Huffing, puffing, Nostalgia and weird stuff

The trail was calling. 

Sounds a bit commonplace. 

But in fact it is not. Nothing is self - evident any more. Having had all my plans, even the B's and C's and D's shattered left me with no money whatsoever. Mountainbiking is for the rich and privileged people, not for people like me. But I spare you the whining. Let us just say, I am reluctant to ride, for if anything breaks or has to be replaced, that is about riding for me, and I maybe will need the bike for bugging out of here when the riots start. On the other hand, much good does it do for you if you hide in a cellar. So I decided that a little toodling around would do no harm and made for the lane. 

Yup, you read right, the lane. I am totally out of shape, so endurance basics it has to be. Might be there will be some trails even in summer, depending on the situation. 

But enough politics for now. I daresay you read enough of the shite elsewhere. And those of you in the know might be able to understand what I mean with that windshield wiper effect. Doing the first turns of the cranks gets you out of Code Black. Some more and you get into that zone. Well, this time there was a lot of huffing and puffing involved before I got there, but finally I managed. Shoulda not eat a big bowl of rice pudding before going outside... ☺️ But it was oh so tasty! Paid the price with two flats, one on the left and one on the right. 😁 But when the fuel finally was processed enough, I really enjoyed the ride, and for a time, my worries and sorrows simply were not there. 

 Went to Witten and passed by the Bethaus smithy. Since Volker has died, the place has changed very much. Now, don't get me wrong, my faithful readers know that the dude sometimes drove me mad. He was quite certainly not a professional. And from a professional point of view, that place has improved hugely. Of course it was only partially accessible due to pandemic restrictions, but someone really knows what he is doing. And actually I was a bit surprised to receive a warm welcome and an invitation. 

But there is something missing, not just someone. Now Volker and I did not part ways professionally on the best of terms, because a lie on his part had cost me dearly (financially), but we remained friends. And of course I miss that strange guy. He was a kind and gentle man, and more, he tried to make it work for everyone. He was the heart of the place, a wild and chaotic and unprofessional heart. This spirit is gone for good. Instead, all the cogs are oiled and everything seems to work highly efficiently. Might be working there would be less chaotic, too. But rant as I may have had, now I ask myself if the old way might appeal to me better. It is just a question, not an answer, and given that they do not want me in the first place (at least noone wants to pay for what I do), it is merely academical. Maybe it is a mix of "don't know what you got until it's gone" and "the grass is always greener on the other side of life". Humans, myself not excluded, are strange. 

But I rode on. And I must still say that even if my bike is a bit beaten up now, even if the wheels are technically too small and the brakes are worn, it never fails to give me a huge grin. The sun was shining, and all was good. I was simply toodling along, taking in the sun, when I passed by a birch tree on the lane, infested with Chaga. Now I had little tools with me and no bag, so I had to improvise a lot. What I had, however, was my Victorinox Locksmith SAK, and that licce fella never ceases to amaze me. I was a bit reluctant with quite a bit of levering action going on, but these knives even stand up to that kind of abuse. Got me some Chaga. It was great. ☺️ 

Just wrapped it in a hanky and rode on. I was a bit lost in thought, and actually did not want to stop every five minutes to take photos, so there are fewer this time. 

Any which way, when I arrived in the town neighbouring my home, there was a guy with a really fucked up commuter bike sitting on a bench, smiling and greeting, and I nodded back. Now he was a bit lost, and, asking the way and me being all shit at explaining stuff to strangers, I agreed to just take him back on track. Dude, that guy had some steam! Friendly guy, too, so it all ended in some extra kilometres and a good two hours of really nice chatting while my buttocks froze from the cold. Turned out he seems to have been a smithing groupie from looooong ago in 'em days in the Bethaus smithy. 

Life walks in circles. 

I am stoked to learn what comes next. 

A belt buckle

This is a belt buckle I made recently "on the fly", and certainly not perfect. Mild steel. This is something I would like to perfect, and it will be part of a belt (system?). We will see ;-), I´ll keep you posted, no really, I will! Promise! :-D

A rose of steel that does not fade - for my mother

 My mother is currently in quite some pain and staying in hospital, so she got her Christmas present early this year to give her some joy in her hardship. I made this one on a recent Christmas fair as a present, actually. It was fun to make, and while there certainly is some room for improvement still, it was my first, so I do not complain.

 All forged in five heats (there was little time, you see;-)), it came in a bit crude still, but as is, I like it well enough (my mother certainly does, but I could whack some hammer dents into a shrapnel and she would like it ;-), that´s mothers for you ;-)).

Sometimes it´s good to make something that does not necessarily need to have an edge, and to play around a bit with steel... it certainly gave me some refreshment and a boost of creativity.

On the bench: Leaf-handled EDC

 Long time, no post, but lazy I have been not. Apart from having to clean up a ruin at the ironforge with virtually no help whatsoever, and generally having a shitty time at work to boot, I even managed to get in some forging, mind you! ;-) I like this style of knife. It requires little energy to make (which is fine to date...); I find it is aesthetically appealing, doesn´t look aggressive and handles well. The blade is all spring steel with 0,55-0,6% carbon in it, carburized in the forge and selectively tempered.

 The leaf structure is made with the peen of my new hammer.

 Due to the added chunk in the handle, the design performs way better than typical blacksmith´s knives.

Blade has a high convex bevel to zero, which makes it an able cutter. I like it and will make a sheath for´t in winter ;-)... why is it always winter that´s passing so fast? ;-)

Roasting spit for a pig

A roasting spit from mild steel I made for the upcoming hobbit day celebration@Ahlhauser Hammer. The handle is a leaf crank....

Was a bit on the clumsy side of dexterous when forging, but all in all, it was fun and refreshing to make.

New tripod

 This is a collaboration in our smithy... a new tripod for outdoor cooking and our re-enactment camp. Thomas Dicker from www.out-fit.de, my favourite bushcraft and outdoor gear shop told me of thios idea. You got two poles with loops and one with a spiral.

 This makes it versatile and easy to carry: You can use it as a tripod or as two poles with the third one as a spit or a gallows for a long fire. Henning forged one of the loops and the big hook, I made the other and the spiral. Daniel and Nick also wanted to add some personal flavour and tried their best at two more hooks.

This is cool: We will sit around the cooking fire and join in the meal with equipment we all contributed to. Folks, I really like you! ;-)

On the bench- jewellry and crap steel...:-)

 Just a quick update on what is up to now: Arm ring from table cutlery...

 Another one from bronze...

 This one I found in the forest in a very strange manner: I followed two wild pigs into a holly thicket, and they just looked at me and began digging in the ground, looked at me again and went on their merry way... where they had dug, there was a junkheap of an old farmhouse, and there it was I found this piece of silver. Of course I had to punch a Celtic wild boar into it...

 Top to bottom: Three-layer laminate, Damascus, three layer laminate blades with reindeer antler, birchwood burr and bog oak from a mine in Witten.

...and a blacksmith´s knife from spring steel. That did not turn out too well....

A hike to the ironforge and cleaning up a mess - Ahlhauser Hammer

 On the Friday of the week before last week I made for Ahlhauser Hammer ironforge and decided to take the bus and walk the final miles. The weather was not exactly all it could be, so to say, but I revelled in the solitude and silence which lately has become a bit scarce in my life again.

The sky was filled with feathery clouds, like spectres they sifted and changed, shifted in shape, constantly moving. I paused for a moment to watch a buzzard fly and listened to its eerie song that floated over the hills and far away...

Onwards I went with my heavy pack, into the denser woods. All was silent, and the feeling and scent of November was being strong, this demure feeling of something passing, flowing underneath, back into a shell of winter.

This is a trail, narrow, and seldom trodden. It felt as if it was a metaphor for my life. A hard trail, but a beautiful one. Like life.

At the ironforge I met with Michael, Nele and Nick, and we did our best to clean up the mess that the snow breakage in 2011 had left. Especially Michael was working hard. He has severe health problems with his back and joints, but my deep-felt respect goes to him for never complaining.

We looked with awe at the plants that had taken root on the ancient machines. There was moss everywhere, and algae on the floor making it unbearably slippery.

It was a bit weird, for we actually liked the message that these little trees tell; but alas they had to go...:-) to make us a smithy, that is.

There actually were even mushrooms growing in this wheelbarrow...

...like this, see?*ggg*

Just kidding, of course. It is hard work cleaning up, but we think it is well worth it. We will have a place, not only for forging, but to let some visions come true, and even as a respite for SHTF. Might even be a mead hall in the future, who knows?

When we were done, Nele and Michael had me hitch their drive and drove me home, and I left with a feeling of hope for the future.

Kai´s new innovative caplifter

 When I was at Kai´s the other day, he proudly presented me one of his last works, a caplifter for stylishly opening beer bottles. It´s made of mild steel. The torsion is first marked out at both ends with a chisel.

Then four strands are marked out. One strand is decorated with a hacksaw. Only then does Kai do the torsion work.

While the leaf can do with some refinement, I really fell in love with this technique, and have to try that out myself....! Props, mate!

Archery meeting@Bethaus der Bergleute

 It was long overdue.

The folks at Zee Aylienz mountainbike team had asked for an archery event, and I organized it, with some difficulties. When they had inquired, I had thought, they´d work for it also, but turns out I was being wrong. So, all systems reset, and I planned it the other way round. Vikings, smiths and archers seem tro know better that if you want to fetch a penny from the cobbles, you have to bend down to fetch a penny from the cobbles, and it eventually even worked out. From ten inquiries of the team there were actually four left who were coming, and two not even shooting. No harm done, there were enough folk having fun.

 Olaf, the gnarly viking soulbrother, was responsible of a good part of the organization, too, and brought a load of friendly people with him. He had made a bow out of a lath floor board and PVC. Unfortunately it broke when drawn out the first time. But I lend him mine, and he took care of the kids and beginners in his trademark friendly and laidback way.

 Nick deserves a load of respect, too, for he had gone to the extra length of making a funny 3 D target out of old bed linen. Willibald, as it was tauted soon, received a right whacking that day. Thanks, bro!

 Jens is one of the better individuals at Zee Aylienz bedlam and capable of social contacts even;-). He had a youth bow with him, but no less fun for the fact.

 There was a lot of socializing going on, too. It was more like a giant party from lunch till well after midnight!

 Frank from Zee Aylienz, an accomplished archer and one of the more clever trolls of the team;-), mounting his bow.

 He also did a fair amount of tutoring for the beginners, and contributed a lot to the great atmosphere.

 I loved his quiver with the beautiful etching.

 His forearm brace-sweet!

 This one´s made by Olaf, who is an absolute expert in leather tooling, doing this for some 30 years!

 There also was a great abundance of delicious food and strong Java-perfect!

 Then Dirk, Kirsten and their kids arrived and added a whole new spice to the event. They are all accomplished competition archers (Olympic recurve), but they also love the traditional side of archery, so much in fact that Kirsten actually will shoot the competition season with a traditional blank recurve bow. Now to Kirsten I must sincerely apologize. We "know" each other since we went to school, but I always thought her to be a bit stiff. But we always treated each other with respect, and since she also is the midwife of one of my best friends, Gesa, we always stayed in contact. On Gesa´s birthday party, Dirk and I had a chat and I simply invited him along. Should have done this years earlier, and I look forward to many more sessions like this!

 They brought along a load of gear. Those funnily fletched arrows to the right are bird arrows with a blunt tip. The spiral fletching makes them slower to not smash the bird to pieces, by the way.

 I want to introduce you to Krümel, Irmi´s lovely licce Corgie, the one dog I know who can actually talk.;-)

 Of course we took good care to have a clear range. All of those folks were acting very responsibly.

 Three targets were there.

 Nick nocking new arrows;-)...

 Aim..... shoot....

 ...and do the fetching with a grin.

 I was very fond of a very precious and rare knife Olaf had on his belt. It is a very close replica of a not-so-widely-known Horace Kephart knife. Presumeably of Sheffield or US origin, the blade is made of carbon steel and the handle´s beautifully aged stag antler.

 Then Volker had, in spite of getting paid by us not to do so, a children´s birthday party scheduled. Not wanting any kids to be hurt, we obstained from shooting in the afternoon and did some forging. This time Volker really got the wrong end of me, and, consulting a lawyer of the team, I made a waiver of liability together with a treaty of beneficial interest for him and had him warrant a conventional fee in case of any irregularities on his part. I hate things like that. I hated even more the fact that this treaty bounced loose an avalanche of completely mad discussion in the team. It went like this:

A: I want to make very sure the team cannot made responsible or liable.
B: The treaty is made to ensure exactly this.
C: But I must persist, the team is not to be made liable.
B: The treaty is a waiver of liability.
D: But indeed the team must not be made liable.
B: The treaty is a waiver of liability.
A: But the team must not be made liable.

Goto 10, ca. 10 hours of discussion long. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

But at the event, all was good. The forge was lit, I traded some sincere words with Volker, and all went smoothly. We had a lot of fun, and the atmosphere, in spite of the bad start, was very freindly and laidback.

 Jens did some forging, too, and had fun in the process. I really admire him for the broadness of his expertise; from cave-climbing, freeclimbing, mountainbiking, engineering, carving, painting, making music, archaeology, reenactment, ornithology, ecology, to philosophy he has a vast line of interest. Jens, if you happen to be around, don´t be shy and drop by!

 It was funny...the magic of fire just did its duty, and molded a community of hearts again. Many different characters, many with nicks and dents, simply blended into a good-natured day.

Well after dawn we gathered around the long table, barbecueing and having a feast, Jandark and Erdmuthe dropped by, everyone had a good time, and lovely Irm took out the guitar and we played some music and sang along.

Jan took back my bow (on the ride to the smithy it was quite .... interesting;-), with the bow tied to my top tube and seat stays), and well after midnight I rode home, again with a warm feeling in my heart.

It was not easy organizing the event, because of morons and sociopaths;-), but what really counts is the outcome. Friends, for you I fight with joy!