tea, I contemplate the mirror image of trees, and the mirror image of squirrels and roe deer bucks and wild garlic and elderflower blossom and ladybugs and ground ivy and beetles and all the wonders I have met by the roadside. It is magic, a magic that is so subtle that common people can´t see it anymore. It is fairy tales that ordinary peoples cannot hear anymore, for they are whispered in the wind, and the breeze is light in the treetops. It is the sound of silence and the thrumming of the steel in the roaring forge. And only by listening to all these fairy tales that are so commonplace that common people cannot even listen to them anymore can you tell the rebar from the Wootz ingot or lathe chisel. They are lying in the ground, all alike, covered with thick flakes of dirt and rust, lying there for decades or even centuries, silently rotting, until by chance they have happened to me.

No, I do not "need" another knife. But I need to make them, for each and every one of them is an exercise. It is an exercise in wondering, in listening to the sublime voice of the other world, of speaking the other world´s words in a fairy tale made steel. Noone believes in fairy tales anymore, but it is hard not to believe in the razor-sharp edge of a knife. A fairy tale of steel makes the Baba Yaga more plausible. No, it is not altogether a sweet tale of roses with a happy end. It is a violent song that is sung out of the earth, an earth that is writhing under the chains of pollution and waste. It is a silent menace, and a revenge for all the life that cannot be lived anymore, of all the fairy tales killed and all the wonders neglected. But it is also the answer, if we are able to listen, the answer to our peace and our agonized asking. The answer is that it is no answer. The answer is that that will happen happens according to a scheme, to a plan, and in that, makes perfect sense. Other things might happen, and their possibility is just as valid as the one that happened. It needs a strong character not to get lost on the way and return to court or even staying in the woods, as Merlin, Myrddin, Lailoken and Suibhne Geilt did.

To be honest, it is a practice of magic. I have long since become something very different. I think along strange lines, I think and believe deep and darkly, just like a tree sinks its roots into the ground. It is a wasteland soil where my roots are writhing, sinking into. But still, this magic prospers. Well do I know where the Hanged One left His eye!

No, those knives are nothing special, not at all. They are made from junk. And the symbol of our times is not the sword, the symbol of chivalry and nobility. It is the tank, the whip and the credit card. But if you listen closely to the violent song of steel, you will laugh aloud at those grey manacles they want to bind you with. And "they" can take the steel from me.

But the song will remain.